Meet the H4H Team: Kathleen Yancosek, Kristin Gulick, Amanda Sammons

Major Katherine ("Katie") Yancosek
Major Katherine (“Katie”) Yancosek

Katie Yancosek is an officer in the Army Medical Specialist Corps. She graduated from Gannon University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in occupational therapy, from Eastern Kentucky University with a Master’s of Science degree in occupational therapy, and from the University of Kentucky with a PhD in rehabilitation sciences. She currently lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.


Kristin Gulick
Kristin Gulick, OTR/L

Kristin Gulick has been enjoying her practice as an Occupational Therapist for more than 25 years. She graduated from University of Puget Sound and began her practice working with children at Shriner’s Hospital in Portland, OR. Kristin’s career path led her to focus on rehabilitation of the upper extremity and she became a certified hand therapist in 1996. In the past, Kristin served as the Director of Therapy Services at Advanced Arm Dynamics, where she enjoyed working with clients with upper limb loss in their rehabilitation process. Currently, Kristin lives in Bend, OR where she is the owner/director of Hand and Arm Therapy of Central Oregon.

Amanda_Sammons_400
Amanda Sammons, PhD

Amanda Sammons is an officer in the Army Medical Specialist Corps. She graduated from West Virginia University with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in athletic training, from Shenandoah University with a Master’s of Science degree in occupational therapy, and from Baylor University with a Doctor of Science degree in occupational therapy. She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas with her husband.


Erin Spears drew the dot-to-dots and coloring pages for this manual. He works in Pennsylvania where he lives with his wife and two children. His love of art began as a child and his favorite medium is graphite.

Please contact us if you have questions or comments.

5 thoughts on “Meet the H4H Team: Kathleen Yancosek, Kristin Gulick, Amanda Sammons”

  1. How do I contact one of the therapist via email. I am working the program and have some questions…the link on the site does not work. Thank you.

  2. Hello,
    I just purchased your Handwriting for Heroes book in hope of improving the writing of my dominant, right hand. Within the past two years, my writing has deteriorated markedly for no apparent reason. I can no longer hold a pen comfortably and writing has become a personal embarrassment and daily struggle.

    My middle finger is now the most dominant. The very tip of my index finger was amputated as a young child and the first joint has become somewhat twisted towards my middle finger.

    My thumb does not stay anchored on a pen. It slides off, scrunches up, or I end up writing with the very corner of my thumb nail. Triangular grips on pens help a little. Despite this, I have no trouble using scissors, typing or knitting.

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

    Jennifer

  3. @Jennifer
    Try placing the pen in between the forefinger and middle finger, which minimises the emphasis on the thumb comfortably without diminishing control. It may seem a little odd at first but if you work through the exercises in the book you will quickly become accustomed to it and never look back.

    To the authors of the book – you have, not doubt, already been made aware of this, but the sentence reproduced on page 1-10, “the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog”, does not contain all the letters of the alphabet, although moving it into the present tense solves the problem.

  4. Hi Kathleen and Kristin,

    I’m OT working primarily with Hand Injuries. I bought your book to assist a client who suffered a traumatic amputation and subsequent replantation of the four ulnarmost digits in her right dominant hand. Her work requires a lot of fine motor coordination, as well as writing. We have been wondering about hand dominance transfer. If she religiously follows the exercises on your workbook, will it be enough to facilitate hand dominance transfer and return to work activities requiring extremely precise fine motor coordination skills?
    I thank you in advance and appreciate your assistance!
    Sincerely,
    Juliana

    PS: I’m going to be at the Philadelphia Hand Therapy Meeting in March. I’m looking forward to seeing you there!

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