Alumni p r o f i l e Keeping athletes healthy A midnight slide down a Melrose Hall banister resulted in a sprained ankle for Diana Palmer ’86 -- and also launched her career path. As a Linfi eld sophomore, Palmer had little idea of what her future held, but the sprain led her to the athletic training Diana Palmer ’86 department and she was hooked. She spent the rest of her time at Linfi eld working in the treatment center under Tara Lepp, professor of health and human performance, who offered hands-on teaching that Palmer models to this day as a professor of kinesiology at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif. “Tara threw responsibility at us right away, and you had to learn on your feet,” said Palmer, who said Lepp ran one of the best training rooms she’s seen. “At Linfi eld, I had the benefi t of teachers who cared about my personal life and who weren’t afraid to push me.” During a career that has taken her around the world, Palmer has worked with elite athletes at the Ironman World Championships, World Cup matches, the Pan American Games, the Olympics, and countless other athletic venues. For 10 years, she traveled extensively, following teams internationally every six Diana Palmer ’86, medical staff for the Santa Barbara Polo Club, offers care to an weeks or so, and also serving as head athletic trainer at Westmont. injured polo player. She has spent her career treating elite athletes at the Olympics, “I loved the cultures, the people, the athletes I met, and I Ironman competitions, the World Cup, Pan American Games, and other venues. got to learn from other specialists all over the world,” she said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better learning environment.” Palmer was one of Lepp’s fi athletic training students at rst Her favorite part was working with the International Linfi eld, and Lepp remembers her well. Development Program, which assisted athletes who couldn’t “It has been exciting to watch Diana take the base of afford their own team and athletic trainers. knowledge she gained at Linfi eld and expand on it through “That put everything together for me -- working with advanced studies at the graduate level and worldwide learning amazing professionals from all over the world and giving to experiences,” Lepp said. people who are in need,” she said. “That’s what I’m made for. At Linfi eld, Palmer studied physical education and I tell my students, it doesn’t matter if you’re working with a psychology, following in the footsteps of her father, Densley 70-year-old patient, a collegiate athlete or an Olympic athlete, Palmer, director of counseling services at Linfi eld for 16 years. you treat them all the same.” She remembers being pushed hard by professors, including After a decade of international travel and 14-hour work Lepp and George Oja, and that work paid off in graduate school. days, Palmer recently scaled back her commitments. She now “Linfi eld’s education made walking into grad school a splits her time between work in a private physical therapy clinic, breeze,” said Palmer, who earned a master’s degree in movement and teaching at Westmont. In addition, she has served on the studies and athletic training at the University of Oregon. medical staff for the Santa Barbara Polo Club since 2002. “Everything they taught the fi year, I had already learned.” rst Palmer has seen her share of changes in the athletic training Over the years, Palmer has used her psychology training as industry. As one of the fi females to work in professional much as the exercise science and athletic training, explaining rst men’s soccer, she recalls the surprise of athletes when she’d walk that the mental state of an athlete ties directly into his or her into the locker room. physical healing and perception of pain. “Every time you go to a new place you must prove who you “We can’t heal patients physically unless they’re 100 are,” Palmer said. “You walk in with grace and you learn. When percent healthy mentally,” she said. “Being able to recognize doors open, you walk through them. I wouldn’t have taken all that there’s a whole person behind the injury helps a lot.” these opportunities without my faith.” – Laura Davis Winter 2013 l i n f i e l d m a g a z i n e - 3 1
Linfield Winter 2013
To see the actual publication please follow the link above