Meet “MB” Dr. Mary Beth Kadlec
Four decades of looking closer at what happens between adults and children.
Dr. Mary Beth Kadlec has spent her career asking a deceptively simple question: What happens when we pay closer attention to what we say and do with children?
It's an essential question. And it reshapes everything.
As a pediatric occupational therapy educator, clinician, researcher, and mentor, Mary Beth built her career at the intersection of what we know about children's development and what we actually do with them. In classrooms, homes, clinics, and community settings. Her work focuses on how adults communicate during everyday interactions and meaningful daily activities, and how those small moments shape a child's ability to regulate, engage, connect, and develop.
Her path
Mary Beth's path has spanned neonatal intensive care units, early intervention, preschools, Head Start programs, outpatient clinics, school systems, child protective service agencies, juvenile justice and residential settings, and university classrooms. She leads interdisciplinary teams, has directed a clinic for children with autism and complex neurodevelopmental profiles, and teaches doctoral students how to see what's really happening in a treatment session.
What ties all of her work together is a commitment to understanding the whole picture: a child's brain and body, the environment they're in, the activity in front of them, and the adults around them. She uses a developmental, strengths-based lens grounded in neuroscience, always asking why before deciding what to do next.
How she works
Whether she's mentoring a doctoral student, consulting with a school collaborative, presenting at a national conference, or working directly with a family, Mary Beth brings the same approach: meet people where they are, help them see what they're already doing, and guide them toward what's possible.
She helps practitioners, caregivers, and teams develop the clinical reasoning to understand why a child might be struggling, and how to shift their own communication, activity design, or expectations to help that child succeed.
Her students and colleagues describe her as insightful, committed, and skilled at helping people expand what they thought was possible while making them feel supported. She teaches with humor and honesty, and a real belief that when we get the interaction right, children thrive.
“When the people I work with feel confident, competent, and supported, they bring their best selves to their work — and that's what makes the difference for children.”
- Mary Beth Kadlec
Where it started
Mary Beth grew up in a large family alongside an uncle who was a bilateral above-the-knee amputee, cousins with autism, and family members living with a range of medical and developmental differences. These experiences taught her to see people for who they are. It also exposed her to experiences no child should have to navigate, and that combination became the foundation of everything she does.
She learned early what it costs when the adults around a child aren't paying attention. That understanding gave her a lens she has carried through every clinical setting, classroom, and research study since: start with empathy. Understand the person's experience from the inside. And make sure the children in front of you are treated the way they deserve to be.
That drive to protect, to understand, to help people feel seen and capable is what led Mary Beth to occupational therapy, to academia, and eventually to developing a research methodology that gives clinicians a concrete way to examine their practice and strengthen it.
Credentials & Affiliations
EDUCATION
Doctor of Science (ScD) in Therapeutic Studies
Post-Professional Master of Science in Occupational Therapy
Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy
(All from Boston University)
LEADERSHIP
Board of Directors, SPIRAL Foundation (Sensory Processing Institute for Research and Learning)
Mentored 20+ doctoral students
Published across multiple peer-reviewed journals
CURRENT POSITIONS
Assistant Professor, MGH Institute of Health Professions
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center, UMass Chan Medical School
Team Leader, ECHO Autism & Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Program for Massachusetts
NOTABLE WORK
Consulted with the American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) at Harvard University to create sensory-friendly performances for audiences with autism and sensory differences.
Awards
Faculty Award of Excellence, Department of Occupational Therapy, MGH Institute of Health Professions
Fieldwork Innovation Award, New England Occupational Therapy Education Council (NEOTEC)
Excellence in Teaching, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Residency Teaching Award, Department of Psychiatry, UMass Chan Medical School
Excellence in Service, Massachusetts Department of Youth Services
Beyond the Work
When she's away from the classroom and engaged in research, you can find Mary Beth on her bike, on the slopes, or in good conversation over delicious food. She brings the same curiosity and warmth to her life that she brings to her work.
This work is better together.
Mary Beth would love to hear what brought you here.