Areas of Expertise: Student athlete health and welfare, Application of evidence-based practice, Injury prevention assessment, Post-concussion sports injury

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Gary Wilkerson is a tenured professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he has taught in the Graduate Athletic Training Education Program since 1999. He is well-known for his decades of work in the area of injury prevention in sports.  His clinical practice and research have focused on the management of lower extremity injuries and the associated risk factors that could be addressed to offset chronic injuries and dysfunction.  Additionally, Dr. Wilkerson’s work has looked at the effects of biopsychosocial factors and brain information processing deficiencies on pathophysiological processes specifically associated with the long-term effects of concussion, assessing the long-term health and quality of life of an individual.

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Dr. Wilkerson completed his bachelor’s degree in 1978 at Eastern Kentucky University. He completed a master of science degree in 1979 at the University of Arizona, and a doctor of education degree in 1989 at the University of Kentucky.

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Dr. Wilkerson was among the first scholars to receive the designation of National Athletic Trainers’ Association Fellow after the honor was created in 2008, he was inducted to the NATA Hall of Fame in 2016, and he was awarded the NATA Foundation Medal for Distinguished Research in 2019.  Over the past five years, his research publications have been cited by more than 900 authors.