The NAU Review — Delivering medical care to extreme athletes, free hearing healthcare for all and creating an equitable food system in Flagstaff

Feb. 6, 2024

The NAU Review. The official news source for Northern Arizona University.

Ian McLeod wearing a Medicine in Motion beanie and posing in front of a snowboard halfpipe course in Aspen, Colorado

Extreme medicine, from the lab to the slopes

When Ian McLeod isn’t mountain biking or teaching at NAU’s Phoenix Bioscience Core, he’s working with some of the biggest names in extreme sports. Since 2011, the athletic trainer and physician assistant has served as an on-course medical responder at the Winter X Games, where famed athletes converge from across the globe to compete in extreme skiing, snowboarding and more. Working at the X Games has enriched McLeod’s teaching: He often uses those real-world experiences as case studies in the classroom.

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Humans of NAU
with Sydney Rittershaus

She ended up in Flagstaff by accident—but now, she’s committed to making the city’s food system more equitable and accessible.

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Sydney Rittershaus sitting at the base of a ponderosa pine

Close up photo of two harvester ants relocating larval brood in their nest

Native plants love ants

Experts used to think harvester ants were damaging the west’s landscape. But in an Entymology Today article, assistant teaching professor Derek Uhey argues they actually boost native and non-native plants alike.

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Student giving a hearing exam to a patient dressed in a blue smock, with a professor looking on in the background

Free hearing care for all!

NAU has joined a statewide effort to expand Arizona’s Hearing Healthcare Assistance Project, helping to provide free testing, hearing aid fitting and more to uninsured Northern Arizona residents who are age 21 and older and hard of hearing.

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