Dear Colleagues, Students, Alumni and Friends
As I fully make the transition to Vice Dean of the Doisy College of Health Sciences, I look back in gratitude on my role as Program Director for Athletic Training at Saint Louis University.
15 years ago, I had the privilege to move from staff, Head Athletic Trainer in Billiken Athletics, to faculty as Director of SLU’s new Master of Athletic Training Program in 2007. The amount of support that my new colleagues provided in the College and the newly re-named Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training was amazing.
Working to build the program during the 2007-2008 academic year I was asked to serve on teaching teams for SLU’s Center for Interprofessional Education and Research. As a practicing AT for over 25 years, I had always valued the AT’s role on collaborative healthcare teams and in IPE found an area where I could grow professionally and have an impact in teaching, scholarship, and service.
In 2008, our first cohort of 4 students in the MAT Class of 2010 arrived on campus along with new faculty and staff. I appreciate the leap of faith and trust they all placed in us to build a program and gain accreditation. We continued to grow in 2010, adding more students and colleagues as well as successfully earning CAATE accreditation which was renewed in 2015.
I am grateful to have found a place on your professional journey, some of you on the way to a career in Athletic Training, the profession we love, or some on your way to another profession. I hope you take your foundation as “persons for others” in the Jesuit tradition and the lessons you learned in our program forward as you make a positive impact in your current and future roles.
I also want to particularly thank the leaders, mentors and friends at SLU who supported me on my path to Full Professor and this new opportunity. I look forward with confidence in our faculty and new leadership for the AT program, excited for its evolution and future growth.
It’s great to be Billiken!
With sincere thanks,
