Kathryn Smith ’22 Excelling on the ‘Leading Edge’ of Orthopedic Medicine
Just four years after graduating from Southwestern University, kinesiology major Kathryn Smith ’22 is on the cusp of becoming a Surgical Athletic Trainer.
From physical and occupational therapists to doctors of medicine and osteopathy, Southwestern University’s Lillian Nelson Pratt Chair in Science and Professor of Kinesiology Scott McLean has seen his students go on to succeed in a wide variety of careers across the fields of science and healthcare. However, when Kathryn Smith ’22 shared the details of her role as an Orthopedic Athletic Training Resident, McLean was blown away.
“To say this is unusual probably doesn’t do it enough justice,” he said. “She is on the leading edge of the field right now.”
Just four years after graduating from Southwestern a semester early, Smith is working alongside world-class orthopedic surgeons at the Emory Healthcare Atlanta Hawks Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Complex in Brookhaven, Georgia. Nearing the end of a year-long residency program that has trained her to become a Surgical Athletic Trainer, Smith is involved in nearly every step of patient care for a variety of orthopedic procedures.
Working under three orthopedic surgeons, she plays a crucial role both in the clinic and in the operating room. As the first face that most patients see during their initial physical exam, Smith helps review MRI results and provide valuable education about each patient’s upcoming procedure. In the operating room, she is the surgeon’s first assistant, overseeing surgical setup, preparing grafts for ligament repairs, suturing incisions, applying dressings, and fitting braces and slings.
“What I like so much about athletic training is that it is such a broad field,” she said. “It is such a cool way of applying my skills.”
In the clinic, Smith plays a hands-on role in helping patients get back to 100% after surgery, overseeing recovery, answering questions, and addressing concerns that may come up along the way. During what is the most personal portion of her role, she gets to build relationships while seeing first-hand how the body heals, allowing her patients to enjoy life again.
“Post-op appointments are my favorite part of this job,” Smith said. “People have this idea of doctors’ offices as hustling and moving back and forth, but it really is the long game for elective surgeries. We can build the relationship with patients before their surgery and totally explain to them what the process is going to look like, then walk with them the whole way through. It’s very rewarding.”
Every March, the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) celebrates National Athletic Training Month to raise awareness about the critical role athletic trainers play in patient safety and injury prevention. This year, NATA’s slogan for National Athletic Training Month is “Care You Can Count On,” a mantra that Smith embodies when interacting with patients.
“As an athletic trainer, I don’t have to bounce back between 40 patients in a day. I get to sit down with eight patients for an hour each and really walk them through what they’re feeling,” she said. “Surgery is surgery. It’s painful. I know they’re miserable. I know that this was the worst few days of their life, but I can tell them, ‘Next week, you’re going to feel much better. Then the week after that, you’re going to feel that much better. When you come back in three months, this situation is going to look completely different.’”
This spring, Smith has her sights set on a role within Emory Healthcare working under an orthopedic surgeon who specializes in total knee and hip replacement surgery, a shift from the more common, often sports-related, knee and shoulder injuries that she has seen throughout most of her medical career.
Smith’s journey toward becoming a Surgical Athletic Trainer ultimately began during her very first visit to Southwestern as a senior in high school. With an older sister who also attended SU, and considering the University’s campus is only 75 miles from her hometown of Waco, a visit to Georgetown almost seemed like a formality for Smith. Her desire to attend Southwestern was solidified during that first visit, where she was introduced to McLean.
“Southwestern immediately felt like home. I felt so welcomed from that very first moment,” Smith said. “Dr. McLean really took me under and said, ‘This is going to be a place where you can thrive. This is going to be a place where you can be a big fish, do all the things that you want to do, and explore all of the realms that you want to explore.’”
McLean’s premonition was correct. After teaching her during his first-year seminar course, McLean saw Smith’s passion for kinesiology take off in her sophomore year.
“It was in her second year [Motor Learning and Motor Control course] where things really came into focus,” he recalls. “It was a class where we had a good group of students, but she elevated the class because she was so engaged and so willing to ask questions. She was not shy about challenging me. That actually raised my teaching. She made me a better teacher.”
Outside of the classroom, Smith pursued opportunities that further fueled her desire to help people recover from injury. Serving as a student athletic trainer for the Southwestern Pirates football team throughout her time at SU, Smith was able to build relationships with student-athletes while learning about injury rehabilitation and how to treat certain injuries. During her junior and senior years, she led rehab programs and learned even more about the field.
“I was able to see what that job really looked like,” Smith said. “It was a very good way to learn a very broad set of skills. I think the lifestyle of an athletic trainer is so interesting. You work with people really closely. It’s their health, but it’s also their life, so it’s vitally important.”
With an intimate understanding of the role, Smith explored pursuing a career in athletic training after graduating from Southwestern in December 2021. This search led her to TCU’s Master of Science in Athletic Training (MAT) program in Fort Worth. The two-year graduate program prepares students to become multi-skilled healthcare professionals who are trained to assist physicians in a variety of healthcare settings.
“I always wanted to be in orthopedic surgery, but I didn’t want to go to med school,” she said. “I decided to put that on the backburner and just pursue a career in healthcare. I went to athletic training school because I knew that I loved it, and I knew that I would be good at it, but I also knew that it’s not what I wanted to do forever.”
During her time at TCU, Smith was encouraged by an instructor to pursue a residency program following grad school. The program at Emory Healthcare emerged as the perfect fit, allowing Smith to pursue her interest in the operating room while maintaining a work-life balance that fit her lifestyle.
“It felt like the answer was always there, but I just discovered it at that moment,” Smith said. “I love the education side of athletic training, but when I found out about the residency, it all clicked and made sense of all the things that I want to do. I can educate patients and make their lives easier, and still maintain a life of my own outside of work.”
In addition to her MAT, Smith has earned certifications as a Licensed Athletic Trainer (LAT), Certified Athletic Trainer (ATC), and Certified Orthopaedic Technologist (OTC) during her post-graduate studies. Looking back, Smith credits her time at Southwestern with helping set the stage for success in grad school and beyond.
“Southwestern definitely taught me so much of the foundation of what I learned in grad school,” she said. “With my kinesiology capstone project, and my research methods class, I knew how to do things that other people in my graduate class didn’t know how to do. I definitely felt like I had a leg up when it came to learning styles and the education that I already brought to the table.”
The hands-on training that she received during her three and a half years as an athletic trainer on campus also proved to be invaluable.
“I got a lot of repetition when it came to building therapeutic exercise routines, which directly correlated with what I was doing in grad school,” she said. “Having that experience was extremely beneficial.”
Throughout her graduate and professional journey, Smith has continued to maintain a relationship with Southwestern. McLean has welcomed her back to campus for speaking engagements, where she helps inspire and educate students – and professors – through her story of what can be accomplished with a kinesiology degree from Southwestern.
“When she got into her graduate program, I was super excited, but when she told me about what she was doing in grad school, and, more importantly, in her residency, I about fell out of my chair,” McLean said. “I had no idea this is what athletic trainers could do. I knew the field was evolving, but she is on the cutting edge of athletic training.”
Southwestern University published this content on March 16, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on March 16, 2026 at 15:53 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]
