About the Presenters

Natasha Coetzee Kukuk, OTD, OTR/L, SIPT/Cert

Natasha's experience as an occupational therapist include over 26 specialized years in the field of  pediatrics in private and public schools, home based and private practice, treating children with a wide range of developmental challenges.

She has worked as an international occupational therapist in three different continents and earned her doctorate in occupational therapy in the USA, where she has worked and resided for 17 years. As a SIPT certified therapist and with several other advance trainings and certifications under her belt, she continues to be passionate about all aspects of child development with an emphasis on Sensory Integration and Processing Disorders.

Before becoming an independent international consultant, she served as the director of OT services for 8 years at a prestigious private pediatric clinic where her duties  included  acting as OT department coordinator and manager for 4 major school districts, serving 94 schools. She has supervised many fieldwork students in both private clinic and school based settings and collaborated in research projects at different educational institutions. She has authored 'My Write Moves' and is the creator of a successful multi-sensory activities based handwriting program, My Might Hands. She has developed and implemented successful school based OT service models and curriculum based sensory programs for clinic and school settings. She has been an active presenter at national conferences, in-services and training events for community and professional groups and she continues to create and present continuing education courses across the US. Her move to Germany expanded her opportunities as an international consultant.

Uyen P. Nguyen, M.S., OTR/L

Uyen received her Bachelor’s degree and post-professional Master’s degree of Science in Occupational Therapy from San Jose State University. She recently completed the certification program in Low Vision Rehabilitation through the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She has been working in school-based practice for 18 years where she provides OT services to students from 3-21 years of age with special needs. She also has experiences in a variety of other practice settings, including home-based early intervention, day programs for young adults, psychiatric/mental health practice, acute, and long-term care settings.

Uyen has received training in specific treatment approaches, including sensory processing, and therapeutic listening. She has worked collaboratively with the school team to address educational needs for children with different disabilities, including developmental disabilities, developmental delays, PDD/ASD, ADHD, and visual motor difficulties.

Uyen has been an active member of the American Occupational Therapy Association and the World Federation of Occupational Therapy. She has been a CAPs (Critically Appraised Papers) reviewer for AOTA Evidence Exchange since 2011. She is one of the NBCOT continuing competency item writers in the areas of school-based and pediatric practice.

Uyen’s passion is to provide needed services to the pediatric population, especially in the educational environment, nationally and internationally. Uyen has been involved in international occupational therapy through volunteer work for Children’s Hope In Action, a non-governmental organization in Vietnam.

Camille Castillo Leach, MS, OTR/L

Camille has been a practicing occupational therapist for 18 years.  She has 17 years experience in school-based and pediatric occupational therapy.  She received her BS in Occupational Therapy as well as her Post-Professional Master’s degree from San Jose State University.  In 1998 she co-founded the Occupational Therapy Department at San Jose Unified School District in San Jose, CA.  In 2006, she co-founded the Occupational Therapy Department at Campbell Union School District in Campbell, CA where she was the senior occupational therapist until 2009, when her beautiful daughter was born.   Camille has worked as an independent contractor to local private schools as well as a consultant to local charter schools.  She currently works in San Jose, CA at Discovery Charter School II as their primary occupational therapist. Discovery Charter is a full inclusion school that utilizes the Learning Center model to implement special education services.

Camille has given numerous in-services to parent and professional groups in addition to being a guest lecturer at San Jose State University on the topic of school-based occupational therapy.

Camille’s professional emphasis in the school setting is on collaborative treatment in the natural environment.  She feels that it is of utmost importance to equip school staff and parents with the tools they need to create an environment to assist the students in succeeding in accessing their curriculum. This supports her in integrating “OT time” beyond the 30-60 minutes per week into everyday events across environments.