The Sports Pro Community Network and it's SPCN TV Internet TV Channel (www.SPCN.TV ) is pleased to present this first in a series of Live Interactive National Town Hall Meeting Webcasts on Concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury in Youth Athletics featuring expert panelists from academia, the coaching profession and the medical community in addition to administrators, sports organization leaders and equipment manufacturers. On-line participants will be able to forward questions to panelists via email during this live 90-minute webcast presentation. Congressman George Miller
Joseph F. Clark
Robert Erb Renaldo Nehemiah ('Skeets') A former wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers and part of the 1984 Super Bowl Championship Team, Nehemiahmaintains that the beginning of the end of his professional football career was a vicious hit by Atlanta Falcons defensive back Kenny Johnson in 1983 that knocked him unconscious.
Dr. Vaughan is a pediatric neuropsychologist who currently practices in Washington, DC and Maryland. He is a member of the Division of Pediatric Neuropsychology at Children's National Medical Center in Washington DC, and he is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Pediatrics at the The George Washington University School of Medicine. He completed his undergraduate degree at James Madison University and both his master’s and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology at Loyola College in Maryland. He has previously trained at Johns Hopkins University, the Kennedy Krieger Institute, Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children’s National Medical Center. He is a member of the Safe Concussion Outcome, Recovery and Education (SCORE) Clinic at Children’s National, where he sees children and adolescents with sports and non-sports related concussion. He is also actively involved in research and is the principle investigator on a project using advanced neuroimaging techniques to better understand the neurobiological correlates of concussions. He has presented his research at national and international conferences and he has published multiple research articles in scholarly journals.
Jon Almquist is the Athletic Training Program Administrator for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the largest school division in Virginia with 25 high schools with full athletic programs. Almquist provides administrative oversight to the staff of over 50 Certified Athletic Trainers (ATCs) who collectively provide comprehensive athletic healthcare for over 25,000 student athletes annually. Almquist is the former Chair of the National Athletic Trainers Associations(NATA) Secondary School Athletic Trainers Committee and Appropriate Medical Care for Secondary School Age Athlete Task Force and writing team. Almquist currently serves as Chair of the Athletic Training Advisory Board with Virginia's Board of Medicine and Co-Chair of the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee for the Virginia High School League. The FCPS Athletic Training Program maintains one of the largest epidemiology databases of injuries resulting from participation in athletics and is involved in many research projects. Almquist has been involved with concussion management research projects continuously since 1998 in areas of neuropsychological testing, sideline assessment protocols, and return to play paradigms.
Amy Garcia's primary responsibilities are to carry out the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) strategic plans and to oversee the operations of the organization.Garcia is also a nationally known speaker on health careissues. The NASN's strategic goals are to be an influential advocate for safe and effective school health services, be an indispensible resource for school services and programs, be the recognized expert voice of school nursing and to improve the reliability, quality, and accessibility of school health data to promote research and knowledge development in child health and school health.
To ensure a safe playing environment, all Pop Warner Football players are matched by age and weight levels.There are strict mandatory equipment requirements and Pop Warner provides Coaching Clinics and Risk Management Training and an enforced national rulebook incorporates time-tested rules.A full-time executive staff supports all local associations and assists in sound policy creation. Mutz currently serves on the Advisory Board for Kickoff Magazine, the official magazine of Pop Warner Little Scholars, as well as the Technical Committee for USA Football, a youth football advocacy group formed in 2002.
Bobbie Quinn Bobbie Quinn is a Co-founder and Principal Owner of Sport Guard Inc. (SGI) the manufacturer of the patented Gladiator® custom mouthguard. SGI has become the largest consumer direct manufacturer of custom mouthguards in the country. Motivated by a concussion her son suffered while playing ice hockey, Ms. Quinn was the inspiration for the Gladiator®. Bobbie has fostered awareness on the importance of preventing concussions and oral injury on a national level. She oversees all new product designs and development of the Gladiator® and has successfully created and implemented an impression system "kit" for athletic trainers and the general public to use at home. This "kit" has revolutionized the custom mouthguard market by eliminating a third party in the process allowing the best possible protection directly to the athletes at an affordable price. Bobbie Quinn has pioneered the changed attitude of mouthguards from uncomfortable mandated piece of equipment to desirable, performance enhancing protection. The Gladiator® introduced the first truly "personalized" custom mouthguard. Recently, a Gladiator® Fang mouthguard created for LeBron James, of the Miami Heat brought national recognition and respect to the value of a mouthguard. Please check back. |