Kevin Guskiewicz

Kevin Guskiewicz
Born	Kevin M. Guskiewicz 8 4, 1966
Birthplace	Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Nationality	American
Occupation	University president, sports medicine researcher
Title	22nd President of Michigan State University
Known for	Concussion research, university leadership
Education	University of Virginia (PhD)
Awards	MacArthur Fellowship (2011)
Website	[[president.msu.edu president.msu.edu] Official site]

Kevin M. Guskiewicz (Template:IPAc-en; born April 8, 1966) is an American sports medicine scholar and university administrator who has served as the 22nd president of Michigan State University since March 2024. Before assuming leadership at Michigan State, he served as the 12th chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2019 to 2024. A neuroscientist whose research into the biomechanics and long-term effects of sports-related concussions helped reshape how athletic organizations approach head injuries, Guskiewicz received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2011 for his contributions to the field. Born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, Guskiewicz built his academic career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he rose from faculty member in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science to dean of the College of Arts and Sciences before being named chancellor. His scholarly work on concussion epidemiology, postural stability following mild head injury, and cumulative effects of repeated concussions has influenced protocols adopted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the National Football League (NFL). At Michigan State, Guskiewicz has emphasized the role of research, public policy, and institutional partnerships in advancing the university's mission.

Early Life

Kevin M. Guskiewicz was born on April 8, 1966, in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, a small city in Westmoreland County in the southwestern part of the state. Latrobe, known as the birthplace of Arnold Palmer and the banana split, provided the setting for Guskiewicz's formative years. Details of his childhood and family background remain largely outside the public record, though his subsequent academic trajectory—from western Pennsylvania to institutions in the Mid-Atlantic and the Southeast—reflected a path shaped by increasing specialization in sports science and athletic training.

Guskiewicz's interest in athletic training and sports medicine appears to have developed during his undergraduate years and was likely informed by exposure to organized athletics during his youth in Pennsylvania, a state with deeply rooted traditions in football and other contact sports. This background would later prove instrumental in shaping his research focus on the biomechanical effects of head impacts in athletics.

Education

Guskiewicz earned his Bachelor of Science degree from West Chester University in Pennsylvania. He then pursued graduate studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where he completed a Master of Science degree. For his doctoral work, Guskiewicz enrolled at the University of Virginia, where he studied under the supervision of David Perrin. His doctoral dissertation, titled "Effect of mild head injury on postural stability," was completed in 1995 and examined the measurable balance impairments caused by concussive injuries. This dissertation research laid the groundwork for much of his subsequent scholarly output on concussion assessment and management, establishing postural stability testing as a key metric in evaluating athletes following head injuries. The University of Virginia's program in sports medicine and exercise science provided Guskiewicz with a strong foundation in both clinical and research methodologies that he would carry into his faculty career at the University of North Carolina.

Career

Research Career at UNC

Following the completion of his doctorate, Guskiewicz joined the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he would spend the majority of his professional career. He became a member of the Department of Exercise and Sport Science within the College of Arts and Sciences and established himself as a leading researcher in the emerging field of sports-related concussion science.

Guskiewicz's research focused on several interrelated areas within sports concussion science: the epidemiology of concussions in collegiate and high school athletes, the biomechanics of head impacts, methods for assessing and diagnosing concussions on the sideline, and the cumulative and long-term effects of repeated head injuries. One of his significant early contributions was a study on the epidemiology of concussion in college and high school football, which helped establish baseline data on concussion incidence rates that had previously been poorly documented.

His work on postural stability as a diagnostic tool for concussion—building directly on his doctoral dissertation—became particularly influential. Guskiewicz and his collaborators demonstrated that balance testing could serve as a reliable, practical method for identifying concussed athletes, even when traditional cognitive assessments proved inconclusive. This line of research contributed to the development and widespread adoption of the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS), which became a standard component of sideline concussion assessment protocols used by athletic trainers across the country.

At UNC, Guskiewicz also directed research through the university's Injury Prevention Research Center, investigating head impact exposure through the use of accelerometer-equipped helmets that could record the magnitude, location, and frequency of impacts sustained by football players during practices and games. This technology allowed researchers to move beyond relying solely on self-reported symptoms and to quantify the cumulative biomechanical load experienced by athletes over a season.

