Sports Medicine

Dr. Mitchell was born and raised in Orchard Lake, Michigan. She later completed her undergraduate training at Saint Mary's of Notre Dame where she served as captain and president of the Notre Dame/Saint Mary's Irish Dance team. This love of dance has fostered her passion in dance medicine. She completed her medical school training at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences and residency in Family Medicine at McLaren Oakland in Pontiac, Michigan. She is excited to have the opportunity to continue her education at VCOM/Virginia Tech Sports Medicine Fellowship and looks forward to continuing her skills in osteopathic medicine.

Dr. Kozar is board certified in neuromusculoskeletal medicine (NMM-OMM), sports medicine and family medicine, and was conferred a Fellow of American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine in 2009. He spends 60% of his time practicing neuromusculoskeletal medicine exclusively, with a 50-50 mix of sports medicine and acute and chronic pain management. In addition, he is a registered musculoskeletal sonographer.

In his academic role, he serves as VCOM’s Program Director for the ONMM3 Residency, where he is also Professor, OMM & Sports Medicine and teaches in the PPC-OMM course for students. His role has moved more to a clinician researcher and has several ongoing intramurally and extramurally funded projects.

Dr. Kozar’s interests lie in neuromuscular control of functional rehabilitative approaches, diagnostic and therapeutic uses of musculoskeletal ultrasound (MSK), and osteopathic manipulative treatment, as well as regenerative therapies. Dr. Kozar has frequently lectured nationally on these topics at the annual conferences of American Academy of Osteopathy (AAO), American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM), American Osteopathic Academy Sports Medicine (AOASM), American Association of Orthopaedic Medicine (AAOM), and National Procedures Institute (NPI).

A teacher of MSK ultrasound with the group MSKUS.com since 2009, Dr. Kozar teaches diagnostic and cadaver injection ultrasound courses seven or eight times per year nationally and internationally. Prior to joining VCOM in fall 2015, he was in private practice since 2002 with Valley Sports Physicians in Avon, CT and was a Team Physician for The University of Hartford and area high schools.

• Sports Medicine Fellowship
• ONMM3 Residency

Education

Dr. Brolinson is Vice Provost for Research, Professor of Family and Sports Medicine and the Discipline Chair for Sports Medicine at the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine and Team Physician for Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech.  He is the director of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship at VCOM and Virginia Tech. He is also a volunteer physician for the United States Olympic Committee and a team physician for the United States Ski Team and was head team physician for the Freestyle Ski Team at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Torino, Italy. He was also named to the medical staff for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, BC and was medical director of the USOC performance services center. He obtained his undergraduate training from the University of Missouri at Columbia earning a degree in biology.  A 1983 graduate of the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, Dr. Brolinson is board certified in family practice and holds subspecialty certification in sports medicine.  Prior to coming to Virginia, he was the co-director of the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship training program at The Toledo Hospital in Toledo, Ohio and Team Physician for University of Toledo.  He has extensive experience in undergraduate and post-graduate medical education. Dr. Brolinson has served on the boards of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine, the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and the Midwest Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine. He is a past president of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine.  Dr. Brolinson is a fellow of the American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine, the American Academy of Family Practice and the American College of Osteopathic Family Practice.  In 1997 he was named outstanding young physician in Ohio by the Ohio State Medical Association. He is a former associate editor for the Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine and a former member of the editorial board of the Physician and Sports Medicine.  He is former section editor for Competitive Sports and Pain Management in the journal Current Sports Medicine Reports. Dr. Brolinson is a frequent speaker at national sports medicine meetings and often teaches didactic laboratory sessions on the use of osteopathic manipulative therapy for athletic injuries. Dr. Brolinson is a contributing author in the latest edition of Foundations for Osteopathic Medicine and he has published several scholarly articles and book chapters in the area of sport and exercise medicine. His research interests have included exercise and immune function, exercise and bone mineral density, mild traumatic brain injury in sports, impact biomechanics, human factors in auto safety, sports performance and manipulation and other health and disease prevention related topics. 

Education

Dr. Aldret’s sustained research track is in athletic performance and post-eligibility health outcomes. He has published work on the interaction of sleep and mental health on in-game performance and strength measures. Currently, Dr. Aldret is collaborating with researchers at UNC-Greensboro and the NCAA on follow-up health care for athletes and the consequences of athletic participant in collision sports on post-competition measures of job satisfaction and activities of daily living. Dr. Aldret’s has previously published research in Frontiers in Neurology on novel biomarkers of concussion in hockey players. His additional research interests are best practices in athletic training administration and policy development. Dr. Aldret is now collaborating with the University of Wyoming and UNC-Charlotte to study the influence of COVID-19 on athlete health care at the NCAA Division-1 level.