3

Thursday, August 8, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com NEWS

LSA 
junior 
Morgan 
McCaul has been selected 
by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, 
pending state senate approv-
al, to serve on the Michigan 
Board of Athletic Trainers as 
a representative of the gen-
eral public. McCaul, a sister 
survivor and sexual assault 
prevention advocate, said her 
personal experiences with 
athletic trainers give her a 
different view to bring to the 
board.
“I think I have a unique 
perspective to bring to the 
board, because not only was 
I introduced to the profes-
sion of athletic training as a 
patient, but I was also victim-
ized during that introduction 
— under the guise of medical 
treatment — and the failure 
to ensure that proper pro-
cedures were taking place,” 
McCaul said. “My priority is 
really the safety and wellbe-
ing of all Michiganders both 
in their lives outside of that 
exam room, but also inside 
of it.”
The statewide board is 
tasked with overseeing the 
continued 
education 
and 
competency of those who 
hold licenses and taking 
action against those who 
have adversely affected the 
health, safety and welfare of 
the public. It is comprised of 
11 total voting members — six 
athletic trainers, two physi-
cians and three public mem-
bers — with terms lasting 
four years.
Tiffany Brown, Whitmer’s 
press secretary, wrote in a 
statement to The Daily that 
Whitmer sees McCaul play-
ing an active role in ensuring 
the work of athletic trainers 
is conducive to rehabilitation 
and improved health.
“Athletic 
trainers 
are 
vital to the treatment and 
management 
of 
individu-
als to prevent injury and aid 
in rehabilitation and condi-
tioning,” Brown wrote. “The 

administration is proud to 
appoint Morgan McCaul to 
further the mission of the 
Michigan Board of Athletic 
Trainers.”
McCaul works at Safe-
House, an organization dedi-
cated to ending domestic 
violence and sexual abuse, 
and is involved with the 
University of Michigan Sex-
ual Assault Prevention and 
Awarness Center. She also 
serves on the board of the 
Jane Doe Fund, a pro-
choice advocacy group, 
and as a consultant 
for Survivor Strong, a 
support network aid-
ing survivors through 
advocacy and educa-
tion.
Part 
of 
the 
reason her 
abuser 
could 
work for 
so 
long 
without 
anyone 
raising 
a 
red flag was 
his 
alleged 
expertise in the 
field of athletic 
training. 
One 
of 
McCaul’s 
goals 
as 
a 
public mem-
ber, she said, 
is to make 
inroads 
in 
increasing 
account-
ability 
as 
well 
as 
educating 
patients. 
McCaul also 
said 
she 
hopes 
to 
create 
a 
culture of 
trauma-
informed 
care 
among ath-
letic train-
ers 
and 
other 
medical 
profes-
sionals.

“Especially as a repre-
sentative of the general pub-
lic, I want to do outreach,” 
McCaul said. “It’s a passion 
of mine to be a facilitator of 
connections and education, 
so I think using my back-
ground and my professional 
experience in the violence 
prevention sphere can be 
something that’s really bene-
ficial. I hope to bring trauma-
informed discussions into 
the medical profession, both 
inside and outside 
of my role as a 
board member.”
According to 
the 
SAMHSA-
HRSA 
Center 
for 
Integrated 
Health Solutions, 
an organi-
zation 

run by the 
National 

C
o
u
n
c
i
l
 for 
Behav-
ioral 
Health, 
trauma-
informed 
care recog-
nizes 
the 
widespread 
impact 
of 
trauma, 
as 
well as the 
signs 
and 
symptoms 
of 
trauma 
and 
inte-
grates knowl-
edge 
about 
trauma 
into 
policies, pro-
cedures 
and 
practices. 

