"I grew up in hospitals," Charles-Liscombe said. "We'd spread out a sheet and have a picnic in the X-ray room on the radiology table. In junior high school, I served as a transportation volunteer in the hospital taking patients to therapy and radiology." When she came home from work, he listened to her stories about the day's cases.
Born in Vina del Mar, Chile, Charles-Liscombe emigrated to the United States with his family in 1973 to escape rule by military regime. He grew up in Tampa, Fla., and came to North Carolina in 1991 to attend Guilford College, where he earned the bachelor of science degree in sports medicine.

"I always enjoyed being around athletics," he said, recounting his high-school exploits as an avid cyclist and shotput and discus competitor. After two years as a student athletic trainer in high school, he knew what he wanted to do.

"My interest has always been in teaching future athletic trainers," he said. Since joining Greensboro College in 2001 as an assistant professor and clinical coordinator of the Athletic Training Education Program, Charles-Liscombe gets to do just that.

His primary focus currently is on implementing national educational reforms in athletic training on Greensboro College's campus. The age-old internship and apprentice model of educating athletic trainers officially will be replaced in 2004 by a more structured clinical approach.

"This change will streamline what we as athletic-training educators are producing. Now, when a student passes the board of certification exam, we will know that they've been exposed to and are competent in all the skills for the entry-level athletic trainer," Charles-Liscombe said.

Charles-Liscombe relied on his love for food and his skill in the kitchen to realize his professional dreams; he began working as a line cook in a fast-food restaurant at age 14 and soon advanced to head cook at a barbecue restaurant in high school. He worked at various restaurants in Greensboro during his college career and kept cooking to support himself in graduate school at Indiana University, where he earned the master of science degree in kinesiology, specializing in athletic training.

Although he's currently pursuing the doctor of education degree in sport and exercise studies at UNCG, Charles-Liscombe has hung up his professional apron - but he still does all the cooking at home. His favorites? Oven-roasted chicken with steamed asparagus and herbs, lemon-poached salmon with butter-dill sauce and homestyle chili made in a 12-quart stock pot.

He also prepares some of his family's Chilean recipes, such as meat- or cheese-filled pastries called empanadas, and he is teaching his wife of one-and-a-half years, Jaychele, to speak his native tongue, Spanish.

"We practice at least one verb and one noun a day," he said. "We definitely want to raise our children speaking Spanish and English." Until they have children to raise, B.C. and Jaychele enjoy playing with their German-shepherd mixes, Buddy and Dela.

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