Guests:

Erin Dahlke ATC, LAT is a certified athletic trainer at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill with women’s volleyball and men’s lacrosse teams. She uses clinical skills to help athletes recover and return to the field. She is passionate about athlete connection and communication to better understand her athletes holistically. She often uses functional testing, evidence based practice, and functional rehabilitation to return athletes to play with confidence. Prior to UNC she worked with football and hockey programs that sparked her love of emergency medicine and quick decision making that came along with sports.

Marisa Scandole, MA, LAT, ATC, CIDN, is a certified athletic trainer with extensive experience in sports medicine, injury prevention, and athlete rehabilitation across both high school and Division I collegiate settings. She currently serves as the Athletic Trainer at Durham Academy, where she provides comprehensive medical care for student-athletes, oversees concussion management, and integrates advanced techniques such as dry needling to support recovery and performance.

Prior to this role, Marisa worked at San José State University as an Associate Athletic Trainer for Division I football and women’s tennis, where she coordinated medical care, mentored athletic training students, and helped streamline sports medicine operations. Marisa is passionate about evidence-based practice, athlete safety, and optimizing return-to-play outcomes. She earned her master’s degree in Kinesiology from San José State University and her bachelor’s degree in Athletic Training from the University of South Carolina.

Guest:

Jared Jarvi is a strength and conditioning coach at the University of North Carolina. Since joining Carolina in 2023, he has worked closely with women’s lacrosse and also serves as the assistant strength coach for women’s basketball. He also oversees the Sport Science Internship Program within Carolina Strength & Conditioning. Jared is currently in his second year of UNC’s Human Movement Science Ph.D. program. He’s in the early stages of developing his dissertation, which focuses on deceleration and braking in female athletes. His research looks at how female athletes change direction, what physical qualities contribute to it, and how to better measure and train those movements. He’s focused on improving late stage return-to-sport assessments after injury. Jared’s goal is to find better ways to profile change of direction, understand the underlying physiological qualities that drive it, and develop stronger training protocols that improve performance and reduce injury risk. Before coming to Chapel Hill, Jared worked at Penn State, Michigan, and Northern Michigan, supporting a variety of Olympic and team sports. He holds certifications as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Certified Performance and Sport Scientist, and USA Weightlifting Coac

Guests:

Gwen Fink is a senior on the UNC Gymnastics Team. In her experience competing as a D1 gymnast, Fink has competed in the all-around throughout all four years of her college career. Along with her athletic accomplishments, Fink has excelled in the classroom, majoring in political science and management as she pursues her long-term goal of becoming a lawyer. During her time at Carolina, Fink has gained experience on both sides of NIL—first as a student-athlete benefiting from opportunities, like her partnership with Athleta, and also on the agency side through her work as a Legal Summer Intern with Article 41 Talent Agency. With her knowledge captured through her degree and first-hand experience outside the classroom, she holds a valuable perspective on how political opinions affect NIL opportunities.

Livis Freeman is an associate professor and administrator at the UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media, as well as the founder of 4ourFans, Inc., a public relations company focused on helping professional athletes build their brands, community impact, and careers. A UNC-Chapel Hill graduate, he has worked with numerous professional athletes across the NBA, NFL, PGA, and boxing while also creating internship opportunities for students in sports communications. At UNC, Freeman serves as assistant dean for course management and staffing and is the Distinguished Professor for Sports Communication, where he leads key programs and teaches a wide range of media, PR, and sports communication courses.