SLU AT Program Welcomes New Faculty

SLU Athletic Training Program Announces Addition of Markee and Siler to Full-time Faculty

The Doisy College of Health Sciences at Saint Louis University is happy to announce the following changes in the teaching faculty and teaching assignments within the Athletic Training Program and the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training.

Mike Markee, ATC, PT, OCS, COMT 

Mike Markee, ATC, PT, OCS, COMT is an athletic trainer and physical therapist with over 12 years of experience.  He is a board certified orthopedic specialist, and a certified orthopedic manual therapist.  He graduated from the Program in Physical Therapy at Saint Louis University in 2000, and Mike has worked as a PT almost exclusively in outpatient orthopedics.  While at SLU he served as an internship student with Billiken athletics and gained the Certified Athletic Trainer credential. In addition to his clinic work, he has worked in a variety of athletic settings, working with high school, collegiate, and professional athletes.  He has integrated aspects of both athletic training and physical therapy with his approach in sports specific rehabilitation.  In his most recent position, Mike served as a director of both inpatient and outpatient rehab staff at a 150-bed hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.

Mike will have a joint appointment in the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, where he will be teaching MAT 550 and 555 Rehabilitation in Athletic Training I and II.  He will also be engaged in scholarship and service in the Athletic Training Program.  Mike will work in the Physical Therapy Clinic at the SLU Student Health Center.

Bill Siler PhD

William (Bill) Siler PhD grew up in Waterloo Iowa and received his B.S. in Physical Education with a specialization in adapted physical education from the University of Northern Iowa in 1982.  He received an M.S.Ed. in Physical Education with a specialization in biomechanics from Northern Illinois University in 1984.  During that period he assisted Dr. Robert Shapiro in conducting motion analysis studies of the pitching staff of the Chicago White Sox during the era of Tony LaRussa and Dave Duncan and his thesis was a comparison of the fast ball and the slider using a mechanical energy analysis approach.  Bill then moved on to complete his Ph.D. in Exercise Science with a specialization in Biomechanics from Arizona State University in 1989.  His role at Arizona State focused on studies of muscle activation patterns with elite archers with Dr. Philip Martin and his dissertation studied changes in running mechanics during a run to exhaustion at a constant velocity.

Bill’s first faculty appointment was at The University of Texas at Tyler in the Department of Health and Kinesiology where one of his roles was as the faculty adviser to a physical therapy clinic housed in the department.  That role evolved laid the foundation for his move to the Department of Physical Therapy at Saint Louis University (SLU) in 1992.  Bill became Assistant Dean for Research in the School of Allied Health Professions in 1999, later Associate Dean for Research, and then Associate Dean for Administration.  Bill returned to the faculty in March 2012 and his primary role and responsibilities are in the Athletic Training Program, though he will also teach research related courses for the Health Sciences Program and in Health Informatics and Information Management and mentor graduate students and faculty in research.  Dr. Siler will be now teaching MAT 565 Research in Athletic Training and MAT 670 Athletic Training Capstone in addition to MAT 510 Athletic Training Kinesiology, which he has been teaching as an adjunct faculty since Fall 2008.

In addition to these changes in the Department of Physical Therapy and Athletic Training, Dr. Jason Bennett moves to a full-time faculty position in the Program in Physical Therapy and will serve as Co-Course Coordinator for DPT/MAT 430 Therapeutic Modalities with Dr. Anthony Breitbach.  Dr. Kitty Newsham will teach MAT 524 and 525, Musculoskeletal Assessment in Athletic Training I and II.