The Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia

Doing and Then Teaching

photo by Tom Cogill

Over her 18 years as a UVa athletic trainer, Susan Foreman Saliba (BS.Ed, ’86; M.Ed, ’87; Ph.D, ’99) worked primarily with the men’s and women’s basketball teams and the men’s soccer team. She traveled with the women’s basketball team to three NCAA Final 4s and with the men’s soccer team to five NCAA championships. “It was an experience I would not have traded for anything,” Saliba says. The work environment was exciting, and she enjoyed getting to know the coaches as well as the athletes.

Last spring, however, Saliba opted for a different sort of career adventure – as a faculty member in the Curry School’s renowned sports medicine program.

In 1989 Saliba joined the UVa Athletics Department after earning her BS.Ed in kinesiology and her masters degree from the Curry School, as well as a masters in physical therapy from Hahnemann University in Philadelphia. She completed a trio of athletic trainers on staff, with Joe Gieck, who also oversaw the academic and clinical programs for the sports medicine program, and Ethan Saliba, who eventually became Susan’s husband.

Saliba followed the Curry program’s trajectory as a “scholarly clinician,” and went on to complete a doctoral degree in 1999. Still she stayed on in Charlottesville.

“UVa is a hard place to move from,” says Saliba. “I haven’t seen any greener grass elsewhere. It has the ideal situation for sports medicine,” she explains, which includes strong athletic teams, a scholarly faculty, and a great medical facility with federal funding for research.

Throughout her years in the athletics department Saliba maintained her ties with the Curry program, keeping up with current research and “dabbling” a bit in research. When Joe Gieck retired in 2005, Susan stepped in to teach his undergraduate classes in the interim until his replacement could be hired. She enjoyed it so much, she decided to apply for the faculty position, herself.

After a nationwide search, Saliba was selected for the position, much to her delight. In fall 2006 she traded treating, taping, and icing for teaching, advising, and researching. Her first year as a faculty member has sometimes felt overwhelming, “but it’s been a great experience so far,” she says, partly due to supportive colleagues. “Chris Ingersoll, Jay Hertel, and Art Weltman have been incredibly helpful in leading me in the right direction in research,” she adds.

And while she might sometimes miss the thrill of college sports, she has no regrets. “It’s a great thing to be able to have a significant change in your career and refresh what you know and revive your interest in learning. There’s something new for me every day right now.”

For the time being, at least, that’s excitement enough.

Publisher:
Curry School of Education Foundation
PO Box 400276
Charlottesville, VA 22904

Editor:
Lynn Bell
Director of Communications