Dr. James Kurtz, a Federal Way doctor of chiropractic, was recently honored with the Special Services Award by the Washington State Chiropractic Association. He was presented with the award at the association’s annual conference in October at the Hilton Seattle Airport and Conference Center in Seattle.

The 1000-member association is the only statewide association that represents the chiropractic profession in Washington state.

The award recognizes Kurtz for his outstanding representation of chiropractic in professional sports by providing the latest in evidence based care to athletes of all abilities. He was also recently honored by the American Chiropractic Association Sports Council by being named 2014 Sports Chiropractor of the Year.

Kurtz is in his fifth season as the team chiropractor for the Seattle Seahawks. He is a former team chiropractor for the Seattle Sounders, PGA Tour, US Paralympic teams and US Olympic Training Center.

Kurtz is the clinic director for NW Sports Rehab, a multidisciplinary clinic combining chiropractic, acupuncture, manual therapy, massage, rehabilitation, nutrition, athletic training services and strength and conditioning for sports. NW Sports Rehab is located in Federal Way at 33400 13th Place S. and also in Seattle.

Kurtz is a graduate of the University of Western States and has been in practice with his wife Dr. Ming Ming Su-Brown for 24 years. They reside in Tacoma.

He is the treasurer for the Professional Football Chiropractic Society whose mission is to educate and communicate with the 32 NFL team chiropractors and to provide the highest level of care to elite athletes of the NFL.

He is also an instructor for Active Release Techniques and serves as an adjunct faculty to several chiropractic colleges in their preceptor programs providing clinical training to chiropractic interns in sports medicine and rehabilitation.