John Harvey Humanitarian Award 10th Anniversary

Dr. Luzita Vela of Texas State University was named the new SWATA Ethnic Diversity Chairperson last summer. At the EDAC meeting held in Arlington last summer they wanted to ensure renewed awareness of the John Harvey Humanitarian Award as it will be awarded for the 10th time at next summer's annual meeting.

SWATA is very excited that we will be marking the 10th anniversary of the award this summer. The past award recipients listed below were recognized because of their significant impact on ethnic minority athletic trainers or on physically active ethnic minority individuals. We are very proud of each recipient’s contribution and we look forward to recognizing more athletic trainers in SWATA.

The SWATA EDAC is working hard to increase the number of nominations for the award, but we are fighting an uphill battle. For one athletic trainers, by nature, are used to working without acknowledgement. A recent survey completed by SWATA attendees revealed that only 6% of respondents had nominated an athletic trainer for the John Harvey Award. Furthermore, many athletic trainers have the misconception that only minority athletic trainers can receive the award when that is not the case. Responses to the SWATA survey also indicated that many members felt that they did not know anyone that would be deserving of the award. Texas statistics show that the approximately half of state’s current population are ethnic minorities while nearly a quarter of the population in Arkansas’ are ethnic minorities.1,2 Given the potential for interaction with ethnically diverse individuals, it is hard to believe that not one athletic trainer is making a positive impact on an ethnically diverse athletic trainer, patient or student-athlete. Therefore, the SWATA EDAC needs your help. I would like to ask you to help EDAC in two ways: 1) speak to fellow SWATA members about the John Harvey Award to prevent any false impressions that they may have about the award and 2) consider nominating a fellow athletic trainer for the award this year. We would love to recognize athletic trainers that make an impact but we can’t unless they are nominated.

We appreciate your help in getting the word out about the John Harvey Humanitarian Award.
Past Award Recipients:
2001 John Harvey
2002 Elicia Leal
2003 Mike Vara
2004 Jim De La Cruz
2005 Raul Zamarripa
2006 Phil Francis
2007 Robert Ramos
2008 Scott Galloway
2009 Robert Gonzalez

For more information about the award, please visit the SWATA website at http://www.swata.org/honors_awards/john_harvey_award.php