Board of Directors

Dr. Charles A. Camarata, Founder & Board President
Dr. Camarata is the founder of Southwest Sports Wellness Foundation and an active participant in its operations. He collaborates with staff at clinics and offers his pro bono services for SWSWF clinics. Giving back to the community has been a part of Doc’s life since graduation. Doc was awarded a California Community Colleges Instructional Credential in the subject matter of Health and Physical Care Services and Related Technologies, valid for life, and immediately put that designation to work. Doc has volunteered his time as the Team Physician for Castle Park High School since 1963; acted as the Team Physician and Medical Consultant for Southwestern College since 1970 and has donated his time and expertise by volunteering in over 10,000 sports screening examinations as well as attending Physician at more than 1,200 High School football games.

In addition, Doc organized the free Saturday Morning Injury Clinic for injured youth in the South Bay community of San Diego County over 25-years ago, and continues to this day; was the first Medical Honoree of the San Diego Sports Medicine Foundation and currently serves on their Board of Directors. As we passed into the 21st century Doc was presented The High School Sports Association of San Diego Community Service Award in 2004 and established a Student Athletic Training Program at nine high schools. Currently, there are now over 2,200 students attending these Career Technical Education classes.

Dr. Camarata “Doc”, graduated from the University of Portland in 1953, Oregon Health Science in 1957, as an MD, and from 1957 to 1960 USN, MCRD. Doc’s medical career started with Family Medicine and Sports Medicine in Chula Vista, CA since 1960 and is still active inpatient service in 2017. Doc is Board Certified and a Fellow, AAFP; served as Chief of Staff with Scripps Memorial Hospital, in Chula Vista CA from 1967 to 1970; a Past President of the San Diego Academy of Family Physicians and a current Board Member and Chair Emeritus of Continuing Medical Education (CME).

Dr. Camarata is now retired from Family Practice and actively practicing Sports Medicine. He serves as a Senior Medical Examiner for the FAA and also as a voluntary instructor in Sports Medicine at UCSD Medical School.

Stephen Camarata, PhD, President

Stephen Camarata received his PhD in 1984 at Purdue University with a major in Audiology & Speech Sciences and a minor in Statistical Methods. Post-doctoral appointments have been held at the University of Arizona (Speech & Hearing Sciences) and at the University of California, San Diego (in Cognitive Science).

Dr. Camarata held faculty positions at Penn State University and in the Autism Research Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara prior to coming to Vanderbilt in 1990. He is currently a Professor of Hearing & Speech Sciences and Psychiatry in the Medical Center and Professor of Special Education at Peabody College. In addition, he is an Investigator at the John F. Kennedy Center for Research on Development and Disabilities (serving as Acting Director of that Center from 1999-2002, and directed the program in communication and learning from 2002 to 2009).

Dr. Camarata’s areas of research interest are focused on the identification and treatment of speech, language disorder, and hearing loss. Populations of interest include autism, Down Syndrome, phonological disorder, and language disorder. He is currently a permanent member of the NIH study section on Communication Disorders Research and has been a member of review panels at the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

Dr. Mike Lenihan, Board Member

Dr. Michael Lenihan completed an Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Fellowship with Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles from 1991-1992 working as an Assistant Team Physician for the Los Angeles Rams, Dodgers, Kings, California Angels, PGA Tour, Senior PGA Tour and Hollywood Park Jockeys. He also worked as Assistant Team Physician with the USC Trojans and Loyola-Marymount University.

Dr. Lenihan has been in private practice in the South Bay area of San Diego County since 1993, and along with Dr. Camarata, Ed Ayub, and Mike Stein, has been participating in the Volunteer Sports Medicine Clinic providing free services to thousands of student athletes of the Sweetwater Union High School District.

Starting in 1995, Dr. Lenihan has been a consulting Orthopedic Surgeon for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, and now is also a Team Physician for Southwestern College. He is the founder and CEO of Lenihan, Selecky and Chada Orthopedic Sports Medical Center, Doctors Park Medical Center and the Otay Lakes Surgery Center. He is a former Chief of Surgery at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and is an Assistant Instructor for the Scripps Family Practice Residency Program, the Kaiser Sports Medicine Fellowship Program and Stanford’s Physician Assistant Program. He has been active in volunteer and missionary medical programs for more than 20 years in Mexico, Central America and Chula Vista.

David Mandel, Board Member & Secretary

David A. Mandel is a business advisor and attorney. David has provided legal and business advice for over 20 years to a diverse variety of businesses, including most recently as the managing director for an over $300 million private equity portfolio of distressed investments in medical, entertainment, media, and technology businesses, designers, and developers of digital entertainment, wireless communications companies, various European based manufacturers and electronics companies and a developer of predictive maintenance and logistics systems for aircraft maintenance, repair, and overhaul.

