University of Michigan members and community partners serve as center ambassadors through our Concussion Champions program. The champions promote the center’s mission by raising awareness of concussion prevention, identification, and management.

The U-M Concussion Center’s three inaugural champions are:

• James Alexander, executive director of athletics for Detroit Public Schools Community District. Jay spent four years in the non-profit sector before being named executive director of athletics for DPSCD. He served as the vice president of operations and development for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Detroit, and manager of philanthropic partnerships for the Detroit Athletic Police League. His vision is simple: to increase the visibility and recognition of both academic and athletic programs while building good work ethic and developing leaders.
  
• Lloyd Carr, retired University of Michigan head football coach. Lloyd compiled a 122-40 record during his career and led the Wolverines to six 10-win seasons, including the 1997 national championship and five Big Ten Conference crowns. In addition to his work on the football field, he has been active in support of women’s athletics, endowing a scholarship that is awarded annually to a U-M woman student-athlete. He initiated the Women’s Football Academy and U-M Men’s Fantasy Football Experience, which donate all proceeds to the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
• Mark Uyl, executive director of the Michigan High School Athletic Association. Mark was named MHSAA executive director in May 2018, after joining as an assistant director in January 2004. During that time, his responsibilities included the administration of several post-season tournaments and oversight of programming and services to the over 10,000 registered game officials at the high school level in Michigan. He sat on the Board of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO) from 2011-2015, serving as chair in 2015. He is currently the lone high school representative on the Officiating Development Alliance (ODA), which consists of the supervisor of officials for the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL, CFL, MLS, and NCAA Division I sports.

Alexander, Carr, and Uyl sat down with us to reflect on why they chose to participate in our Champions program.