Meet Our 2025 Occupational Therapist of the Year: Cecile Hall!

For Cecile Hall, our 2025 Occupational Therapist of the Year, the work is about listening and observing closely, so she can meet patients where they are and help them get where they want to go.

Cecile, who’s been with VNS Health for 13-plus years and was recently promoted to Senior OT in Bronx Home Care’s Branch 2, recalls working with a man who did not want to do therapy when they first met—but then, being agile, she spied dominos in the man’s apartment. Her uncles had taught her the game, and her interest in them piqued her patient’s interest.

“It really broke the ice, to go one-on-one with him in a game he loved,” she says. “That’s what we call in the OT world ‘therapeutic use of self.’”

Cecile calls herself a “Bronx girl.” She was born on the island of Jamaica and spent her earliest years in England before moving to the borough as a child. One thing she loves about the Bronx is its richness of cultures, including Latin and West Indian communities, and she enjoys connecting with patients of different backgrounds. “No problem, mon,” she’ll say to her West Indian patients, reflecting their shared heritage. And though she doesn’t speak Spanish, she’s learned key phrases. “Patients appreciate that I’m making the effort,” she says, “and that I’m trying to come into their world.”

Cecile is known for her empathy for patients and her agility in pitching in where needed. She values the job, she explains, “for the difference I can make in people’s lives,” empowering them to regain their independence and return best they can to what they like to do.

Cecile is also committed to teaching the next generation of clinicians, often training or mentoring new OT hires and even having new nurses shadow her. She imparts a wide range of wisdom to her mentees—including tips on how to schedule their visits according to alternate-side-of-the-street parking times in certain neighborhoods, which makes it much easier to get a space. At the same time, she also imbues new clinicians with the essence of her practice philosophy. “I tell them that when patients don’t want to do anything, let them talk. Listening is such an important part of what we do.”

Cecile first learned about occupational therapy while volunteering at Montefiore Medical Center after college. Passing by the rehabilitation room one day, she was intrigued. After learning more, she decided OT was for her.

She’s humbled and honored, she says, to be nominated for this award by her peers. (To see the full list of nominees for the 2025 OT of the Year, click here). She also takes great pride in the everyday recognition she receives from former patients who stop her on the street—as one did the other day in Co-op City.

“She said she was doing great, thanked me for helping her get back to the things she loves, and gave me a hug,” says Cecile. “Those kind of encounters—that is my greatest joy.”