Faculty Board on Athletics
New UD Faculty Board on Athletics announced
5:29 p.m., Aug. 19, 2011--University of Delaware President Patrick T. Harker has announced the formation of the UD Faculty Board on Athletics.
In addition to the formation of the new group, Lynn Snyder-Mackler, a board certified sports physical therapist and certified athletic trainer who is an international leader in the field of sports and orthopedic rehabilitation research, has been selected as UD’s new Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR).
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She replaces John Burmeister, who retired from the position this past spring after serving in the role since 1981. Burmeister, one of the University’s most distinguished faculty members, is associate chairperson and professor of chemistry and biochemistry at UD.
In her role as FAR, Snyder-Mackler will serve as an official voting delegate for the University of Delaware on NCAA matters.
Faculty Board on Athletics
The Faculty Board on Athletics will be comprised of faculty from across the University. The task of the group, which replaces the previous Athletics Governing Board, will be to serve as a review and advisory board that reports to the president of the University and focuses on athletics at UD.
The group will promote an understanding of intercollegiate athletics among faculty and others within the campus community. The existence of this type of board is strongly encouraged by both the NCAA and the Faculty Athletics Representative Association.
“This is a very important role at the University, and nobody has performed it better than John Burmeister," Harker said. "I thank John for serving as our Faculty Athletics Representative for three decades, and I'm confident that Lynn and the members of the new Faculty Board on Athletics will continue to build the bridge between the University's academic mission and our desire to provide students a well-rounded experience that includes intercollegiate athletics. This board will ensure that 'student-athlete' continues to have real meaning at UD."
In addition to Snyder-Mackler, other board members will be Tammy Anderson (Sociology); Bob Schweitzer (Business & Economics Finance Lesa Griffiths, (Institute for Global Studies and Animal and Food Sciences); Breck Robinson (Public Policy & Administration, Business & Economics Finance, and Institute for Public Administration); Ajay Prasad (Mechanical Engineering); and Matt Robinson (Business Administration and Sport Management).
UD Director of Athletics and Recreation Services Bernard Muir, Vice President for Student Life Michael Gilbert and Deputy Provost Nancy Brickhouse will serve as ex officio members.
“The Faculty Board will play an important role as we strive to provide our student-athletes with a first-class experience here at the University of Delaware,” Muir said. “We are fortunate to have this group of such esteemed faculty members, led by Lynn Snyder-Mackler, lend its ideas and talents to our program. Their guidance will be vital to the success and development of Blue Hen athletics.”
Lynn Snyder-Mackler
A former member of the UD Athletics Governing Board, Snyder-Mackler has served at the University of Delaware since 1989, including the last five as Alumni Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy. In 2009, she received the Francis Alison Faculty Award, the University’s highest faculty honor.
"Faculty voices and influence have been present in the affairs of the NCAA for as long as the NCAA has been in existence, and they continually serve as points of contact between their faculties and athletic programs and the NCAA,” Snyder-Mackler said. “We all want excellent programs as measured by success on the field, success in the classroom and classy behavior on the field and in life. I look forward to strengthening the communication among the faculty, athletics and students and reaching these goals."
Snyder-Mackler is a board certified sports physical therapist who maintains an active sports physical therapy practice at the University of Delaware and serves as a rehabilitation consultant to collegiate, amateur and professional teams. She served as head athletic trainer for the beach volleyball venue at the 1996 (Centennial) Olympic Games in Atlanta.
She concentrates her clinical practice and research in the areas of knee and shoulder rehabilitation, and electrical stimulation of muscle and has authored many research publications in the areas of knee rehabilitation and regularly speaks to national and international audiences on these topics.
She was named a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association in 2003, the association’s highest honor, and was recently named an inaugural of the Scientific Board (SB) of the World Village of Women Sport, which will be based in Malmo, Sweden. She currently is an investigator on more than $6 million in research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and several foundations.
Snyder-Mackler earned her undergraduate degree in quantitative studies from Johns Hopkins University in 1978 where she played on the first women’s lacrosse teams in the university’ history, received both a postgraduate certificate in physical therapy (1980) and a master’s degree in organizational behavior (1984) from the University of Pennsylvania, and earned a doctorate in applied anatomy and physiology from Boston University in 1990.
She has served as academic director of the University of Delaware Physical Therapy Clinic since 1993, as academic residency director since 1995, and as Alumni Distinguished Professor since 2006. She was the third academic director of the UD graduate program in biomechanics and movement science, serving from 2004-09.
In addition, she was a visiting researcher to the School of Health and Bioscience at the University of East London in 2007-09 and was an adjunct associate research professor in the Department of Orthopaedics at Thomas Jefferson University College of Medicine in Philadelphia from 1997-2007 and a founding faculty faculty member of the Norwegian research center for Active Rehabilitation (NAR)in Oslo, Norway.
Before coming to the University of Delaware, she served in a variety of positions in the physical therapy field, including working at Yale-New Haven (Conn.) Hospital, Underwood Memorial Hospital in Woodbury, N.J., Physical Therapy and Restorative Care Associates in Philadelphia, Comprehensive Pain Management Services in Philadelphia, University Physical Therapy Associates in Wyncote, Pa., Temple University, Boston University, the Rothman Institute in Philadelphia and Allegheny University of Health Sciences in Philadelphia.
Snyder-Mackler has earned numerous other prestigious awards in her field, including the University of Delaware College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Scholar (2003), American Physical Therapy Association Marian Williams Award for Research in Physical Therapy (2004), University of Delaware University Doctoral Mentoring Award Winner (2004), Steven J. Rose Award for Excellence in Orthopaedic Research (2004, 2009 and 2011), and the John HK Maley Award for Contribution to Physical Therapy Research (2009).
She is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association, Orthopaedic Research Society, National Athletic Trainers Association, American College of Sports Medicine, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine and Osteoarthritis Research Society International (OARSI).
Photo by Kathy F. Atkinson