Department Chair
Gary McIlvain, EdD, LAT/ATC
School of Health and Movement Sciences, Professor, Athletic Training
Phone: 304-696-2930
Office Location: Gullickson Hall F Level, GH 204A
E-mail: mcilvain2@marshall.edu
Gary McIlvain, EdD, LAT/ATC, serves as the College of Health Professions Associate Dean of Student Affairs, School of Health and Movement Sciences Department Chair and Associate Professor at Marshall University. He received his Bachelors of Science from Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, Masters of Science degree from Middle Tennessee State University and completed his Doctorate in Kinesiology and Health Promotion at the University of Kentucky. He started at Marshall in the fall of 1999 and has taught in the CAATE accredited athletic training education program serving as clinical coordinator and program director. Dr. McIlvain’s research interests are in injury prevention, specifically in regard to athletic injury prevention.
Athletic Training
William (Zach) Garrett, DHSc, ATC, Program Director
William (Zach) Garrett, DHSc, ATC, Program DirectorSchool of Health and Movement Sciences, Associate Professor, Athletic Training
Phone: 304-696-2924
Office Location: Gullickson Hall F Level, GH 203E
E-mail: garrett46@marshall.edu
Dr. Zach Garrett is a native of Clarksburg, WV and currently serves as the Program Director for Marshall University’s Athletic Training Program. From 2012-2019, Zach served as the Clinical Education Coordinator for the Athletic Training Program. He’s a proud Son of Marshall with an undergraduate degree in Athletic Training and dual master’s degrees in Exercise Science and Health Care Administration. Zach completed his Doctor of Health Science degree at Nova Southeastern University in the fall of 2016.
Zach has a variety of experiences in the field of athletic training while practicing in high school, collegiate, professional, and clinical settings. He currently practices at Riverside Physical Therapy part-time. His research interests include injury prevention, concussion education and prevention, clinical education, and professional ethics. He is currently conducting collaborative research evaluating forces generated during tackling in rugby and football. Dr. Garrett has also been awarded the NFL/AHA Back to Sports grant, which is a funded program that provides parents and coaches free CPR training and injury prevention and education for youth athletes. He serves on the West Virginia Athletic Trainers’ Association Executive Board as the President-Elect and was formally the Secretary. During his time on the executive committee, Zach has been an advocate for obtaining athletic training licensure, promoting the NATA Safe Schools Sports Award, and served as the WVATA Annual Symposium planner for two years. Since 2012, Dr. Garrett has served as the club adviser for the Marshall University Athletic Trainers’ Association, which provides students the opportunity to network professionally, fund raise, socialize with students interested in sports medicine, and provide community service to the tri-state area. In 2016, Zach began serving on the NATA Committee on Professional Ethics which educates and ensures the enforcement of the NATA Code of Ethics. In 2017, Zach was awarded WVATA Athletic Training Educator of the Year and was selected to participate in the NATA Leadership Academy. In fall of 2018, Dr. Garrett was selected to participate in the inaugural class of the John Marshall Leadership Fellows Program. Zach currently resides in Huntington, WV with his wife Kathryn and daughter Sofia.
Jenni Johnson, ATC, Clinical Coordinator
School of Health and Movement Sciences, Assistant Professor, Athletic Training
Phone: 304-696-2929
Office Location: Gullickson Hall F Level, GH 203D
E-mail: johnsonjen@marshall.edu
Jenni Johnson joined the Marshall Athletic Training staff as an Assistant Professor/Clinical Coordinator in August 2019. She completed her undergraduate studies at West Virginia University with a degree in Physical Education/Athletic Training. In her time at WVU she worked with the football, swimming & diving, men’s tennis, and gymnastics teams. Following her time at WVU, she earned her MS in Health & Wellness – Health Sciences from the University of Kentucky. While at UK, she provided coverage for the football, women’s basketball and gymnastics teams. She also completed a post graduate certification in sports counseling from the University of California of Pennsylvania.
Prior to joining the faculty at Marshall, she was employed as an Associate Head Athletic Trainer and a faculty member in the Athletic Training Education Program at the University of Charleston. Her primary roles outside of the classroom involved working with the baseball and women’s soccer programs while providing secondary coverage of men’s & women’s tennis and men’s & women’s golf. She also served as mentor in the first-year program to transition new students to college and campus life.
