Board Member Profile: Dr. JoEllen Sefton
Director & Professor, Warrior Research Center, Auburn University
JoEllen Sefton, Ph.D., ATC, LAT, is the Auburn University Warrior Research Center director. The mission is to assist the US Armed Forces in improving the physical and technical skills, equipment, health, and performance of our Military, Families, and Veterans. She developed and led the Warrior Athletic Training (WAT) program at Ft Benning for 8 years. As the Director of the Auburn Neuromechanics Research Laboratory, Dr. Sefton studies neuromuscular and physiological effects of orthopedic and neuromuscular injury; and the rehabilitation and therapeutic methods used to treat these injuries. Sefton has 26 years of experience as a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist and has been a Certified Athletic Trainer for 21 years. She has worked with high school, college, Olympic, professional athletes, Broadway performers, professional musicians, and Military and other tactical athletes. She believes that collaboration will drive the future and make a difference for tactical athletes.
We sat down with JoEllen to hear a little more about her perspective on the Tactical Athlete. Here is what she had to say:
(TA_LB): The themes of the Tactical Athlete Leadership Board are Readiness, Resilience, and Recovery. From your perspective, why are these themes important, and what about them resonates with your experience in the human performance industry?
(JoEllen): My work looks to ensure readiness, build resilience, and aid in recovery for our Tactical Athletes. We research ways to improve health, wellness, and performance and find ways to improve injury prevention, healing, and recovery.
(TA-LB): Looking to the future, what technological innovation do you think will have the most significant impact on tactical athletes?
(JoEllen): Technology is incredible, and it will be a game-changer. However, all the technology in the world won't help our Tactical Athletes until we change the culture around them to maintain health and wellness through self-care to ensure constant readiness.
(TA-LB): The spirit of the TALB is to bring a diverse set of perspectives to the table aligned toward a singular purpose: to sustain the tactical athlete of today and prepare for the tactical athlete of tomorrow. Why is it essential for the broader human performance industry to work together towards this end?
(JoEllen): Those working with this population will find what works and take from everything that is being done and shape it to work for this particular population. Few people understand the unique requirements and needs of this group - those are the ones that need to progress the work with them, taking from what we can learn from others working with other populations.
(TA-LB): What is the greatest challenge to innovation in the human performance sector?
(JoEllen): Money and collaboration. Everyone is looking to make money and to control the industry and the data. Those trying to help the TAs are hampered by the new trend with technology requiring paying for continued access to software and cloud access to your data.