For Kaitlin Romm, life is best led following the example of her father.
“He wasn’t a CEO who sat behind a desk,” Romm said of her dad, Edward, a Virginia Beach businessman who died 10 years ago of lung cancer. “He helped people no matter what. I always had that spirit.”
It is one reason Romm, who graduated from George Mason University in the spring with a master’s degree in exercise, fitness and health promotion, flourished as an athletic trainer at Saunders Middle School in Manassas, Va.
That opportunity came as a graduate research assistant in the ACHIEVES Project in which George Mason, with a grant from the Potomac Health Foundation, provides athletic trainers to nine Prince William County middle schools.
The schools get medical personnel they would not otherwise have, and master’s students get real-world experience treating track injuries as part of a research project.
Romm, 25, who has a bachelor’s degree in athletic training, is project manager, a position in which she plans to continue next school year as part of ACHIEVES. She is responsible for coordinating all athletic training services and recording reported injuries—jobs that honed her communication and time-management skills.
Romm was the athletic trainer at Saunders, covering 13 sports throughout the past school year. She also researched the challenges in reintroducing students who sustained concussions into the classroom, and presented her results at the National Athletic Trainers Association conference in June in Baltimore.
“We suggest school systems provide effective education on concussions to teachers and other school staff so they feel confident helping students in the classroom,” Romm said.
For all this, Romm received the American Kinesiology Association’s Master’s Scholar Award for academic accomplishment and leadership.
“One of the most capable young women I have ever had the pleasure to work with,” Shane Caswell said of Romm. Caswell is ACHIEVES’ lead investigator and executive director of Mason’s Sports Medicine Assessment, Research and Testing Laboratory. “If something needs to be done, she’s going to do it.”
“Kate is fantastic,” said Brent Anderson, Saunders’ athletic director and track coach. “She works with the coaches and gave me ideas with stretches and different things I can do to better prevent injuries from occurring.”
“My mentors and Dr. Caswell had a lot of faith in me,” Romm said. “I worked my hardest to continue the positive work of the grant.”
Her father would be proud.