National Award for Service

In spring 2019, I was selected to receive the prestigious National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Service Award at the annual Athletic Training symposium in Las Vegas. This national award recognizes outstanding dedication to the athletic training profession as demonstrated by volunteerism, advocacy and activism on behalf of the profession.

Candidates for the award must have held the certified athletic trainer (ATC) credential, conferred by the Board of Certification (BOC), and have been a NATA member for at least 20 years. I was 1 of only 23 athletic trainers (ATs) in the U.S. selected to receive the award in 2019. Currently, there are more than 45,000 members in the NATA organization.

I joined the Millersville University faculty in 2002, and served for many years as Founding Coordinator of the Dual-Degree program (BS in Biology/Pre-Athletic Training Millersville University and BS in Athletic Training West Chester University). Our joint program was one of the first in the PASSHE system to deliver a four-year curriculum using two-way interactive television (ITV) to students at both campuses. The program graduated 6-8 students per year, on average, until it was phased-out in 2016 due to new master’s degree requirements, which we were unable to develop.

In 2017, I helped transition our old degree program into several new 3+2 articulation agreements, which resulted in a newly revamped undergraduate sports medicine program that I currently teach and serve as an academic advisor for students in this major.