Lara Liszka

Lara Liszka earned her doctorate in occupational therapy from Washington University in St. Louis in 2019, where she was a member of the NICU Therapy Lab. Her doctoral research focused on early auditory exposure across neonatal environments and the social factors influencing the early auditory environment after NICU discharge. She has also published on the psychometrics of the Neonatal Eating Outcome (NEO) Assessment and preterm infant neurobehavior across the neonatal period and at term-equivalent age.

Lara has presented nationally on her neonatal research and on mentoring for neonatal therapists. Clinically, she has worked as a neonatal occupational therapist on the infant feeding teams at Seattle Children’s Hospital (Level IV NICU), Duke Children’s Hospital (Level IV NICU), and now Children’s National Hospital (Level IV NICU) in Washington, D.C.

Lara is a certified neonatal therapist (CNT) and is certified in neonatal touch and massage (NTMC). Additionally, she is a certified examiner for both the NICU Neonatal Neurobehavioral Network Scale (NNNS) and the Prechtl General Movement Assessment (GMA).

In addition to her clinical work, Lara has guest lectured on the role of occupational therapy in the NICU for various OTD programs, including those at Duke University and George Washington University. She also serves as a board member of the Neonatal Therapy Certification Board (NTCB), where she is the website and IT liaison.