James Scifers, professor of athletic training at Western Carolina University, is recipient of the North Carolina Athletic Trainers’ Association Educator of the Year Award for 2014.
The award is given annually to an athletic training educator who demonstrates excellence in classroom and clinical education of students enrolled in a program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education.
Scifers received the award at the association’s spring symposium and business meeting held in March in Wrightsville Beach.
The award is North Carolina’s most prestigious honor for teaching in the athletic training profession, said Jill Manners, director of WCU’s athletic training program, who called Scifers “a true mentor” to his students, even long after they have graduated from the program and gone on to successful careers of their own.
“Dr. Scifers is very passionate about the athletic training profession,” Manners said. “He has dedicated his life to the education of athletic training students and always challenges them – and everyone he works with – to be better. He is driven to promote the profession and his enthusiasm is contagious.”
Brandy Jones, a former student who is now clinical education coordinator for the athletic training education program at Catawba College, said Scifers is “one of the best athletic training educators” in the business.
“Dr. Scifers is truly an inspiring professor,” Jones said. “He possesses a radiating and contagious passion for his profession and for educating the future of that profession. By demanding the same level of excellence from his students as he does himself, he is able to motivate them to reach goals they could never have imagined.”
Scifers helped write state legislation that established a mandatory concussion awareness education program for public school student-athletes and their parents and coaches, as well as volunteers and first responders. The act, signed into law in 2011, also requires players who show signs or symptoms of a concussion to be removed from play or practice and not return until being cleared by a physician, nurse practitioner, physician assistant or athletic trainer.
Scifers was named recipient of one of the nation’s top honors in the field of athletic training in 2011, when he received a Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award from the National Athletic Trainers’ Association during its annual meeting New Orleans. Former president of the N.C. Athletic Trainers’ Association, he won WCU’s highest teaching honor, the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, in 2006.
A resident of Webster, Scifers joined the WCU faculty in 2003. He served as founding director of WCU’s athletic training program from 2003 until 2010, associate dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences from 2008 until 2009 and director of the School of Health Sciences from 2009 until 2013.
Former program director of athletic training education at Salisbury University in Maryland, he holds a bachelor’s degree from East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania, master’s degree in physical therapy from Emory University, and doctorate in orthopedic physical therapy from the University of Maryland-Baltimore.
Western Carolina’s athletic training program combines classroom and hands-on clinical educational experiences to prepare students for careers that involve caring for physically active individuals. Certified athletic trainers work as part of health care teams in secondary schools, colleges and universities, hospitals, sports medicine clinics, industrial sites, professional sports programs and other health care settings. Graduates also often pursue advanced degrees in fields of medicine or allied health professions.
For more information, visit the website athletictraining.wcu.edu or contact Jill Manners at 828-227-3509 or by e-mail at manners@wcu.edu.
James Scifers (left), professor of athletic training at Western Carolina University and recipient of the North Carolina Athletic Trainers’ Association Educator of the Year Award for 2014, checks a local high school football player for symptoms of a concussion.