Dr. Yonnette Semple-Dormer has been an occupational therapist for 21 years and an educator for over 22 years teaching students from diverse backgrounds and across grade and university levels. This accomplished educator has taught students in her family daycare exposing them to art, language and technology, students in grades 1 through 12 in math, language arts, social skills and social studies, business principles, and physical education, students in college in machine transcription, keyboarding, and principles of business, pharmacy technician, and in university in occupational therapy.

As an occupational therapist, Dr. Semple-Dormer has worked with children with multiple conditions including but not limited to autism spectrum disorder, down syndrome, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, developmental delay, and psychological conditions.

As a teacher assistant at Tufts University, Dr. Semple-Dormer have taught group theory and group supervision to graduate occupational therapy students. She has worked with the professors of these classes to develop course and group material tailored to the needs of the students.

Dr. Semple-Dormer obtained a bachelor degree in business education, a master degree in education with a concentration in special education, a master degree in occupational therapy, and a doctorate degree in educational leadership. Her dissertation focused on using online professional development to improve the self-efficacy and competence of school-based occupational therapists. She used the Blackboard platform to present the professional development and multi-variant analysis to analyze the results. She holds an Administrator I license, educator’s professional licenses at the elementary and high school levels, and an occupational therapy license with national certification.

Dr. Semple-Dormer has served as a peer reviewer with the American Journal of Occupational and have published an article entitled The State of Self-Efficacy among Massachusetts School-based Occupational Therapists with Taylor and Francis online in the Journal of Occupational Therapy, Schools, & Early Intervention Volume 6, 2013 - Issue 4 , (http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19411243.2013.860770), and published the book, The Occupational Therapy Technician Workbook, Cambridge Press, 2024. Additionally, Dr. Semple-Dormer has the dubious distinction of lecturing and working in the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in China.

Dr. Semple-Dormer is the founder and president of XL Career School that received approval from the Maryland Higher Education Commission to operate a private career school. She is in the process of acquiring approval from Massachusetts Higher Education Commission to operate a private career school there.

Dr. Semple-Dormer enjoys working with children and works with 8 and 9 year olds and tween/teenagers on a weekly teaching them social skills and helping them navigate the transition into teenage years. She has a passion for middle schoolers who appear to be neglected in the education system.

Dr. Semple-Dormer is a mother and housewife. She has raised her family on a vegetarian diet ,and cooks a meal daily for her family. She enjoys traveling, baking bread, art, and sports.