Two faculty members in the USF Health Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine received annual awards at the Athletic Trainers’ Association of Florida 21st Annual Clinical Symposium, April 17 to 19, in Orlando.

Barbara Morris, MS, ATC, CSCC, ROT, assistant program director of USF Health’s Sports Medicine and Athletic Related Trauma (SMART) Institute, won the organization’s Professional Athletic Trainer of the Year award. The award is given to an athletic trainer who has displayed a high level of professionalism and whose contributions have improved the profession above and beyond their employment setting. Morris, who teaches in the USF Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine’s Athletic Training Education Program, is a certified athletic trainer, a certified strength and conditioning specialist, and a registered orthopaedic technologist. She oversees the SMART Outreach Program, which provides ATC coverage and care to Tampa Bay area high schools.

Morris is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, the Southeastern Athletic Trainer’s Association, the Florida Athletic Trainer’s Association, the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and the American Society of Orthopaedic Professionals. She earned a master’s of science degree from the University of Central Arkansas, specializing in kinesiology, and is working on a doctorate in health sciences from Nova Southeastern University.

Gianluca Del Rossi, PhD, ATC, was selected as the ATAF’s College/University Athletic Trainer of the Year. The award is given to a college or university athletic trainer who displays a high level of professionalism and whose contributions have improved the profession and the ATAF. Dr. Del Rossi, who teaches in the Athletic Training Education Program, is an assistant professor in USF Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine and director of Sports Medicine Research.

He earned his PhD in Athletic Training and Sports Medicine from the University of Florida and has been a certified athletic trainer for more than 10 years. He chairs the Scholarship Committee of the Southeastern Athletic Trainers’ Association and is the Florida representative of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Research and Education Foundation.