David has served as the General Counsel and head of strategic development for TelTech Communications and was one of the founding members Leap Wireless International, the provider of Cricket mobile phone service in the United States. Prior to joining Leap Wireless, David served as legal counsel in the QUALCOMM Wireless Business Solutions (QWBS) division of QUALCOMM, Inc.

David was also a founding owner of Power Sports Group, a manufacturer of high-end composite tubing for the sports and recreation industries. He began his career with the law firm of DLA, formerly known as Gray, Cary, Ware and Friedenrich.

David graduated, cum laude, from Colgate University where he competed in Division I soccer. He is a Thomas J. Watson fellow and was the recipient of the Renoude Young Entrepreneur Award and Zertifikat Deutsch from the Goethe Haus. From 1985-86, he attended Universitat Konstanz in Konstanz, West Germany, and in 1989, he earned a J.D. degree from Boston University School of Law. David speaks fluent German, is a competitive cyclist, an avid open-water swimmer, and life-long skier. He also serves on the advisory board for the Harnessing Plants Initiative at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Dr. Mark Selecky, Board Member

Dr. Mark Selecky has worked with Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles. He has served as an Assistant Team Physician with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Lakers, Sparks, Kings and Galaxy. He also worked as Assistant Team Physician with the USC Trojans Football Team, California Angels, Anaheim Ducks and the Hollywood Park Jockeys.

For over ten years Dr. Selecky has been a Member of the Surgery Supervisory Committee at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center and a long time Member of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. He has spent many years working as an Orthopedic Consultant for the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista and has cemented his reputation in the community as an outstanding Orthopedist.

Since 1998 Dr. Selecky has been making an impact treating athletics on a complimentary basis in the South Bay area of San Diego while working as Physician Director for the Volunteer Sports Medicine Clinic for the Sweetwater High School District, and donating his time as Team Physician for Southwestern College.

Mike Stein, Board Member & Treasurer

Mike Stein founded Manual Orthopedic Physical Therapy (MOPT) in 2002 with the goal of helping patients return to their highest functioning level. He received a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy from California State University, Long Beach in 1987. He completed his master’s degree in orthopedic manual therapy from the Ola Grimsby Institute in 1995 and completed an additional two years of residency with OGI in 1997. He offers space at MOPT and provides staff and his own pro bono services to the Saturday SIC clinics.

Advisory Board

Dr. Donald Fithian Advisory Board Member

Dr. Fithian has made his home in San Diego for nearly three decades. During that time, he has dedicated much of his time to serving his community. He worked as a youth soccer coach for his three children, honing his skills as they progressed. For the past decade he has traveled yearly on orthopedic surgical mission trips to treat under-served populations in Latin America. He has long served as a liaison to local high school and college training rooms to expedite care of injured athletes.

Dr. Fithian is a dedicated teacher of fellows, residents and students in the Navy, UCSD and Kaiser Permanente training programs. His wide-ranging research interests include both laboratory and clinical projects, and he is very grateful for the relationships he has made with other scientists in the quest for scientific evidence that will enhance patient care. He has traveled extensively and served as visiting professor to numerous residency programs in the United States and overseas. He is fluent in both French and Spanish.

Dr. Fithian grew up in New Jersey, went to college in New Hampshire, and spent 10 years in New York City for medical training in orthopedic surgery. He came to San Diego in 1990 to do a fellowship in orthopedic sports medicine at Kaiser Permanente under the Direction of Dale M. Daniel, M.D., who was a friend and mentor to many San Diego orthopedists of that time. Dr. Fithian worked with Dr. Daniel and his staff, studying and treating knee and shoulder injuries in recreational athletes, and assumed directorship of the program after Dr. Daniel’s death in 1995. During more than 25 years with Kaiser Permanente, Dr. Fithian was also the architect of the Kaiser Permanente Joint Replacement Registry, which is now the largest implant registry in the United States. He recently transitioned to “Partner Emeritus” status with Kaiser Permanente, allowing him to split his clinical practice between Kaiser Permanente and Torrey Pines Orthopaedic Medical Group in La Jolla.

Dr. Marianne McKennett Advisory Board Member

Scripps Family Medicine Residency—Clinical Professor

UCSD Department of Family Medicine and Public Health

Family medicine physician Marianne McKennett, MD, has been practicing in the South Bay for more than 20 years. She has had the privilege of being the Scripps Family Residency Program director since its inception in 1998, which includes the training of family physician residents at the Scripps Health Center Chula Vista (California) family medicine residency program. Much of their training occurs in the San Ysidro Health Center, a large federally-qualified health center located near the California-Mexico border in San Diego’s South Bay.

