Occupational scientist combines research and service

Kierra Peak’s introduction to UNC-Chapel Hill was attending Project Uplift as a rising high school senior.

“I think I want to go here,” she thought after her first time on campus.

A year later, she made Carolina home and enjoyed her undergraduate experience, majoring in anthropology. After receiving a master’s degree from Lenoir-Rhyne University, Peak returned to Chapel Hill to pursue a doctorate in occupational science at the UNC School of Medicine.

The native of Fayetteville, North Carolina, will become a double Tar Heel when she receives her doctoral degree this month.

The root of occupational science, Peak ’14, ’25 (PhD) said, is “caring about how people can engage in their lives to the fullest.” As a doctoral student, she continued to explore that mission through her research, teaching and service.

One of The Graduate School’s Royster Fellows, she completed a dissertation on how youth activism shapes the identities of young people and impacts their well-being, sometimes negatively. Peak sought to answer the question “How can we better serve students who are doing this work?”

She also worked on projects that directly helped people with disabilities. Peak was part of Disrupting the Cycle, a health equity study that explored ways to provide culturally affirming models of support to address health care and community needs for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

She also received a grant from the Carolina Center for Public Service to conduct workshops for parents of children with autism.

In thinking about future career paths, Peak is interested in finding ways to combine her research and service interests.

Abroad for now

Peak got something else out of her doctoral studies — something unexpected. “I met my partner in grad school,” she said. “Not the plan, but it worked out quite well.”

Peak and her now-husband Daniel Johnson, who earned a doctorate from the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, met through mutual friends at the North Carolina State Fair. The two moved to Germany this fall as he began a yearlong teaching fellowship at Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, one of Carolina’s global partner institutions. Peak is about to begin classes to learn German so she can participate in the Teach@Tübingen program as well.

She was a teaching assistant at Carolina for a course on problem-based learning, guiding occupational therapy master’s students through hypothetical scenarios they might encounter. She also assisted students with data analysis on their research projects.

If selected for the Tübingen fellowship, she would have the opportunity to create her own course and complete a comparative analysis of disability policies in the U.S. and Germany.

Crafting a class from scratch “is not the norm in university life,” Peak said, which appeals to her. “It’s like, ‘OK, let’s put in the work to develop this course.’ It’s yours when you leave and maybe helps you teach something similar or the exact same at a different opportunity.”

As she reflects on her graduate school experience, Peak is most grateful for the connections she made. She enjoyed the interdisciplinary makeup of her Royster cohort.  She befriended other students and professors, both through her degree program and her involvement with graduate school programs, including stints as an orientation leader.

She also took advantage of therapy groups at Counseling and Psychological Services, including one for students working on dissertations.

“I really had a unique experience of just constantly interacting with people in different disciplines,” Peak said.

The “familiarity” of Carolina, as well as the chance to remain close to family, helped Peak decide where to pursue her doctorate. (Submitted photo)