John Davis, known for his commitment to athletic training practice and education, has provided quality health care for student athletes at Montclair State University since 1984. He is credited with establishing the MSU athletic training education program in 2000 that has produced countless athletic trainers. Davis has devoted years of service to the profession. He was elected Secretary/Treasurer of the Eastern Athletic Trainers' Association in 1988. In 1992, he became the District Two secretary and helped to form the NATA District Secretaries'/Treasurers' Committee. He was elected President of the EATA in 2011. Celebrated for his leadership and service, he was inducted into the Athletic Trainers Society of New Jersey's Hall of Fame in 2006 and the MSU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2012. MSU also honored Davis in 2010 by dedicating its athletic training facility as the John Davis and Dr. M. Benjamin Burton Athletic Training and Sports Medicine Center. In 2018 he was inducted into the EATA ‘49 Club and also received the EATA Student Delegation Jeff Stone Service Award.
NATA Hall of Fame
Kent Biggerstaff spent 36 years as a professional baseball athletic trainer for the New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers and the Pittsburgh Pirates and was selected for three National League All Star teams, as well as the MLB All-Star Tour in Japan in 1996. Biggerstaff also spent three years as the concussion coordinator for Minor League Baseball umpires and is credited with introducing concussion management to the MLB. A proven leader, Biggerstaff was president of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers' Society for three terms and served 13 years on its executive board. His leadership was integral in building upon the relationship between PBATS and NATA. He was elected to the PBATS Hall of Fame in 2016. Biggerstaff was selected for the NFL ATC Spotter program and worked on the PGA and PGA Champions Tours as a conditioning coordinator for 13 years, giving him the distinction of working in three professional sports.
Marty Matney's storied career began in the 1970s when he became interested in sports medicine in high school. Since then, he has built a decades-long career that has spanned multiple job settings and blazed new trails for athletic training employment. Matney started in the clinical setting, and his work has contributed to the expansion of the athletic training profession into the military, performing arts, physician practice and occupational health settings. Matney established two rehabilitation clinics and spearheaded the expansion of the Boeing Industrial Athlete program. The program, which provides athletic training care for Boeing employees and helps prevent work-related injuries, grew from four ATs to more than 70 under Matney's leadership. An advocate for the profession, Matney is credited with the passing of the Washington State Athletic Trainers Act. Since 1984, he has served the athletic training profession at the local, state and national levels and was heavily involved with NATA's governmental affairs efforts. He is the current chair of the NATA Committee on Practice Advancement.
Nancy Burke began her career more than four decades ago as one of the first athletic trainers in the Fairfax County Public Schools System in Virginia. Burke and her colleagues were responsible for building and growing the district's athletic training program that now includes two ATs in every high school. She used her expertise to expand the profession to the public safety sector, beginning with the Fairfax County Police Department. She was the first athletic trainer hired by a law enforcement agency, and her program has become a model for similar programs across the country. Always a trailblazer, Burke became an athletic trainer when there were few women in the profession and was the first woman to join the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers' Association. After the merger of U.S. Women's Lacrosse Association and Men's Lacrosse, she served as co-chair and chair of its Sports Science and Safety Committee for a decade. The committee is regarded as a medical model for other governing bodies in sports.
As an educator, researcher and leader, René Revis Shingles' impact on the profession of the athletic training is immeasurable. A professor at Central Michigan University for decades, more than 650 students have graduated under her tutelage. Shingles co-authored the first book on cultural competence in the profession and is considered a national expert on diversity and inclusion in athletic training. Shingles has dedicated countless hours to NATA through her work with the Education Council, the Education Degree Task Force and the Ethnic Diversity Advisory Committee. She has also advanced the profession by serving in various roles with the Board of Certification and the NATA Research & Education Foundation. Through her work at CMU, she is credited with successfully coordinating the reaccreditation process multiple times with each receiving the maximum number of years for reaccreditation. For more than 20 years, Shingles has volunteered as medical staff for the Special Olympics Michigan State Summer Games. In 1996, she was selected by the United States Olympic Committee as an AT for the Olympic Games in Atlanta and marched in the opening ceremonies with Team USA.
