COPA Con, a virtual conference on athletic training practice advancement, is back this year with live educational programming for a variety of settings March 31-April 1 and on-demand access, along with networking opportunities for peer-to-peer discussion, through May 1. Both live and on-demand attendees can earn more than 10 CEUs.

NATA Council on Practice Advancement Chair Karen Fennell, MS, LAT, ATC, said the COPA Con is a direct result of NATA members’ feedback requesting content targeted to them for their career advancement.

NATA Timely Topics kicks off anew this year with “The State of Athletic Training: College/University Employment” at 1 p.m. CST March 2.

Registration is now open for the 74th NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo, taking place June 21-24 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis.

The largest gathering of ATs worldwide, NATA 2023 offers a variety of educational sessions for in-person attendees to earn up to 20 CEUs, as well as opportunities to grow their athletic training network and make connections that will benefit and advance their careers.

In honor of Black History Month, NATA is highlighting some of our Black leaders at the state, district and national levels and shares insight into their volunteer journeys. 
 
Helping people has always been a passion for NATA LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee student liaison Larry Gipson II.

Gipson said his “freak accident” while playing football in high school, during which he fractured his femur head and dislocated his hip, fueled his love for athletic training – a profession practiced by ATs, whose passion to return him to his sport inspired him.

As a new feature added to NATA News in 2022, Meet the Member highlights NATA members who are positively advancing the athletic training profession. This month, NATA celebrates the feature’s one-year anniversary.

Beginning with the February 2022 issue, this ongoing NATA News series showcases ATs who represent various districts, settings and experience levels. Their outstanding efforts have moved the profession forward within their workplaces and communities as well as with their patients and athletes.

In honor of Black History Month, NATA is highlighting some of our Black leaders at the state, district and national levels and shares insight into their volunteer journeys. 

Mississippi Athletic Trainers' Association Career Advancement Committee Chair LaJoy Paige, MS, LAT, ATC, always knew she would choose a career related to health care.

Intrigued by how ATs treated their athletes and the profession’s direct impact on them, Paige said she decided to pursue athletic training.

In early January, A.J. Duffy III, MS, ATC, PT, was announced at NATA’s president-elect. Read the January NATA News for more information about the NATA presidential candidate selection process, and keep reading to learn more about Duffy.

As part of Phase Six of NATA’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access (DEIA) Response Plan, each NATA committee, commission and council was tasked with developing three to five actionable items that support one or more of the six NATA DEIA Commitments.

For this blog post, NATA Ethnic Diversity Advisory Committee Chair Darryl Conway shares how the committee celebrates diversity every day, what it has accomplished this year and what it has planned, so far, for 2023.

As the NATA Career Center statistics reveal in the December NATA News, this member-only benefit celebrates a stellar year as a valuable online venue for NATA members to find jobs, having operated for over 10 years.

Not only has it broken records in terms of the number of postings, participation has increased across board. This feat is one of the milestones it was established for.

In the spring of 2021, the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a statement identifying that when access to gender affirming care is denied, it is “a dangerous intrusion into the practice of medicine.”1 This threat to the basic human rights of individuals in the transgender community has been significantly elevated within the past year.