Jason Cates, LAT, ATC

Jason Cates has been the director of athletic training at Cabot Public Schools in Cabot, Arkansas since July 2011. He has been very active in athletic health care for secondary schools at the state, district, and national levels since 1996. Jason has served on several committees on all three levels. He served as the President of the Arkansas Athletic Trainers’ Association. He has served on the NATA Secondary School Committee. He served on the Nation Federation of State High School Associations Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. He is the current chair of the Arkansas Activities Association Sports Medicine Advisory Committee. During his tenure on the AAA-SMAC Arkansas has adopted pre-season acclimatization and practice guidelines, wet bulb policies for hot weather, concussion policies for return to learn/play, AED/sudden cardiac policies, communicable disease policies, venue-specific emergency action plans, pre-game medical timeout policies, mandatory coaches education related to athletic healthcare issues, all in accordance with the Korey Stringer Institute. Jason has also been very active in many state legislative agendas dealing with secondary school athletic healthcare. Jason received his Bachelor of Science degree in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Athletic Training from Arkansas State University. Jason is married to Stacy and together they are the parents to Georgia, Genna, and Quinn.

Kari Wolf-Odland, DAT, LAT, ATC

Dr. Kari Wolf-Odland comes to the University of Minnesota and the Department of Orthopedic Surgery research staff with 25-plus years and a range of athletic training experience in the collegiate athletics and academic settings. After completing her undergraduate degree in Athletic Training at South Dakota State University, she pursued a Master’s degree in Exercise Science from Northern Michigan University. She completed her degree in 1997 and began working as an assistant athletic trainer at the University of Minnesota-Crookston. In 2002, she moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to work as an assistant athletic trainer for Saint Joseph’s University where she worked with the women’s basketball team and had the privilege of working with the likes of Jameer Nelson.

In 2005, Kari began her academic career at Central Michigan University as a clinical faculty member in the CAATE undergraduate program in addition to providing coverage for the Sports Medicine department and the likes of future NFL Antonio Brown, Joe Staley, Eric Fisher, and MLB Josh Collmenter. After 1 year away from the profession she accepted a visiting clinical faculty position at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York in their CAATE undergraduate program and in 2012 returned to Minnesota to serve as a visiting clinical faculty member for the Winona State University CAATE undergraduate program. She began her doctoral study at the University of Idaho in 2014. After completing her doctoral work in May 2016, she accepted a clinical faculty position at the University of South Carolina teaching in both the CAATE undergraduate and post-professional AT programs. In 2018, she returned to Minnesota and began teaching in the CAATE professional Master's AT program at The College of St. Scholastica as well as adjuncting for the Physician Assistant and Occupational Therapy programs.

Dr. Wolf-Odland’s research interests include manual therapy (Mulligan Concept) for the treatment of mechanical neck pain, chronic low back pain, acute ankle sprains, and shoulder impingement. Additional research interests include adult spinal deformity pathologies (idiopathic scoliosis, thoracic kyphosis, degenerative disease, spondylolisthesis) and associated interventions. She has had her research published in international peer-reviewed journals in addition to being an invited speaker on Mulligan Concept at the state, regional and national levels. Kari began working at the University of Minnesota in September 2022. She enjoys spending time with her friends, attending sporting events and orchestra concerts, and a good shopping spree at TJ Maxx.