Meg Frens, who is an assistant professor of kinesiology and athletic trainer at Hope College, has received the President's Excellence Award from the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association (GLATA).
Meg Frens, who is an assistant professor of kinesiology and athletic trainer at Hope College, has received the President's Excellence Award from the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association (GLATA).
She was honored "in recognition of service, leadership, professionalism and exemplary contributions to the GLATA membership." The award was announced on Friday, March 11, in conjunction with the group's annual Winter Symposium, held in Minneapolis, Minn., on Thursday-Saturday, March 10-12.
Frens, who is a certified member of the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA), is active in the state, regional and national athletic training associations in a variety of ways. She is co-chairperson of the Professional Education Committee for the Michigan Athletic Trainers' Society (MATS), responsible for planning and coordinating the annual educational meeting and most recently working on continuing-education opportunities to assist athletic trainers in maintaining state licensure. As a member of the GLATA Education Committee, she led the development of a "Policy and Procedure Manual for use of Vovici Community Professional Survey Software Management," and administered the surveys and reports for the membership for two years. She is an exam item writer for the NATA Board of Certification, and is a past advisor to the GLATA Student Senate.
She has made several invited addresses at professional meetings. Her publications include articles in "Athletic Therapy Today" and the "Journal of Athletic Training," and most recently she co-authored a chapter in a volumned edition for "Career Choices for the Sports Medicine Professions," part of the "Praeger Handbook of Sports Medicine and Athlete Health," edited by Claude T. Moorman and Donald T. Kirkendall.
Frens has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2002, following a previous two-year appointment as a visiting instructor from 1998 to 2000.
She graduated from Hope in 1996 with a major in kinesiology, and completed a Master of Science degree in kinesiology/athletic training at Indiana University in 1997. During the 1997-98 school year she was an assistant athletic trainer and co-director of summer camps at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, and from 2000 to 2002 she was an assistant professor of athletic training at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.
Also during the GLATA Winter Symposium, a Hope student-led project to promote athletic training was honored as Michigan's winner in the 2011 GLATA Public Relations Contest, and the three-student team from Hope that had won first place in the 2010 Michigan Athletic Trainers Society (MATS) Quiz Bowl in October represented the state in the GLATA regional competition.
The Hope project honored in the Public Relations Contest consisted of presentations and interactive demonstrations during the college's home men's basketball game at the DeVos Fieldhouse on Feb. 20, 2010, and a related video posted on YouTube. The students who represented Hope as winners of the 2010 MATS Quiz Bowl were seniors Emily Corstange of Kalamazoo; Molly Schab of Galesburg; and Brian Wiese of Wilmington, N.C.
Athletic trainers are allied health care professionals who prevent, manage and rehabilitate injuries in physically active populations. Hope offers a major in athletic training as one of three majors within the department of kinesiology. Hope was the first liberal arts college in Michigan to have its athletic training program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education.
GLATA includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The association represents approximately 22 percent of the total membership of the national association. Members serve in settings including high schools, colleges and universities, professional sports organizations, physician offices, rehabilitation clinics and industrial work sites.