Ms. Laura Hamilton

Laura Hamilton, MPH, OTDirector of Program Development
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Laura Hamilton

Laura Hamilton is the Field Coordinator and the Balkans Regional Program Officer at the Center for International Rehabilitation.She is responsible for grant administration, country assessments, program development and grant writing.She has represented CIR at several international conferences convened to create policies and procedures for services offered to landmine survivors and other people with disabilities.

Ms. Hamilton received her bachelor's degree in Occupational Therapy at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia in 1991.As a student, she became a member of the World Federation of Occupational Therapy and attended conferences in Houston and Atlanta on educational guidelines for country inclusion in the Federation.She worked for several years as an Occupational Therapist in physical rehabilitation and hospital settings before beginning her work abroad.

In May of 1995, Ms. Hamilton began working for the International Rescue Committee in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina as the Occupational Therapy Program Manager.Duties included introducing and teaching basic rehabilitation techniques to the health professionals caring for the war wounded.In her second year in Bosnia, she started a program for upper extremity amputees, who previously had no services available.The program remains the only one of its kind in the country.The multidisciplinary training approach used in Tuzla was successfully duplicated in Guatemala City in January 2000.

In 1997, Ms. Hamilton began studying for a Master's degree in Public Health at the University of Utah, where she was also employed as a part-time therapist.She worked as a volunteer for Physicians Against Land Mines in September 1998.