Michael Ferrara, a professor and director of Georgia’s athletic training education program, was named a Fulbright Scholar to Ireland for the 2009-10 academic year.

Ferrara will teach in Dublin City University’s athletics therapy and training program in spring 2010.

A 12-member presidentially appointed J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board selects the prestigious Fulbright Scholars. Recipients are encouraged to enrich the educational, political, economic, social and cultural lives of nations around the world.

Ferrara will lecture on courses related to athletic-injury assessment and conduct research on sports-related concussion. In conjunction with faculty at Dublin City University, he will investigate the recovery pattern following sports-related concussion in Irish sports (hurling, Gaelic football), rugby and soccer. Ferrara has assisted Dublin City University in the past, assisting with the conception and design of its athletic therapy and training program in 2003.

“This is another step in the global recognition of athletic training,” said Ferrara, who served as the first president of the World Federation of Athletic Training & Therapy. “It demonstrates the professional standing we have attained.”