Jan Schwartz Named COMTA’s Volunteer of the Year

Jan Schwartz of Tucson, Arizona has been named Volunteer of the Year by the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation (COMTA) for her work as a peer reviewer, in the development of training sessions for peer reviewers and for schools and programs seeking accreditation, and her liaison on COMTA’s behalf to various professional health care associations addressing alternative and complementary care.

Jan Schwartz has worked and volunteered in the complementary and alternative health care field since 1993 and she has worked in education and training since 1988. She served as the Director of Education in a proprietary massage school and as an Executive Vice President of Education in a larger education company.

Jan is a founding member of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC) and serves on the executive committee for that organization. She is also the co-chair of the Education Working Group and the chair of the Accreditation Special Interest Group for ACCAHC. In addition, Jan contributed to the chapter, “Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Healthcare Perspectives” in the newly published, Collaboration Across the Disciplines in Health Care.

Jan served as a Commissioner for COMTA for five years and served as Chair of the Commission for three years. Jan was the Chair of the Commission when they were granted approval by the United States Department of Education and when the Commission developed the first accepted competencies for the field of massage therapy. She continues to work with COMTA as a team leader, and as a trainer for COMTA workshops.

Outside of the health care field, Jan volunteers for Los Samaritanos, an organization that offers water, food, and medical care to migrants in the southern Arizona desert. “Jan has been a driving force in COMTA for over a decade, and in the profession even longer. Her energy and vision have shaped COMTA’s development as an accreditor, with lasting value to the organization and to the field,” noted John R. Goss, II, COMTA’s interim executive director. “Jan’s continuing service is valued by the Commission, as is her dedication to improving massage and bodywork education through accreditation and the peer review process.”

Currently, Jan is attending Prescott College to earn her master’s degree in Sustainable Business with a focus on web-based learning. The research she is conducting for her thesis is about the potential for web-based learning in the fields of acupuncture, chiropractic and massage therapy. As part of her degree she transitioned COMTA’s face-to-face workshop to an online format. Jan anticipates completing her degree by the end of this year.