Shawn Kane, MD, FACSM, is the outgoing editor-in-chief of Current Sports Medicine Reports (CSMR), ACSM’s monthly e-journal for clinicians. This year marks his eighth in the role, the close of his second four-year term. And since CSMR editors are limited to two terms, ACSM’s Publications Committee is hard at work narrowing down candidates for the next EIC, who will be named at the 2025 ACSM Annual Meeting in Atlanta.
Kane was recently elected an ACSM medicine trustee and is currently a professor in the University of North Carolina School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine as well as an adjunct assistant professor at UNC’s Department of Exercise and Sports Science, joining on there in 2018 after many years as a sports medicine physician for the US Army. He also serves as chief medical officer for UNC’s Transforming Health and Resiliency in Veterans (THRIVE) program, medical director of the university’s Brain & Body Program and medical director/chief medical officer of the Matthew Gfeller Center for the Study of Retired Athletes, where he also served as a primary care sports medicine physician from 2019 to 2024.
Kane grew up in Orange County, New York, the son of a nurse and a high school football coach. Though he’s spent the majority of his adult life away from the region, you can still hear the characteristic Hudson Valley/northeast Pennsylvania “o,” particularly in words like “so” and “know.” His father, leery of Pop Warner and middle school coaches who he felt might train their players incorrectly, didn’t allow Kane to play football until his freshman year of high school, when he joined the team as a long snapper. (Kane also wrestled and played baseball in high school — for the latter, chiefly catcher, first base and utility infield.)
When the time came, Kane enrolled at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania and played on the school’s D-III football team.
Why Gettysburg?
“Family friends of ours had gone there and all their kids had gone there. They said I should go to Gettysburg, and I was like, ‘Alright,’” Kane says.
He studied biology, since, inspired by his mother’s work as a nurse, he planned to attend medical school. It was at this time too that he joined Army ROTC, a decision that would define his life’s trajectory.
However, his football career wasn’t as fulfilling as he would have liked. Describing the play that essentially sidelined him for his first season, Kane says:
“I was lining up to make the tackle, and I got blown up. I got crushed. I ended up sustaining a separated shoulder, and that derailed my season. I tried to get back early, and in retrospect came back too early and in practice I got crunched again. That pretty much ended my season. I think I played in our last JV game of the year after that. So my sports highlight really isn’t a highlight. It was more of a low light.”
The next year, another long snapper transferred to Gettysburg, and Kane went from being a starter as a freshman to being a backup as a sophomore. He eventually worked his way back in, though, to the point where the other guy handled punts and field goals and Kane covered field goals and extra points.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t score that much. He got out more because we punted a lot more,” Kane says.
Fortunately, Kane’s studies went much better, and he graduated cum laude from Gettysburg, received his commission and went on to earn an MD from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) in Bethesda, Maryland, in 1995. After an internship and residency, both in family medicine at the Womack Army Medical Center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Kane returned to USU to complete a primary sports medicine fellowship.
From there, he would serve in numerous ranks and roles, chiefly with US Special Forces. In total, Kane participated in 12 overseas deployments and was also at one point the family medicine consultant to the Army Surgeon General. Describing his day to day during those years, Kane says:
“You’re going to work to do this thing and all of a sudden there’s a problem somewhere else in the world, so you’re packing your stuff to go someplace. Or you go into work today and somebody got really hurt bad in training last night and you have to go sort all of that out … . It might be the perfect place to work if you have ADHD.”
At the time of his departure from the military in 2018, he was the commander of the Special Warfare Medical Training Group (Airborne), dean of the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center and command surgeon with the JFK Special Warfare Center and School. After a brief sortie into private practice, he joined on at UNC in 2019.
The details of Kane’s service could fill a few books, but we have to stay on target. Thus:
Kane has a unique connection to CSMR — the journal published the first article he ever wrote. Later, he served as a peer reviewer and was eventually tapped by then-EIC Bill Roberts, MD, FACSM, as the section editor for Environmental Conditions. When Roberts’s term was up at the end of 2017, Kane threw his hat in the ring for the role, figuring:
“It’s free to apply. What’s the worst thing they can say? ‘No’?”
He’d allowed himself to, at best, hope for an interview, which he got. But actually being selected as EIC surpassed his expectations.
Going into the new role, Kane had a couple ideas. First, he figured it would be good for CSMR to be published monthly rather than every other month, as it had been thus far. He also thought it was probably time to transition to an online-only rather than print publication. He came to find that he and the CSMR staff team were on the same wavelength.
“One of my ideas when I came on was to change it to a monthly journal, so that way it was always there — you were getting something every month instead of forgetting about it,” Kane says. “And I didn’t realize it, but that had already been in the works, and not only moving to a monthly journal, but that it was gonna be online. So one of my big plans was already being implemented.”
They also transitioned the issues’ thematic spread. Previously, each bimonthly edition would contain two overall topics. With monthly publication, they decided to simply cover one topic per.
When assessing his contributions to the journal, and throughout our conversation as a whole, Kane is consistently humble.
“In all honesty, my goal was really to not screw it up,” Kane says. He references the fact that his only predecessors in the role were the aforementioned Bill Roberts and Bob Sallis, MD, FACSM. Both, of course, were also ACSM past presidents.
It seems Kane lived up to that goal quite well. When I reached out to Roberts for comment, he said:
“Shawn has done a tremendous job recruiting timely topics and expert authors for the journal. He has maintained the level of excellence established by Bob Sallis, the first EIC.”
