Rocky Mountain College OTD Faculty Highlight: Dr. Randi Hanson, Assistant Clinical Professor & Doctoral Capstone Coordinator
BILLINGS, Mont. — When Dr. Randi Johnson Hanson describes how she landed in occupational therapy, she says, “I’m blessed that OT found me.”
Today, she brings decades of clinical experience, a deep commitment to rural and culturally responsive care, and a passion for student-led research to her role as Assistant Clinical Professor of Occupational Therapy and Doctoral Capstone Coordinator in Rocky Mountain College’s Occupational Therapy Doctorate (OTD) program.
From Communications to “Geri-Ortho-Psych” OT
Before OT, Dr. Hanson’s path looked very different. Her first degree was in communications and advertising, with a minor in film history. After a short stint in that world, she realized it wasn’t where she wanted to stay and began looking for something more meaningful and person-centered.
Occupational therapy emerged as the answer. She completed one of the last bachelor’s degrees in OT at UW–Milwaukee, followed by a master’s in rehabilitation science at Concordia University of Wisconsin and a post-professional OT doctorate at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Clinically, she specialized in what she fondly calls “geri-ortho-psych”—geriatrics blended with orthopedics and mental health. Many of her patients were older adults recovering from surgery or falls, often with complex psychosocial needs layered into their physical recovery.
Along the way, she developed niche expertise in:
- Seating and wheelchair assessment
- Feeding and eating interventions, including adaptive equipment
- ADL and IADL training in group homes and adult family homes
When no one else knew how to handle a clinical challenge, she was the one who “just took it on.”
Shaped by Rural and Marginalized Communities
Dr. Hanson’s practice background is rooted in rural healthcare and marginalized populations, which aligns closely with Rocky Mountain College’s mission to serve rural and underserved communities.
Working in rural Wisconsin—places she notes feel very similar to rural Montana—she learned quickly that context matters. She describes patients who left school after sixth or seventh grade to work on the farm, or a man who quit school when his brother was drafted in World War II so he could stay home and help.
One story that changed her perspective involved a farmer in short-term rehab. When she casually commented that he seemed to be wearing the same shirt and pants every day, he later refused to work with her. Through a trusted assistant, she learned why:
In his world, Monday–Friday meant the same outer shirt and pants, with clean socks, underwear, and a T-shirt changed daily. Her assumption had unintentionally shamed a deeply ingrained rural routine.
She went back, apologized directly, and rebuilt the relationship. The lesson stayed with her:
“It’s not ‘Did you…?’ It’s ‘Tell me about your routine. Show me what you do.’ You can’t discount somebody’s difference just because you don’t know about it—that’s not a valid excuse.”
Her rural work also included:
- Collaborating with Ho-Chunk tribal members and tribal health systems
- Adapting care for Hmong elders who brought traditional practices, such as herbal poultices and tatami mat sleeping, into the rehab setting
- Coordinating therapy around cultural rituals like Lunar New Year, ensuring patients on modified diets could still participate fully in family celebrations
These experiences cemented her belief in cultural humility and creative problem-solving:
“Cultural humility, acceptance beyond anything, and thinking outside the box—that’s what I want to instill in students. It doesn’t mean you don’t have something to contribute. We just have to think a little bit harder.”
Research That Connects Evidence and Real Life
Research has been woven through every stage of Dr. Hanson’s education and career:
- As an undergraduate, she studied constraint-induced movement therapy with children after stroke.
- Her master’s thesis focused on balance training in people with Parkinson’s disease, comparing two balance programs. The work helped her distinguish statistical significance from clinical significance, showing that early, consistent balance training can delay functional decline, regardless of whether it’s two, three, or four days a week.
- Her doctoral capstone evolved into an award-winning article.
Currently, she is developing a mixed-methods research project on cultural competency, connected to an upcoming medical mission to Guatemala. She plans to use pre- and post-tests, along with open-ended questions, to explore how students’ cultural awareness shifts when they are immersed in a setting many have never experienced before.
Capstone Coordinator: Turning Projects into Passion
As Doctoral Capstone Coordinator, Dr. Hanson sees her role as helping students design “passion projects,” not just assignments to check off because the program requires them.
When she arrived, she worked with leadership and consultants to revamp the capstone sequence. One of her key changes was to start with the site, not the paper:
- Previously, students wrote a literature review first and then tried to find a site.
- She flipped the model: pick a site first, identify real gaps or needs there, and then build the question and evidence around that context.
“I strongly feel we need to pick a site first,” she explains. “Once we pick a site, we can develop a question and look at the gaps and fill them. Doing it the other way around is putting the cart before the horse.”
She also wants students to see research as doable and publishable, not intimidating:
“I’m trying to make research palatable. This isn’t scary—and you should feel okay about taking what we’re working on and getting it published somewhere.”
Her approach is bold and student-centered. When one student had no capstone site, she reached out to what she considered a “dream site”—and they said yes. That success reaffirmed her belief in taking chances:
“What’s the worst somebody can say? ‘I’m so sorry, we’re not allowed to do that.’ Okay, fine—move on. But somebody could say yes.”
She has since helped secure multiple “dream sites” for students, some of which had never been approached by an OT program before.
Teaching Cultural Humility by Example
Dr. Hanson’s stories of her daughter giving gloves to a man experiencing homelessness in Chicago, or turning rocks into Valentine “pet rocks” with a student who had no cards to give, are more than heartwarming anecdotes—they are evidence that values can be modeled and passed down.
“If I know I’ve passed that on, that’s what I want to instill in students: cultural humility, acceptance, and the belief that everyone has something to contribute.”
She wants RMC OTD students to carry that same mindset into rural Montana towns, urban clinics, tribal communities, and beyond.
Why Rocky, Why Billings, Why Now
When Dr. Hanson first saw the position at Rocky Mountain College, she looked up the college and thought, “Huh… all right.” She hadn’t been to Billings in about 25 years, but she remembered liking Montana and Wyoming and decided to explore the opportunity.
What convinced her?
Small class sizes and the chance to truly know her students
A campus and community where “everyone was so kind and welcoming”—from Rocky staff to people she met at Walmart, Costco, and Scheels
A sense that it was the “just right fit,” a concept deeply rooted in OT practice
“When something fits—especially being an OT and looking to make the ‘just right’ fit between person, occupation, and environment—you know,” she said. “I knew.”
The Heart of Her Work at RMC
Asked what she ultimately hopes to give students, Dr. Hanson circles back to the same themes:
- Cultural humility and acceptance
- Courage to think creatively and “outside the box”
- Confidence that they can make a difference through their capstones, research, and everyday practice
“If I can get you interested in something where you’re looking at it and thinking, ‘Wow, I can make a difference. What can I do?’—that means the world to me,” she said.
In Rocky Mountain College’s OTD program, Dr. Randi Johnson Hanson is not only teaching students to be occupational therapists—she is helping shape reflective, curious, and compassionate professionals who are ready to serve rural and diverse communities in Montana and beyond.
