Jennifer Brodeur, assistant athletic director for sports medicine and athletic health care administrator, has received the 2025 Chuck and Frank Cramer Memorial Eastern Athletic Trainers’ Association (EATA) Excellence in Leadership Award, an honor she received last month at the EATA Annual Clinical Symposium in Philadelphia.

Brodeur is in her 19th year as an athletic trainer at UMass Amherst. She provides clinical care for the rowing program and has complete oversight of the athletic training department, where 15 athletic trainers care for approximately 650 athletes. She previously served as the primary trainer for the men’s lacrosse and swimming and diving teams. 

She also directs the UMass Amherst sports medicine undergraduate intern program and is the undergraduate education liaison with Springfield College, Westfield State University and Quinnipiac University.

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Developed in 1966, the Cramer Memorial Leadership Award recognizes EATA members who have provided leadership that enhances the profession of athletic training at the national, districts 1 or 2 (Northeast region) in a manner consistent with brothers Chuck and Frank Cramer. The Cramers served on the first-ever Olympic athletic training staff, were two of the founding fathers of the EATA and the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) and launched a company that created the first athletic training products that helped to fund the NATA and EATA in its early years

“The Cramer Memorial EATA Excellence in Leadership Award is humbling especially since one of the first volunteer roles I had as an athletic trainer was teaching at a Cramer camp 33 years ago in 1992,” Brodeur said. “I never would have guessed that my name would be tied to an award honoring two trailblazers like the Cramer brothers. I am proud to accept this award not as an individual but as part of a larger community, a team a network of colleagues, friends and mentors who have taught supported and encouraged me along the way.”

She currently serves as the NATA Districts’ Secretaries and Treasurers Committee chair and completed her term as the NATA District One Executive Council Secretary in June 2024.  She has also served as an at-large member of the NATA Intercollegiate Council for Sports Medicine (ICSM) Division I Subcommittee, which addresses issues affecting the student athlete and athletic trainers in Division I collegiate institutions.

Brodeur is also past president of the EATA, after completing the first four years of the six-year term as president-elect and president. She has also served as president-elect and president of the Athletic Trainers of Massachusetts and Rhode Island Athletic Trainers Association.

In addition to the Cramer award, Brodeur has received several athletic training recognitions during her tenure at UMass, including the ATOM Koko Kassabian Award.  She is also the past recipient of the NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award, the EATA Jeffrey Stone Service Award, the College and University Athletic Trainers Committee’s New Horizon Award, NATA Assistant Athletic Trainer of the Year, and Athletic Trainer Service Award.