Announcement of Cal Football Strength and Conditioning Program Review

The UC Berkeley administration issued the following message on Nov. 7, 2016:

The University of California, Berkeley has launched a comprehensive, independent review of Cal football’s strength and conditioning program. The review is the result of Chancellor Nicholas Dirks’ decision to commission an evaluation that will ensure the strength and conditioning program goes beyond contemporary intercollegiate standards to become a national leader when it comes to maximizing the health and safety of Berkeley’s student athletes.

Two co-reviewers will lead the endeavor:

  • Elizabeth Joy, MD, MPH, is a former collegiate student-athlete and the current President of the American College of Sports Medicine, the largest sports medicine and exercise science organization in the world. In addition, Dr. Joy is the Medical Director for Community Health and Clinical Nutrition at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City and a faculty member at the University of Utah. 
  • The Hon. Wayne D. Brazil (Ret.) served as Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for 25 years. A former faculty member at Berkeley Law, Judge Brazil’s past service to the University includes his chairing the Police Review Board during the period it examined the massive student demonstrations of 2008-2009. Under his leadership the Police Review Board produced a widely praised review that facilitated significant reforms in how the campus responds to student protests. 

“We are very fortunate to have working with us two extraordinary individuals who, together, bring the exact sort of expertise we need,” said Chancellor Dirks. “Dr. Joy, by virtue of her academic and clinical experience, as well as her involvement with intercollegiate athletics, is a nationally renowned subject-area expert. Judge Brazil knows exactly how to organize and implement an effective review whose primary objective is to support and promote constructive change. There is nothing more important than the health and well being of our students, and I am confident that we have the right people leading this effort.”

Dr. Joy and Judge Brazil have finalized their planning, and initial, introductory conversations have been held with key personnel from Cal Athletics. During the first phase of the review, which is now underway and will last through the end of the football season, Dr. Joy and Judge Brazil will be collecting, organizing, and reviewing pertinent information from the scientific literature, professional organizations, the University, and peer institutions. Then, in January, the co-reviewers plan on spending a significant amount of time on campus observing the program and conducting interviews with strength and conditioning coaches, sport coaches, athletic trainers, physicians and other medical staff, administrators and the student athletes that these professionals serve.

“The timing could not be better. First, it is during the off-season that a collegiate football team really focuses on strength and conditioning activities, and that will allow us to observe first-hand how the program’s philosophy, practices and principles are put in to action,” said Judge Brazil. “During this same period we also intend to gather the essential information, ideas, and input we need from student-athletes, coaches, trainers, and medical staff who are connected to the team.”

In January, between the two phases of the review, Dr. Joy has been invited to participate in the Inter-Association Summit on the Organization and Administration of Athletic Health Care Services in the College/University Environment (sponsored by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the NCAA), which aims to identify best practices that will allow intercollegiate athletics programs to provide the highest level of health care to their student-athletes. 

“Like our project, the summit will be forward looking and the advances that will be discussed and explored will surely enhance the value of the work we are doing for the campus,” said Dr. Joy.

The reviewers expect to complete their work by early spring, at which point they will share their draft report with both campus and Cal Athletics leadership for review and feedback. The final version will be released to the public.

“We see this as a significant opportunity to take a good program and make it even better,” said Athletic Director Mike Williams. “This effort is completely consistent with our commitment to provide our student athletes with all they need to perform at the highest possible levels on and off the field of play.”

Co-Reviewers Biographies          

Elizabeth A. Joy, MD, MPH, FACSM                                         

Dr. Joy is the Medical Director for Community Health and Clinical Nutrition at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City. Dr. Joy practices Family Medicine and Sports Medicine at the Salt Lake Clinic LiVe Well Center. She is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Utah in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. She completed a Family Medicine Residency and Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She completed her Master’s Degree in Public Health at the University of Utah. Dr. Joy is currently President of the Female Athlete Triad Coalition, and is the President of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) – having formerly served on the Board of Trustees, and as Vice President. She held 2 terms of office on the Board of Trustees for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. She is on the Editorial Board for The Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, and is Associate Editor for Current Sports Medicine Reports. She serves on the Exercise Is Medicine Steering Committee for the ACSM, and chairs the EIM Clinical Practice Committee. She developed and directed the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Utah from 1998 until 2011. She has authored many journal articles and textbook chapters on a wide variety of topics in sports and exercise medicine. Her research and advocacy interests lie in the areas of physical activity assessment and promotion, the Female Athlete Triad, sports injury prevention, and diabetes prevention. Dr. Joy is married to Dr. Jim Macintyre, and they have 2 children. 

Wayne D. Brazil, Ph.D., M.A., J.D

Wayne Brazil served as Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for 25 years.  In that capacity, his judicial responsibilities extended across the full range of the Court’s work, civil and criminal, pretrial and trial.  He published scores of opinions in a wide range of doctrinal areas.  He also led the teams of judges and lawyers who designed, implemented, and administered the Court’s path-breaking Alternative Dispute Resolution Program, which for two decades has been widely recognized as the best in the country.  During his tenure on the bench, Judge Brazil served on the separate national committees (appointed by the Chief Justice of the United States) responsible from assessing and improving the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the Federal Rules of Evidence. Before beginning his career on the federal bench, Judge Brazil was a tenured member of the faculty at Hastings College of the Law.  After retiring from the bench in 2009, he joined the faculty at Berkeley Law (formerly Boalt Hall) as the School’s first full-time “Professor From Practice.”  While on the law faculty, his service to the campus included chairing the Police Review Board during the period it examined the massive student demonstrations of 2008-2009. Since 2011, Judge Brazil has been affiliated with JAMS, Inc, the largest private provider of dispute resolution services in the United States.  He is retained by private parties as an arbitrator, a mediator, a case evaluator, or a special master. In addition to opinions, Judge Brazil has published four books and dozens of law review articles.  His scholarship, which has been cited extensively in support of multiple changes in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, has included empirical studies of civil discovery and (separately) of judicial roles in settling civil cases.  He also has written extensively about innovative roles of special masters and about the public policy and practical considerations that support public provision of alternative dispute resolution services. Judge Brazil’s contributions to improving the system of civil justice have been recognized in awards from the American Bar Association, CPR Dispute Resolution Institute (NY), the American College of Civil Trial Mediators, the Mediation Society of Northern California, and the California Dispute Resolution Council. Education: Ph.D., Harvard University,  (1975); Modern European and American Intellectual History, American Political and Social History; J.D., University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law (1975); M.A., Harvard University (1967); American History; B.A., Stanford University (1966), History.