University of Delaware alumnus Dr. Michael Younes has been flocking back to UD’s athletic training classrooms to guest lecture for the past several years, sharing his expertise from a thriving foot and ankle clinical and surgical podiatric practice.

After graduating from UD in 1995 with his bachelor’s in athletic training, Younes worked as an athletic trainer at a high school and physical therapy clinic before shifting gears and heading to the Temple University School of Podiatric Medicine. After completing his DPM degree, he pursued an intensive three-year surgical residency on foot and ankle reconstruction at Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Penn., which set him up for his current career as a private practitioner at Martin Foot and Ankle in Lancaster.

Younes visited Thomas Kaminski’s first-year Master of Science in Athletic Training (MS-AT) students this winter session to lecture on lower extremity evaluation, postural assessment, gait analysis, and ankle pathologies that are applicable to athletic training and sports health care.

Kaminski, the director of the MS-AT program, spoke to the importance of engaging our Athletic Training alumni.

“Dr. Younes is a perfect example,” Kaminski said. “Even during the crazy Covid-19 pandemic, he was determined to return in-person and work with our aspiring Athletic Training students. When I first came to UD nearly 20 years ago now, it was a goal of mine to reach out and form relationships with our long line of UD ATEP alumni. Visits such as Dr. Younes’ are a testament that this effort is paying off.”

The AT students worked on one another around the room as Younes and his podiatric fellows, Drs. Vishal Desai and John Greaves, assisted and demonstrated. Younes picked students to showcase different gaits and a variety of unique foot and postural abnormalities, including his own leg-length discrepancy.

“I was teaching them to assess basic postural conditions, alignment – normal from abnormal – and how to adjust for it with orthotics and different intervention techniques,” said Younes.

He has noticed the level of intensity for athletic training education has soared since he started down this career path in the ‘90s.

“There was no master’s – or very few, if at all – when I got out,” he said. “And what these guys know compared to what I came out with is just amazing. It’s impressive.”

Among the 14 partners at his private practice, Younes’ forté is sports medicine.

“We all sub-specialize in foot and ankle, believe it or not, there's that much to do,” he said. “I do mostly sports medicine and ankle reconstruction for instability and chronic spraining.”

Younes said he enjoys coming back to campus to speak with the students.

“Obviously, this is where my roots are for sports medicine that I now practice on a daily basis,” he said. “And I feel it's important to give back to the university that taught me everything I do every day.”