Dr. Mark Merrick, dean of The University of Toledo College of Health and Human Services, has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice.
An alliance of experienced healthcare scholars and practitioners spanning more than a dozen professional disciplines, the National Academies of Practice advocates for the advancement of interprofessional education, scholarship, research, practice and public policy.
Dr. Mark Merrick, dean of The University of Toledo College of Health and Human Services, has been named a Distinguished Fellow of the National Academies of Practice.
Merrick, who was formally inducted Saturday, April 1, during the organization’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C., was recognized for his national leadership in athletic training education.
“It is a tremendous honor to have my work and contributions be recognized by my peers,” Merrick said, “but it’s also a continued call to action for stepping into leadership roles and pushing forward the agenda that we’re all better working together.”
A certified and licensed athletic trainer and two-time UToledo graduate, Merrick joined the College of Health and Human Services as dean in 2020. He previously taught at Ohio State, Xavier and Indiana State.
Merrick also is a past president of the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, where he led initiatives to overhaul and modernize the educational standards for athletic trainers with a focus on interprofessional practice and the core competencies that all healthcare providers need.
“We magnified the interprofessional standards and better aligned the education around core competencies all healthcare providers need,” he said. “The reality is that no one in healthcare practices in isolation anymore. Healthcare is delivered in a team approach and the better those teams are, the better care we provide.”
Merrick also is a fellow of the National Athletic Trainer’s Association and a member of the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Global Forum on Innovation in Health Professional Education.
Established in 1981 to foster cooperation among healthcare professional societies and advise the government on healthcare policy, the National Academies of Practice is made up of 15 individual academies.
Fellowship is a lifetime honor extended to those who have excelled in their profession and are dedicated to furthering interprofessional practice, scholarship and policy in support of interprofessional care.
