Paul Higgs Honored for Service to Athletic Training Profession

The Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association recently recognized Valdosta State University’s Paul Higgs with the 2025 Nick Pappas Legislative Advocacy Award. He joined the VSU College of Nursing and Health Sciences faculty in April 2019 and currently serves as an instructor in the School of Health Sciences and as director of the Center for Exercise Medicine and Rehabilitation’s Athletic Training Clinic. He is a licensed athletic trainer, certified athletic trainer, certified strength and conditioning specialist, and certified ergonomic assessment specialist — and a 1989 Valdosta State alumnus. He is pictured with student Mary Baker inside his on-campus clinic.

VALDOSTA — The Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association recently recognized Valdosta State University’s Paul Higgs with the 2025 Nick Pappas Legislative Advocacy Award.

“Nick Pappas was an athletic trainer who was very influential in legislative affairs involving the athletic training profession,” Higgs shared. “During his career, he was a member of the Board of Athletic Training in two states. Nick was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame in 2012. He served as the first president of the Georgia Athletic Trainers’ Association. I was fortunate enough to get to know him later in his life, and we became good friends before he passed away in 2019. I knew his work and his heart to advocate for the athletic training profession, and to be recognized in the same light as him is an honor.”

Higgs currently serves as chairman of the Georgia Athletic Trainers’ Association’s (GATA) Governmental Affairs Committee, where he coordinates the organization’s advocacy work. He monitors legislation that impacts the practice of athletic training in the Peach State, and he serves as the liaison between GATA and the Georgia Board of Athletic Training as well as the point of contact for GATA’s professional lobbyist. 

“We work with GATA’s elected officers to advocate for the profession of athletic training on behalf of our members,” he explained. “We build on the wisdom of our lobbyist, our national governmental affairs liaisons, and our members to ensure our profession can work at the height of our educational standards and standards of current practice. At times, advocacy may mean personally sending an email or making a call to a legislator as a licensed healthcare professional. At other times, advocacy means leading a campaign of our members where more than 600 emails are sent to legislators requesting their support of a bill that affects our profession in a positive way. At still other times, it may mean I testify at a legislative hearing, speaking to legislators on behalf of the state association to explain how a bill would benefit our profession and protect the public.”

Higgs joined the VSU College of Nursing and Health Sciences faculty in April 2019. He currently serves as an instructor in the School of Health Sciences and as director of the Center for Exercise Medicine and Rehabilitation’s Athletic Training Clinic. He is a licensed athletic trainer, certified athletic trainer, certified strength and conditioning specialist, and certified ergonomic assessment specialist — and a 1989 Valdosta State alumnus.

Reflecting on his work in the Rea and Lillian Steele North Campus-based Athletic Training Clinic at VSU, Higgs said he enjoys helping patients reclaim their ability to do a particular activity again, after losing that ability due to injury, a medical condition, or surgery.

In the classroom, where he helps prepare future healthcare professionals, he said, “I enjoy seeing a student ‘get it’ and put ideas together to address questions or challenges to become more productive and independent participants in society.”