With the goal 
of 
avoiding 
retraumati-
zation, 
trau-
ma- informed 
approaches 
are linked to 
positive health 
outcomes 
for 
patients.
University 
alum 
Laura 
Sinko, 
who 
wrote 
her 
Ph.D. 
in 

Nursing dissertation about 
trauma and inclusive health-
care, said survivors should 
have a seat at the table in 
health care discussions. Just 
as medical professionals do 
not know the full extent of 
their patients’ injuries with-
out listening to them, she 
said, care cannot be as effec-
tive as possible without lis-
tening to those who seek it.
Sinko 
said 
trauma-
informed care at its core 
is helping patients receive 
the 
professional 
medi-
cal treatment they need in 
order to reach their desired 
physical state. She said this 
type of care is like wearing 
gloves when touching blood 
because it is an approach 
that ensures every person is 
being treated safely, regard-
less of prior experiences.
“Whenever you’re touch-
ing blood products, you need 
to wear these gloves, because 
you never know what’s going 
on in their blood and what 
they’ve 
been 
through,” 
Sinko said. “You want to 
protect yourself but you also 
want to protect them. I think 
of this similarly to trauma-
informed care — you always 
want to be wearing those 
gloves when you’re interact-
ing with patients, because 
just because a patient hasn’t 
disclosed a traumatic expe-
rience to us doesn’t mean it 
hasn’t occurred.”
Sinko noted that many 
people have faced some 
form of trauma, and a trau-
ma-informed 
approach 
can reduce stress among 
patients. A study from SAM-
HSA-HRSA found 61 per-
cent of men and 51 percent 
of women report exposure 
to at least one traumatic life 
event.
A key part of trauma-
informed care, Sinko said, is 
respecting both the patients’ 
boundaries as well as includ-
ing survivors in conversa-
tions about health care.

Thousands of vegans and 
vegetarians traveled to the 
Washtenaw 
County 
Fair-
grounds on Saturday, Aug. 
3, for the third annual Great 
Lakes Regional VegBash, a 
Midwestern vegan and veg-
etarian food festival. Attend-
ees 
sampled 
and 
bought 
various 
food, 
crafts 
and 
health products from a wide 
range of vendors based across 
Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and 
Illinois. 
Bill Lonskey, the event 
organizer and owner of the 
Quintessential Event Compa-
ny, explained he started the 
event hoping to help attend-
ees discover new foods. 
“We’re a unique event for 
vegans and vegetarians and 
those who are interested in 
exploring more plant-based 
options in their diet to come 
out and check out some won-
derful restaurants,” Lonskey 
said. 
The theme of VegBash 2019 
was “The Summer of Veggie 
Love” in honor of the 50th 
anniversary of Woodstock, 

a 1969 music festival widely 
associated with the American 
counterculture 
movement 
of the 1960s. In line with the 
theme, attendees had the 
opportunity to speak briefly 
on camera about an area of 
activism they are passionate 
about as they walked in. 
The project, a new intro-
duction this year, will be 
compiled into a series of vid-
eos later posted online, Lon-
skey said. 
“Woodstock and the whole 
hippie movement was a pin-
nacle time of activism in this 
country,” Lonskey said. “Veg-
ans and vegetarians particu-
larly are very much into their 
activism, so we saw a lot of 
correlation there.” 
This spirit for activism is 
at the core of Radical Plants, 
a 
vegan-specialty 
foods 
company owned by Melissa 
Heath. By introducing cus-
tomers to superdip, the com-
pany’s 
oil-free, 
sugar-free 
dip, Heath said she hopes to 
inspire people to follow the 
company’s slogan and “eat 
plants for a change.”

Fest brings 
vegetarian, 
vegan food to 
Washtenaw

Attendees sample plant-based foods, 
camp at fairgrounds in Ann Arbor

Read more at michigandaily.com

Student tapped for athletic 
trainer oversight board

CLAIRE HAO
Summer News Editor

ALEX HARRING
Summer Managing News Editor

Read more at michigandaily.com

Gretchen Whitmer selects Morgan McCaul to represent general public

COURTESY OF CLAIRE HAO

COURTESY
OF
MORGAN 
MCCAUL