Protecting the Health & Safety of the Student Athlete
Ron Courson has served as Director of Sports Medicine with the University of Georgia Athletic Association since May of 1995, after serving four years as Director of Rehabilitation at the University of Alabama. Prior to joining the Alabama staff in 1991, he served as an athletic trainer/physical therapist with Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. He received his undergraduate degree in education/physical education from Samford University, where he played soccer and ran track and field. Courson performed two years of graduate work at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, and graduated with honors from the Medical College of Georgia with a degree in physical therapy. A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Courson is additionally a national registered emergency medical technician-intermediate as well as a certified strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association.
Courson has been involved in many athletic training activities including work as an athletic trainer with the U.S. Olympic Team at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea; 1990 Goodwill Games in Seattle; 1987 World University Games in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis and the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. He served as the chief athletic trainer for the 1996 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials as well as the chief athletic trainer for track and field for the Atlanta Committee for the 1996 Olympic Games (ACOG).
Active in his profession, Ron has served as a member of the NCAA Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports committee. He is a past president of the Southeastern Conference Sports Medicine Committee as well as chairman of the College and University Athletic Trainers' Committee of the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) and NATA liaison to the American Football Coaches Association. During his tenure at Alabama, he served as president of the Alabama Athletic Trainers? Association and as chair of the Alabama Board of Athletic Trainers. He currently serves as a member of the D1A Athletic Directors Task Force on Student-Athlete Development and the National Football League Health and Safety Committee.
Ron serves as an adjunct instructor in the department of kinesiology at the University of Georgia, teaching in the athletic training education program. He also serves as a clinical instructor teaching student physical therapists from various schools throughout the country. He is active in research and education in the field of sports medicine, having authored a number of professional papers and text chapters. He served as a co-author with the NATA on position papers for emergency preparation, exertional heat illness, sudden death, management of sudden cardiac arrest and management of head and cervical spine injuries. Ron presents frequently at regional and national sports medicine meetings.
Ron is married to the former Eileen O'Connell of Waycross, Georgia. Eileen is a physical therapist who attended the University of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia. Ron and Eileen have four children, John, Anna, Luke and Will.