A Southern California native, Dr. McKennett is committed to caring for the South Bay’s underserved Latino population. She has received numerous awards, including being named a San Diego Magazine Top Doctor and a California Academy of Family Physicians (CAFP) Teacher of the Year.

Dr. Samuel Klatman Advisory Board Member

Sports Medicine—Orthopedic Surgeon

Dr. Klatman received his medical degree from Georgetown University’s School of Medicine in 2015. Dr. Klatman went on to complete his Orthopaedic Surgery Residency at Louisiana State University’s Health Sciences Center, which he finished in 2020. Dr. Klatman also completed the San Diego Arthroscopy and Sports Medicine Fellowship in 2021, where he was a recipient of the Jeff Tamborlane Award. In his spare time, Dr. Klatman is an avid cyclist and surfer.

Dr. Klatman is part of the Synergy Orthopedic Specialists Medical Group that was founded to bring individual surgeons together to provide patients the highest standards of excellence in orthopaedic care. He currently is the medical advisor and on-site physician for SWSWF’s Sports Injury Clinics.

David Butler Advisory Board Member

David is a native Chula Vistan and alumni of Hilltop High School. He graduated from UC Riverside with honors and worked for the County of San Diego his entire 36-year career, spending the majority of that time with the Assessor’s Office. In 2010, he retired as the Assessor/Recorder/Clerk. He was responsible for a staff of over 400 and an annual budget in excess of 50 million dollars.

Since retirement, David has continued to serve the public through volunteer work. He currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Sweetwater School District Citizens Bond Oversight Committee, the Vice President of the Bonita Historical Society Museum Board of Trustees, an active member of the Chula Vista Kiwanis, and a member of the Asset Management Program Advisory Committee for the City of Chula Vista. He has volunteered for the Southwest Sports Wellness Foundation since 2011, and is excited to begin serving as an Advisory Board member beginning in 2014.

Nancy Acerrio Advisory Board Member

Ms. Nancy Acerrio began her career coaching at Sweetwater Union High School District’s Hilltop High School in 1974. Nancy taught special education at Hilltop from 1984 until she retired from teaching in 2019. Nancy was the Athletic Director at Hilltop High for 20 years.

Nancy has been a member of the San Diego CIF Coordinating Council, Board of Managers, and the Board of Managers Executive Committee; she has also represented San Diego on the State CIF Federated Council for approximately 25 years.

Nancy has served on the CIF State Executive Committee and is a member and past president of the High School Sports Association of San Diego, she has also served on the Officials Hall of Fame Committee.

Joe Bailey, PT Advisory Board Member

Manual Orthopedic Physical Therapy Vice President and Physical Therapist

Joe Bailey is a physical therapist and Vice President of MOPT. He received his bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach in 1987. Joe Bailey has completed extensive post graduate education in orthopedics and manual physical therapy as well as certification in Work Place Ergonomics.

He has worked as a physical therapist in California, Louisiana, and Italy. Joe Bailey has specialized in orthopedics and sports physical therapy over the last 27 years. He loves to surf and mountain bike ride as much as possible.

Leslie Herrmann Advisory Board Member

Former Director of Marketing & Community Outreach SWSWF

Ms. Herrmann has been with SWSWF since 2011 and has a passion for keeping student athletes healthy. At SWSWF Ms. Herrmann responsibilities include educational and charitable events and marketing projects, with the expansion of medical programs into all areas of San Diego and continuous community outreach. Prior to her time at SWSWF she was the director San Diego Sports Medicine Foundation, Athletes for Education, Adaptive Sports & Recreation Association. She received her degree from the University of California Santa Barbara in Communications.

Team Members

Suellen Butler Director
Suellen Butler has been the Director of SWSWF since 2012. She has more than ten years of experience working in Public Health as the manager of a satellite County Clinic, and another decade of experience working for the Sweetwater Union School District at Hilltop and Chula Vista High schools. Ms. Butler’s experience gives her a unique viewpoint into the two sectors in which SWSWF works—education and healthcare. Ms. Butler provides a critical bridge between healthcare and education as she understands the nuances of navigating the administrative systems of both.

Nicole Kranzberg Manager, Community Outreach
Dr. Kranzberg is a board-certified Physical Therapist, Certified Athletic Trainer, and graduate of University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. She has been working in Sports Medicine and Orthopedics since 2006. In her role as the Injury Clinic/Wellness Center and Support Services Coordinator she leverages her expertise in sports medicine, education, and mentorship to be the liaison between doctors, parents, coaches, athletic directors, district nurse, industry partners, and high school site Certified Athletic Trainers.