Dr. Robert N. Richards, Jr., of Orthopaedic Associates in Chambersburg was elected the 41st President of the Eastern Orthopaedic Association, (EOA), for the 2010 annual meeting to be held from October 13th-16th, in Naples, Florida. The organization was founded in Philadelphia in 1969 to promote, encourage, foster, and advance the art of science and orthopaedic surgery and to establish a forum for free discussion and teaching of orthopaedic methods and principles among the members. Orthopaedic Surgeons and Allied Health Professionals who practice on the East Coast of the United States from Maine to Florida including Puerto Rico, Bermuda and the Virgin Islands are within the regional membership boundaries. There are currently over 900 members.
The 2010 annual meeting will include Presidential Guest Speaker, Dr. Richard Lackman, past Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, and current Director of the Sarcoma Center of Excellence at Penn’s Abramson Cancer Center. He recently resigned as Orthopaedic Surgery Residency Director at the University of Pennsylvania after serving ten years in that position. In 2008, Dr. Lackman received the Parker Palmer Courage to Teach Award from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, (ACGME). This is the highest honor bestowed by the ACGME for Graduate Medical Education and Dr. Lackman is only the second orthopaedic surgeon in the United States to receive this honor.
Keynote addresses will be given by David H. Janda, M.D., Founder and Director of the Institute for Preventative Sports Medicine, the only health care cost containment organization of its kind in North America. Janda has also served on the National Institute of Health Trauma research Task Force and the Governor’s Council on Health, Fitness and Sports for the State of Michigan. In 1992, he was appointed by the Bush Administration to the Board of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. He is currently the Chairman of the Advisory Group on the Prevention of Sports Injures for the State of Michigan.
The Howard Steel Lecture, a foundation created to present a speaker on a non medical topic, will feature Mr. Michael Butz, Deputy Executive Director of the United States Golf Association. Mr. Butz joined the USGA in 1980 as Manager of Regional Affairs for the Southeastern Region. Today, his main duties include negotiating all USGA Championship host club agreements, advance planning and oversight of the US Open, Women’s Open, Senior Open and US Amateur Championships, Walker Cup and the Merchandise/Licensing Department. He is a Chambersburg native.
Dr. Richards, Jr. follows in the footsteps of his father, Dr. Robert N. Richards, Sr., who served as the ninth Eastern Orthopaedic President in 1978 when the meeting took place in Acapulco, Mexico. Richards, Jr. is a graduate of Mercersburg Academy, Bucknell University, and the Temple University School of Medicine and Residency Program. He has served as an orthopaedic surgeon in Franklin County and the tri state area for twenty seven years, since returning to Chambersburg to join his father’s practice in 1983. He also is the team physician for Shippensburg University and Chambersburg Area High School Athletic Programs. He and his wife Cindy have five grown children, one grandchild, and reside in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. .