Jenni was also previously employed as the Director of Rehabilitation at WorldWide Chiropractic & Sports Medicine for 14 years as well as the Head Athletic Trainer for Ripley High School. Other recent positions have included being the Athletic Trainer for Revolution Gymnastics and Flip Fest Gymnastics Summer Camps. She also served as the Athletic Trainer for the Level 9 National Gymnastics Championships in Charleston and as the Athletic Trainer for the WV Lightning and Rockets Semi-Professional Football teams.
Jenni is a member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA), Mid-Athletic Athletic Trainers’ Association (MAATA), and West Virginia Athletic Trainers’ Association (WVATA), where she is currently the acting President. Under her tenure as President, she led the efforts to obtain state legislation to provide licensure for athletic trainers in the state of West Virginia, which will become state law in January 2020. She has also been the Chairperson of the Governmental Affairs Committee and is a current member of the West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission (WVSSAC) Sports Medicine Committee. Jenni has received many national recognitions for her efforts throughout her career. She was recently awarded Most Distinguished AT for 2025 by MAATA and was the first female to be inducted into the WVATA Hall of Fame in 2023. Jenni was awarded with the 2019 Board of Certification (BOC) Public Advocacy award and in 2013 she was awarded the Athletic Trainer Service Award from the National Athletic Trainer’s Association (NATA).
Mark Timmons, Ph.D., ATC
School of Health and Movement Sciences, Professor, Athletic Training
Phone: 304-696-2925
Office Location: Gullickson Hall F Level, GH 206A
E-mail: timmonsm@marshall.edu
Dr. Mark Timmons, Ph.D., ATC, is a Professor of Athletic Training within the Marshall University School of Health and Movement Sciences. His research career to date has investigated the mechanisms leading to the development of upper extremity pain, injury, and dysfunction. His research and clinical focus is to improve understanding and treatment of patients with shoulder pain by investigating the effects of repeated arm motion on shoulder and arm function. Dr. Timmons’ research interests include scapular kinematics, rotator cuff injury and treatment, upper extremity function, athletic training for the tactical athlete/military, performing arts athletic training, diagnostic ultrasound, ultrasound speckle tracking, electromyography, electromagnetic motion tracking, and tendon strain. Prospective students are encouraged to contact Dr. Timmons about research opportunities and paid graduate assistantships.
Prior to his position at Marshall, Dr. Timmons worked as an Athletic Trainer for the University of Chicago. He completed a Master of Science in Kinesiology from the University of Michigan and received a Ph.D. from the University of Toledo in Exercise Science and Biomechanics in 2007. He then held a position as a visiting assistant professor for two years at the University of Toledo. In 2009, Dr. Timmons was selected for an Interprofessional Polytrauma and Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation Research Fellowship. During this fellowship, he researched the mechanisms leading to shoulder pain in United States Military Veterans at the Richmond Veterans Health Administration Medical Center and the Department of Physical Therapy at Virginia Commonwealth University, in Richmond, Virginia. Currently, Dr. Timmons holds a faculty position at Marshall University, where he teaches in the Professional level and Post-Graduate Athletic Training Education programs. Additionally, he serves as a Co-Director of the Center for Wellness in the Arts and supervises the clinical and research activities of the Military Athletic Training Program. He is the primary contact for students and collaborators interested in working within the Performing Arts & Tactical Athlete Research Lab located in Gullickson Hall.
Biomechanics
Suzanne Konz, Ph.D., ATC, CSCS
Program Director, Undergraduate and Graduate Biomechanics
School of Health and Movement Sciences, Professor, Biomechanics
Phone: 304-696-2926
Office Location: Gullickson Hall F Level, GH 208A
E-mail: konz@marshall.edu
Suzanne M. Konz, Ph.D., ATC, CSCS, is a Professor of Biomechanics and currently serves as the Program Director of Strength and Conditioning and as the Program Director of Biomechanics for the School of Health and Movement Sciences. A native of Iowa, Dr. Konz received a Ph.D. in Exercise Science from Brigham Young University, a Master of Science in Kinesiology from Indiana University – Bloomington, and a Bachelor of Science from Iowa Wesleyan College. Suzanne has worked as a certified athletic trainer and certified strength and conditioning specialist in clinical, high school, collegiate, and professional athletic settings for over 25 years. Suzanne was appointed the chair of the NATA’s Committee on Professional Ethics (COPE) in 2019 having served as COPE member for nine previous years. She also serves as the WVATA’s Governmental Affairs Committee chair assisting the WVATA in advocating for athlete health and safety in the State of West Virginia. Her research interests include concussion, sports performance as it relates to injury risk and prevention, hammer throw technique, and equipment reliability. Dr. Konz’s concussion research surrounds low load, high-frequency activities and the effect on brain health. The concussion research group was awarded a NASA Director’s Discretionary Grant. She is involved with USA Track & Field as a member of the Sports Science Biomechanics group, specializing in the throwing events and is specifically assigned to hammer throw. She has worked with this group assisting Olympic caliber athletes improve performance since 2003. The USATF Sport Science group uses the latest technology to provide instant feedback as well as 3-D analysis of technique kinematics and kinetics. Dr. Konz was awarded the C. Harmon Brown award in 2019 by USATF to acknowledge the benefit her work has contributed to the athletes and coaches of USATF at the national level. Suzanne also has worked the NFL Combine performing isokinetic testing on NFL prospects since 2009.