And when I reached out to Sallis himself — who is also a current CSMR section editor — he replied:
“I think Shawn has done an amazing job taking CSMR to another level in terms of the quality of the articles and the relevance of the journal. He is a very hands-on EIC but at same time allows his section editors ample authority to shape their individual sections. His will be tough shoes to follow for the next EIC!”
When it comes to the day-to-day production of the journal, Kane is likewise quick to downplay his own role. Instead, he credits CSMR’s managing editor, ACSM Assistant Director of Editorial Services Lori Tish.
“Lori Tish is the engine that runs CSMR,” Kane says. “I could be a bot and it would still go well just ’cause Lori is so good … . Whoever gets the (EIC) job is guaranteed to do well since Lori’s there.”
Kane has also enjoyed the opportunity that the EIC role gave him to serve on the ACSM Annual Meeting Planning Committee.
“To be part of the crew that’s picking what’s presented has been awesome,” Kane says.
And though he’s sad to see his time as EIC come to an end, Kane respects the term limits and the reason for their implementation.
“The idea of bringing in somebody with new, fresh ideas and motivations is important,” he says.
Kane was elected an ACSM medicine trustee in 2025 alongside Poonam Thaker, MD, FACSM. Kane has some previous experience in the role as well, having been appointed by 2022-23 ACSM Past President Stacy Fischer, MD, FACSM, during her presidential term.
“I lost that first board of trustees election,” Kane says. “But I was appointed by Stacy Fischer, who was the president at the time … so it was a one-year board of trustees stint.”
But this most recent election has landed him as a trustee for a full term rather than a presidential appointment.
“I’m excited to have another three years of guaranteed active involvement,” Kane says.
As for ACSM as a whole, Kane sees the college’s inherent multidisciplinary nature as its greatest asset.
“I think that while becoming siloed is natural, what makes ACSM unique is to not be siloed,” Kane says. “From a physician standpoint, it’s great to be able to talk to an orthopedic surgeon, a cardiologist, a physical medicine and rehab doctor doing musculoskeletal stuff, to athletic trainers and exercise physiologists, and then talk to the basic sciences folks. Medicine is a team sport.”
But as a medical doctor — and more than occasionally a frontline one — he wants to ensure continued physician participation in the organization.
“My big thing is to continue physician involvement because I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you today if it wasn’t for my involvement with ACSM,” Kane says.
Let’s give some of Kane’s colleagues and friends the final say about him and his work.
“Having known Shawn for many years, even prior to his role as editor-in-chief at CSMR, I have always deeply respected him. He has been incredibly supportive and a mentor to many across the sports medicine community. As an outstanding editor-in-chief and leader in numerous capacities, Shawn’s contributions have been significant. I wish him all the best!”
— Lt. Col. Chad Hulsopple, DO, CSMR Section Editor and Director of USU’s National Capital Consortium Sports Medicine Fellowship Program
“Dr. Shawn Kane was and continues to be an accomplished academic physician scientist. I first met Dr. Kane virtually through emails when I wrote several book chapters for one of the sports medicine textbooks that he edited. Eons ago, despite never meeting in person, he surprised me when he took the time to personally applaud my efforts as a sports medicine fellow contributing to his textbook. After all of these years, I finally got to meet Dr. Kane in person after watching his presentation on academic promotions and mentorship. We chatted for a while, discussed frustrations, shared stories of mutual friends and joked around. I finished up my meeting with Dr. Kane and I called my wife to tell her that I just had a meeting with Shawn Kane. When my wife asked me who Shawn was, I replied, ‘a cool and one of the nicest guys you will ever meet.’ All jokes aside, as the editor-in-chief for Current Sports Medicine Reports, Dr. Kane was extremely responsive, supportive and passionate for autonomy. I was fortunate to work with him as a part of the editorial team and am selfishly sad to see him depart. Nonetheless, I wish him well especially since I know that he will continue to be a superstar in anything that he does.”
— Eliot Hu, MD, MBA, FACSM, CSMR Section Editor and Civilian Sports Medicine Physician at Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton
“Shawn has been a fantastic editor-in-chief for Current Sports Medicine Reports (CSMR). He truly cares about ACSM’s clinician and physician members and really has taken the time to curate the journal’s content for these readers. In the past eight years, CSMR has experienced a lot of growth under Shawn’s leadership, including but not limited to a boost in impact factor, the creation of a robust team of section editors, the addition of the nine-article Clinical Curriculum Series, as well as an increase in the number of unsolicited article proposals received annually. Shawn has poured his time and expertise into the journal, and it shows,”
— Lori Tish, CSMR Managing Editor ACSM Assistant Director of Editorial Services
“When asked to describe Shawn Kane, only one word comes to mind, and that is authentic. Throughout a career of service, he only sought out the most challenging jobs, and wherever there was a leadership gap, he always stepped up. For those who know him well, he is transparent, honest and when required, blunt. With everything he has tackled, he always worked tirelessly to leave things in a better state; with all his challenges, including CSMR, he did. His service has been one defined by impact and making a difference. Very proud to have trained, served and worked with Dr. Shawn Kane!”
— Fran O’Connor, MD, MPH, FACSM, Medical Director of the USU Consortium for Health and Military Performance
Story by Joe Sherlock
Images courtesy of Shawn Kane
Published May 2025
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