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New Corporate/Educational Director Named for Upcoming Term

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Diana M. Settles, MAT, ATC

The BOC Board of Directors has appointed a new Corporate/Educational Director to serve on the Board. Diana M. Settles, MAT, ATC will take office in January 2019 following a year of mentorship and learning.

Settles has 24 years of experience working with The United States Department of Defense. The US Department of Defense is not only in charge of the military, but it also employs a civilian force of thousands working worldwide. She serves at the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center, Portsmouth, Virginia, which is considered the “Centers for Disease Control and Public Health” for the US Navy and Marine Corps.

Settles has worked with many Department of Defense level sports medicine and physical readiness work teams. She has also served on the Navy and Marine Corps advisory boards for institutionalizing Certified Athletic Trainers (ATs) into the Military Health Care System.

"I look forward to SERVING the athletic training profession. My interest is in directly serving the athletic training profession and the 40,000 plus colleagues that work collaboratively to protect, prevent and promote worldwide. My goal is to wholeheartedly support the advancement of the athletic training profession." Settles said.

Settles’s educational background is in teaching. She has a Master’s of Arts degree in Teaching, Physical Education (Athletic Training) from the University of West Alabama in Livingston, Alabama. She currently teaches and utilizes teaching and curriculum/product development skills weekly through her corporate job and through volunteer work as a LIFEgroup leader for youth.

During her career, Settles has worked on helping to prevent musculoskeletal injury in the military and to develop population-based systems designed to improve operational physical performance. Injuries are the leading health and readiness threat to the US Armed Forces – imposing a greater ongoing negative impact on the health and readiness of the US Armed Forces than any other category of medical complaint during peacetime and combat.

According to Settles, ATs have demonstrated effectiveness in improving the resiliency and durability of the military athlete, and many AT programs are utilized as a “best practice” model both intrinsically (within the US Armed Services) and also extrinsically (shared with corporate/military operational programs outside of the United States).

“When working with the large populations we consistently see in the corporate and military setting, it does require a rather unique and advanced skill set. There are 2 essential areas: (1) Teamwork and alignment for effective population-based outreach (2) Utilization of evidence-based decision making and epidemiological analysis through data collection and analysis and literature review is critical for establishing a baseline for prevention programming. It’s critical – essential. A key goal during my term on the Board would be to see the knowledge, skills and abilities of this evidence-based skill set further advance in our profession," Settles said.

Settles has served the BOC previously as a member of the Role Delineation Study Panel. Settles is a member of the NATA International Committee and serves as liaison for Armed Forces Athletic Training Society. She is also a member of NATA Committee on the Practice Advancement Military Working Group.

“Through my current work position, I’ve been able to investigate evidence-based best practices both at a quantitative and qualitative level. We’ve been able to take our best programs and make them even better! I believe many of these highly successful programs are applicable to many different AT settings, not just the corporate and military setting.It will be an honor to have the opportunity to share both the applicable components, and also some potential knowledge and educational needs, for advancing our profession further into the corporate/military setting,” Settles said.

The new Corporate/Educational Director-elect was appointed by the BOC Board of Directors following a nomination process guided by the Nominating Committee. Candidates were asked to demonstrate an interest in health and safety through a willingness to be a public advocate for consumers of athletic training services. Candidates could not practice as a BOC Athletic Trainer as their primary means of employment.

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