A true trailblazer of the profession, Fran Babich began her illustrious career at Pomona College, where she became its first athletic trainer in 1978 and one of only three women in the country to hold such a position. In 1980, she was hired as Butte College's head athletic trainer, becoming the first woman named as a head AT in the California Community Colleges system. Babich is the co-founder and first president of the California Community College Athletic Trainers' Association. Though she has been instrumental in elevating athletic trainers in the community college setting, she has worked as an athletic trainer and an educator in every setting, including K-12 schools, DI, DII and DII colleges and universities, as well as the professional setting. Babich's remarkable career has been recognized with multiple honors including the California Community College Athletic Association Hall of Fame, the District Eight Hall of Fame, the Butte College Hall of Fame, the C.K. McClatchy High School Hall of Fame, NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer award and the Gail Weldon Award.
Jeff McKibbin is a respected leader who is known for his dedication to his patients and his commitment to advancing the profession of athletic training. McKibbin, whose career began at the University of Central Oklahoma, spent 24 years as head athletic trainer, with 13 of those years in a dual role as associate athletic director. Over the course of his career, he served as head AT for 14 national championship wrestling teams and one national football championship team. McKibbin's numerous volunteer and leadership positions include chair of the Government Affairs Committee, member of the NATAPAC board of directors and several positions at the state, district and national levels. He is credited with legislative efforts in Oklahoma and developing the first accredited graduate athletic training program in Oklahoma. McKibbin was inducted into the Oklahoma Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of Fame in 2006, the Mid-America Athletic Trainers' Hall of Fame in 2011 and the University of Central Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 2014.
With a career spanning nearly five decades, John “Doc” Anderson has truly left his mark on the athletic training profession and paved the way for generations to come. With the exception of a 10-year stint at Louisiana State University, he served in various roles at Troy University since 1967, including head athletic trainer, professor and program director. Anderson, a former student athlete at Auburn University, doubled as head coach and athletic trainer for both the track and field and cross-country teams at Troy, leading his athletes to several conference championships. He was a member of the U.S. Track and Field coaching staff for the 1984, 1988 and 1992 Olympic Games and served as an athletic trainer for the 1996 Olympic team. Anderson is the founder of Iota Tau Alpha, a national athletic training honor society. Since its inception in 2005, the organization has expanded to more than 100 chapters with more than 4000 inductees.
Kathy Dieringer is celebrated for her service and leadership to the profession of athletic training at the state, district and national levels. She served two terms on the NATA Board of Directors from 2012 through 2016 and secretary and treasurer from 2014 through 2016. In 2008, Dieringer was selected to serve as chair of the newly formed Clinical and Emerging Practices Athletic Trainers' Committee. She has also served as president of NATA District Six and was elected to its Hall of Fame in 2007. She received the NATA Athletic Trainer Service Award in 2002, the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award in 2006 and the Gail Weldon Award in 2017. An example for entrepreneurial athletic trainers, as well as those in the clinical setting, Dieringer is the co-owner of D&D Sports Med, an outpatient rehabilitation company with three clinics in North Texas.
MaryBeth Horodyski is a renowned researcher, respected educator and esteemed leader of the profession of athletic training. She currently serves as the director of research for the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation at the University of Florida. In addition to her work at the university, Horodyski also serves as the athletic trainer at a small private high school in Gainesville. An expert in spine-injured patient care, Horodyski has more than 100 publications in peer-reviewed journals and was selected as one of only five non-physicians to join the Cervical Spine Research Society. Her numerous leadership roles include NATA vice president, NATA District Nine director, SEATA president, SEATA secretary/treasurer and chair of the Executive Committee for Education. Horodyski has received countless awards including the NATA AT Service Award, the SEATA Hall of Fame, the ATAF Hall of Fame and NATA Fellows status.