The Center for the Female Athlete at Dayton Children’s is led by a group of physicians, specialists, dietitians and athletic trainers dedicated to the current and future health and wellness of the female athlete. Each caregiver plays an important role on the team, providing total wellness of the young female athlete and the unique situations that affect them.

Name: Jamie Broz

Role on the center for the female athlete team: Manager

Why is it important to have your specialty as part of the center for the female athlete team?

Having an Athletic Trainer on the team is very helpful in relating to the athlete’s needs, and concerns.  We are typically engaging with the athlete’s in their moments and can help identify what needs to be addressed for them to reach their goals.  I personally have experience with all types, ages, and levels of athletes and can help navigate their path to get the help they need.  I can also provide care that includes manual treatment, functional assessment, and injury prevention as they return to their sport and will benefit them along with the other aspects of the program.   

What are your goals for the program?

To reach each athlete on their level, to join them where they are and help them get to where they want to go athletically, socially, emotionally, and beyond.

What do you want female athletes to know about the program? 

Not many programs are specifically designed for the adolescent female athlete, but this one is and even more so to the individual adolescent female athlete. 

The athletes are the experts on what they are feeling and accomplishing now, we need to listen to them and offer our expertise for them to incorporate into their methods. 

The Center for the Female Athlete at Dayton Children’s is led by a group of physicians, specialists, dietitians and athletic trainers dedicated to the current and future health and wellness of the female athlete. Each caregiver plays an important role on the team, providing total wellness of the young female athlete and the unique situations that affect them.

Name: Lora Scott, MD

Role on the center for the female athlete team: I am trained in General Pediatrics and Sports Medicine. My role is to manage medical conditions and minor injuries in young athletes. In the center for the female athlete, I usually treat medical problems and injuries which occur when female athletes have a mismatch between how they are eating and how they are exercising. This often impacts their menstrual health and bone health, as well as exercise tolerance and energy levels.

Why is it important to have your specialty as part of the center for the female athlete team?

I help connect the dots between all the other individuals involved with the team. For example, we may see an athlete who is currently out for injury. Our team looks at how her nutritional support, exercise habits, and coping skills are helping or hurting her recovery, plus how they could have contributed to the original injury. My role is to look at how all of these fit together and whether or not her body is fully supporting her athletic demands. I look into things such as vitamin D levels, iron, hormone levels, and bone density. After chronic mismatches in training demands and nutrition, these are often abnormal. We treat these abnormalities and help the girls correct what caused them. Our goal is that the girls learn how to equip their bodies and minds for their sports demands before they leave the program.

What are your goals for the program?

For each individual, we want to empower these young athletes to address and treat medical and psychological issues which may otherwise prevent her from meeting her goals. We want her to realize that her needs and her teammates needs may not be the same, and that’s ok! For the community, we want to build awareness of conditions which uniquely affect female athletes.

What do you want female athletes to know about the program?

We understand that injuries are just the tip of the iceberg, and that everything under the surface needs to be addressed in order to prevent future injuries. We are here for everything under the surface as well. Training habits, coping skills, nutritional challenges, menstrual health, and bone health all contribute to injuries, whether they already happened or could happen in the future. We address all of these.

The Center for the Female Athlete at Dayton Children’s is led by a group of physicians, specialists, dietitians and athletic trainers dedicated to the current and future health and wellness of the female athlete. Each caregiver plays an important role on the team, providing total wellness of the young female athlete and the unique situations that affect them.

Name: Linh-Han Ikehara

Role on the center for the female athlete team: Behavioral Health Therapist

Why is it important to have your specialty as part of the center for the female athlete team?
Now more than ever, it is important that our youth, particularly our teen female athletes see emotional health as part of our overall health and wellbeing. Together, the two promote optimal wellness and resilience in facing challenges.

The two systems of mind and body are intimately connected and reap reciprocal benefits of affecting each other.

“It is helpful to think of an athlete with depression, anxiety or another mental health concern as “injured” – just as you would of a student athlete who has a physical or medical problem that requires patience for recovery.”

As with physical injuries, mental health problems may, by their severity, affect athletic performance and limit or even preclude training and competition until successfully managed and treated. In other cases, teen female athletes often will experience depression or anxiety as they struggle to cope with an injury placing them at increased risk or re-injuring. It is important that our teen athletes see their wellbeing a priority that enables them to enjoy the sport, as well as perform.  

What are your goals for the program?
My vision is for our teen female athletes to recognize and utilize their personal strengths that will enable them to be healthy and confident individuals and athletes. These strengths are the catalyst to transforming negative self-beliefs into positive and realistic ones and the development of stress management. My focus is to promote our girls’ overall wellness and empower them to see that their self-worth is connected to who they are as a person, rather than their sports performance.  

What do you want female athletes to know about the program?
“She can do this“ is our motto. That means our girls don’t have to have all the answers to what’s going on with them, but they can work with the team to identify the areas for continued growth and make intentional plans in the development of a healthy mindset and habits.

One final thought
Although mainly an athlete in high school, I continue to strive to keep myself and my family active on a daily basis through trail running, biking, and hiking. It brings me joy to see my son experiencing the benefits of developing healthy habits and enjoying himself. I see now how exercise has a positive impact on the emotional well-being for myself and others. I am honored to have the opportunity to empower our teen female athletes to also invest in themselves. 

The Center for the Female Athlete at Dayton Children’s is led by a group of physicians, specialists, dietitians and athletic trainers dedicated to the current and future health and wellness of the female athlete. Each caregiver plays an important role on the team, providing total wellness of the young female athlete and the unique situations that affect them.

Name: Maria Brumfield, MS, RDN, LD

Role on the center for the female athlete team: Registered Dietitian

Why is it important to have your specialty as part of the center for the female athlete team?

Spreading the message that food is fuel can allow the female athlete to nourish their mind and body and allow them to adequately fuel for their unique energy needs. Working with females to share the joy of nutrition and discuss ways that we can allow them to embrace the power of nutrition to fuel them and their unique needs, is the most rewarding feeling as a provider.

Viewing food as fuel can allow the female athlete to take charge of their wellbeing to nourish their mind, their bodies and fuel them for all of their life goals — sports and beyond.

What are your goals for the program?

As a registered dietitian my goal is to allow female athletes to embrace the power of nutrition. My goal is to allow the girls to become as excited about fueling their body, as they are about competing in their sport. My goal is to share the message that the female has unique nutrition needs, and just as going to practice is a part of training, adequate nutrition is, too! My goal is for females to become excited about embracing the power of all food groups and embracing their unique nutrition needs, as a whole, while promoting their overall well being. I want to empower the female to take charge in having the knowledge to adequately fuel their bodies. 

What do you want female athletes to know about the program?

As a former high school, college and post collegiate athlete, I want female athletes to know that the opportunity to participate in the center for female athlete at Dayton Children’s is a special opportunity. To have endless resources at your finger tips to promote well being, confidence and to empower is second to none. I want female athletes to know that they are special in so many ways, on and off the field, court, course, etc. “She can do this!”

One final thought

I am a former high school, college and post collegiate athlete. Being a female athlete myself, I hope to connect with female athletes in the program about fueling, and being a female athlete. I have done sports my entire life, I hope having that personal connection to the female athlete allows our female athletes to feel the support that this amazing team has for them, as the team is female-led!