NATA to Welcome Two New Board Members at 64th Annual Meeting and Clinical Symposia

Friday, May 31, 2013

DALLAS, May 31, 2013 – During its 64th Annual Meeting & Clinical Symposia, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) will formally welcome Patricia Aronson, PhD, ATC, LPTA, and Cari Wood, ATC, to its board of directors. NATA’s convention will take place June 24-27 at the Mandalay Bay South Convention Center in Las Vegas. Aronson succeeds outgoing District 3 director Marty Baker, ATC; and Wood will replace outgoing District 10 director Russ Richardson, EdD, ATC.
 
“We are delighted and excited to add these highly qualified colleagues to our board of directors,” said NATA President Jim Thornton, MS, ATC, CES. “Each has already made tremendous contributions to the organization, and we look forward to their collective insights, commitments and direction to help chart our growth in the months and years ahead.”

Patricia Aronson
Now in her 25th year at Lynchburg (Va.) College, Aronson is a full-time professor and the clinical education coordinator in the athletic training program. For 11 years she served as head athletic trainer at the school in addition to being a faculty member in the Health Movement Science and Recreation program. Having worked in the trenches for more than 30 years, she spent the first five years of her career as an assistant athletic trainer at Northwestern University.

Aronson has been honored by NATA with the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer and Athletic Training Service awards. In January 2012, she was inducted into the Virginia Athletic Trainers’ Hall of Fame. She has been widely published and reviews manuscripts for the Journal of Athletic Training and is on the Slack Incorporated, Athletic Training Editorial Review Board. She serves as Lynchburg’s NCAA faculty athletics’ representative and considers herself a “life-long learner” of the profession and sports medicine at large. 
 
Aronson earned a Bachelor of Science at Canisius College in Buffalo (N.Y.); and received a Master of Education and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Virginia.
 
   

Cari Wood
Wood is currently head athletic trainer and a sports medicine instructor at Redmond (Ore.) High School and also serves as the health occupations instructor at Redmond Proficiency Academy. She was previously an athletic trainer with Lake Oswego (Ore.) High School and substitute teacher at both Lake Oswego and Lakeridge High Schools.

She has dedicated her career to the secondary school arena, while also holding several positions with the Oregon Schools Activities Association and its weight monitoring and medical aspects of sports programs. Wood is the recipient of the NATA Athletic Training Service Award. She has served the profession through her work with the Northwest Athletic Trainers’ Association having served on its board of directors; and as president of the Oregon Athletic Trainers’ Society where she also served as public relations committee chair and secondary school committee member.
 
Wood received her Bachelors of Arts in Education and Bachelor of Science from Eastern Washington University.
 
NATA is divided into 10 geographic districts. District 3, which Aronson will lead, covers Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia; District 10 which will be championed by Wood includes Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington.
 

About NATA:

National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) – Health Care for Life & Sport
Athletic trainers are health care professionals who specialize in the prevention, diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation of injuries and sport-related illnesses. They prevent and treat chronic musculoskeletal injuries from sports, physical and occupational activity, and provide immediate care for acute injuries. Athletic trainers offer a continuum of care that is unparalleled in health care. The National Athletic Trainers' Association represents and supports 35,000 members of the athletic training profession.