Find out more about Dr. Konz in this 2015 Marshall Minute video.
Steven Leigh, Ph.D., AMInstP
Steven Leigh, Ph.D., AMInstPSchool of Health and Movement Sciences, Associate Professor, Biomechanics
Phone: 304-696-5405
Office Location: Gullickson Hall F Level, GH 208B
E-mail: leighs@marshall.edu
Dr. Steven Leigh, PhD, AMInstP is an Associate Professor of Biomechanics with the School of Health and Movement Sciences at Marshall University. He studied physics and sports science at Loughborough University in the UK and then competed his doctoral work in biomechanics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He analyzed the throwing motion of elite javelin and discus throwers for USA track and field to help them improve their performance and reduce their risk to injury. Steve is interested in the complex interrelationships between technique, athletic performance, and injury, and wants to better understand how people’s perceptual ability affects the production of precise and coordinated movement patterns. He has investigated how court positioning affects basketball players’ shooting movement patterns, and how visualization and spatial awareness training can improve the quality of movements made by basketball and soccer players. Steve is also interested in finding ways to apply biomechanical analysis techniques outside of the lab setting. He is collaborating with clinicians to explore the use or wearable technology and smartphone cameras to provide real-time feedback to athletes to improve their proprioception and the quality of their movement patterns.
Exercise Science
Robert Powell, Ph.D., CEP, CDE, CSCS
Program Director, Undergraduate and Graduate Exercise Science
School of Health and Movement Sciences, Associate Professor, Exercise Science
Office Location: Henderson Center C Level, HC 2012
Phone: 304-696-2513
E-mail: powellro@marshall.edu
Robert Powell, PhD, is an Associate Professor within the School of Health and Movement Sciences. Dr. Powell also serves as Program Director of Exercise Science and Director of the Diabetes and Cardiometabolic Exercise Center and the Human Performance Lab, located on Marshall’s campus. Alongside these roles at Marshall, he is the Lead Exercise Physiologist and Diabetes Sport Coach with Diabetes Training Camp, working with adult and teen athletes (national and international) to manage their type 1 or type 2 diabetes through fitness and sport. Also, in 2020, Dr. Powell created his LLC, Powell Fitness Solutions, where he does coaching and consulting for youth and adult athletes for fitness, sport, and health. Prior to his time at Marshall, he spent 11 years in the University of Pittsburgh Diabetes Institute as an exercise physiologist and diabetes care and education specialist. Throughout that time, he engaged in both clinical and community-based research programs throughout southwestern Pennsylvania relating to diabetes, obesity and exercise and later worked in the primary care setting as a diabetes specialist. Dr. Powell received both his PhD and M.S. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Pitsburgh and obtained his B.S. in Health Science from Slippery Rock University. Dr. Powell also holds the American College of Sports Medicine- Clinical Exercise Physiologist (CEP) certification, the National Strength and Conditioning Association- Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) certification and the Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist (CDCES) certification. His primary research interests involve type 1 diabetes and sports performance, exercise/ sport assessment for training and conditioning and clinical management of diabetes for cardiometabolic health and fitness.
Brandon Jones, Ph.D., CSCS
School of Health and Movement Sciences, Assistant Professor, Exercise Science
Office Location: HC 2015, on the C Level of the Henderson Center
Phone: 304-696-2824
E-mail: jonesbra@marshall.edu
Brandon Jones, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Exercise Science and Field Supervisor of Strength and Conditioning at Marshall University. Dr. Jones received his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology at the University of Northern Colorado. His research interests include strength and power training, rock climbing physiology, hormone therapy, skeletal muscle adaptations, myosin heavy chain shifts, chemotherapy treatment and muscle function. He is a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and has worked as a personal trainer in multiple gyms over the past 10 years. As a faculty member in the School of Health and Movement Sciences, Dr. Jones strives to increase physical activity and health in the Huntington community.