It's my distinct honor and pleasure to present this year's Robert E. Leach Sports Medicine Leadership Award. Dr. Leach was a professor of orthopedic surgery, a head team physician, an AOSSM founding member, the 12th president of AOSSM, and the first editor-in-chief of AJSM. This award is given to an AOSSM member who has provided the most outstanding service and the highest contributions to the field of sports medicine. This year's recipient had a long, rich, and productive journey that started in Crisanza, Italy. Here we see him at Crisanza with his mother. Here we see him demonstrating his exceptional athletic proudness on a bicycle. And here he is attending his uncle's wedding. At the age of eight, his family emigrated to St. Catharines, Ontario. Here we see him in front of his St. Catharines house. He had his formative years in St. Catharines, where he grew. And as he grew, as so often happens, there was a girl. He met her in sixth grade biology, and the biology process has continued as they dated and eventually graduated together from university. And he married Allison on August 15th of 1981. Now while he was in college, it wasn't just biology that he was interested in. He played football. He played football for the University of Western Ontario Mustangs, where he toiled in anonymity as an offensive lineman as a team competed for national championships. He stayed at Western Ontario for his medical school and his residency. Upon completing his residency, he did three fellowships, a sports medicine fellowship with Peter Fowler, a hand trauma fellowship in Verona, Italy, and a foot and ankle fellowship with Ian Alexander. Upon completing his fellowships, he returned to Western Ontario, where he began his orthopedic practice in 1991. Now he didn't just do orthopedics, right? He was the offensive line coach for the Western Mustangs, and they won the national championship in 1994. His journey then took him to the University of Iowa in 2001, where he was a professor of orthopedic surgery, director of the sports medicine program, head team physician, and chair of the student-athlete health care advisory committee. He enjoyed, shared in their on-field competitive arena success, and then his journey took him to Duke University in 2015, where he also enjoyed on-field success. But not only did he have success on the field, but off the field, very productive, very successful. Has over 320 peer-reviewed publications, edited nine textbooks, wrote 70 book chapters, was a reviewer for six journals, trained over 70 fellows, has received 26 research teaching professional awards and recognitions. He's been on the board of ABOS, OREF, AOSSM, ANA, AAOS, and NSACOS. He's a past president of AOSSM and the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine and Erdekes, and he's president-elect for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgery. He's also a family man. He and his wife were blessed with four wonderful children, and as happens, they grow and they have children, and they now have grandchildren. And I'm fascinated by this middle photo. I believe it's some type of Italian secret child-rearing technique that you'll have to talk to him about. He enjoys a glass of wine with his wonderful wife of over 40 years, but also likes to cook. It's a hobby at which he's very accomplished. So on behalf of AOSSM, I want to say thank you for all your thoughtful leadership and contributions. Everyone, please join me in recognizing the 2023 Robert E. Leach Award recipient, someone who's an exceptional clinician, teacher, researcher, leader, colleague, friend, and family man. Annunziato Ned Amendola. Congratulations. Well, what can you say to that, Chris? I mean, that was really above and beyond. I mean, this is one of the greatest honors I've received. And you know, I'm humbled, I'm honored, and it's really a team effort. I didn't do all those things by myself. It was always with people around me. You know, I had a great family, and great partners, great fellows, you know, great residents, and it's been a great ride. I really enjoyed every part of that. Seems like I did a lot, but it just happens. You know, you just work with people, you collaborate, you know, work on projects, and it really represents this whole organization, you know, what we do here. Great group of people, great meeting, and you know, it's really one of the meetings that my wife, Allison, likes to come to, because we just, you know, very, very good group. We all have, you know, the same things in mind, same philosophy of trying to do the right thing. So, anyways, this is a great honor. Thank you very much.

Robert E. Leach Sports Medicine Leadership Award

Annunziato Ned Amendola

orthopedic surgery

sports medicine

research