About the Author : The Sunshine on My Face: A Read-Aloud Book for Memory-Challenged Adults (Burdick)

Carol Bowlby Sifton has been using productive and creative activity to restore quality of life to and maximize the function of older adults for more than 20 years. She is the owner and developer of Elderactive Occupational Therapy, a clinical consultation firm in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, and the founding editor of the professional peer-reviewed journal Alzheimer’s Care Quarterly, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Ms. Bowlby Sifton earned a B.A. in sociology (cum laude) from McMaster University in 1969, and the Ontario Diploma in Horticulture from the University of Guelph and a bachelor’s of occupational therapy science with First Class Honours from Dalhousie University both in 1986. In 1996–1997 she was the National Project Coordinator for the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists/Alzheimer Canada/Health Canada project entitled “Developing a Resource System for Home Caregivers of Persons with Dementia,” which trained OTs in five pilot demonstration sites in direct intervention and community development skills to allow people with dementia to remain at home as long as possible. She has also been a lecturer in occupational therapy at Dalhousie University.

In addition to Navigating the Alzheimer’s Journey, she has written Therapeutic Activities with Persons Disabled by Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders (Aspen Publishers); contributed chapters to Adult Day Programming (National Council on the Aging), Dementia Care (Springer), and Assessments Used in Occupational Therapy (American Occupational Therapy Association); and is preparing a professional caregiver’s version of Navigating the Alzheimer’s Journey. In 1992, the Writer’s Federation of Nova Scotia awarded her first prize for nonfiction for Therapeutic Activities with Persons Disabled by Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders. She has presented papers at dozens of professional society meetings in the U.S. and Canada since 1989.

Although her consulting business and writing and editing keep her quite busy, Ms. Bowlby Sifton operates three bed and breakfast resorts she developed in Nova Scotia. In the 1980s, she was the weekly commentator on “Urban Gardening” (CBC, Halifax), the monthly garden columnist for Rural Delivery magazine, and the horticultural advisor and on-air instructor for “My Urban Garden,” a 30-minute film produced by the National Film Board of Canada.