His research contributed to a growing body of evidence suggesting that repeated subconcussive impacts—hits that do not produce obvious concussion symptoms—might nonetheless have cumulative neurological effects. These findings had significant implications for how contact sports organizations managed practice intensity, playing time, and return-to-play decisions following head injuries.

Guskiewicz's work attracted the attention and support of major national organizations. The National Operating Committee on Standards for Athletic Equipment (NOCSAE) awarded grants for concussion-related studies connected to his research program. Additionally, his research informed policy discussions at the NFL level, where growing concern about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and long-term brain damage among retired players was becoming a matter of intense public and regulatory scrutiny.

Through the Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at UNC, which was established in the wake of a high school athlete's death from a brain injury, Guskiewicz expanded the scope and visibility of concussion research at the university. The center became a hub for interdisciplinary research on sports-related traumatic brain injury, bringing together experts in neuroscience, biomechanical engineering, athletic training, and clinical medicine.

Administrative Rise at UNC

Guskiewicz's career at UNC followed a trajectory from researcher and faculty member to senior academic administrator. He was appointed dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest academic unit at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a position that placed him in charge of overseeing a broad range of departments spanning the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences.

His administrative role as dean gave him experience managing a large, complex academic organization with significant budgetary responsibilities, faculty governance structures, and curricular oversight. This experience positioned him as a candidate for higher leadership roles within the UNC system.

Chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill

On February 6, 2019, Guskiewicz was appointed interim chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, succeeding Carol Folt, who had resigned amid controversies related to the Silent Sam Confederate monument on campus. Later that year, the University of North Carolina Board of Governors voted to remove the interim designation and install Guskiewicz as the 12th chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill on a permanent basis.

As chancellor, Guskiewicz led the university through a period of significant challenges, most notably the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced rapid transitions to remote instruction and required extensive public health planning for campus operations. According to retrospective accounts from the university, Guskiewicz's scientific background informed his approach to pandemic decision-making, and he was credited with increasing research funding during his tenure.

The university described his leadership approach as one that relied on scientific reasoning and a commitment to putting people at the center of institutional decisions. During his chancellorship, Guskiewicz navigated a complex political landscape that included tensions between the university's faculty and the UNC Board of Governors on matters of governance, academic freedom, and institutional priorities.

Guskiewicz served as chancellor until January 11, 2024, and was succeeded by Lee Harriss Roberts.

President of Michigan State University

On October 2023, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees appointed Guskiewicz as the 22nd president of Michigan State University. He succeeded Teresa Woodruff, who had served in an interim capacity, and officially began his tenure on March 4, 2024. Michigan State had experienced a turbulent period in the years preceding Guskiewicz's appointment, including the aftermath of the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal and a mass shooting on campus in February 2023, events that had taken a profound toll on the university community and its public reputation.

In September 2025, Guskiewicz delivered the annual State of the University address at Michigan State, where he outlined priorities and reflected on the institution's trajectory since his arrival.

In October 2025, Guskiewicz was involved in a public discussion regarding disciplinary proceedings against a student protester. In an interview with The State News, the university's student newspaper, Guskiewicz stated that he had never personally filed a disciplinary complaint against a student and had only learned of the specific case after it had been initiated.

In November 2025, the Michigan State Board of Trustees approved a 1.5% pay raise for Guskiewicz.

In early 2026, tensions surfaced between Guskiewicz's administration and MSU Trustee Rema Vassar over the university's approach to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs. Vassar publicly called for the university to reverse recent changes to its DEI initiatives, drawing criticism from other university officials.

Guskiewicz has articulated a vision for Michigan State that emphasizes the interconnection between research, public policy engagement, and partnerships with external organizations as central to the university's role as a public land-grant institution.

Recognition

Guskiewicz's most prominent individual honor is the MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the "genius grant," which he received in 2011 from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The fellowship, which provides recipients with an unrestricted stipend, was awarded in recognition of his research on the assessment and management of sports-related concussions and his contributions to understanding the cumulative effects of head impacts in athletes.

The MacArthur Foundation highlighted Guskiewicz's development of novel methods for measuring the immediate and long-term consequences of concussive and subconcussive impacts, as well as his efforts to translate research findings into practical protocols used by athletic trainers, coaches, and team physicians at all levels of sport.

In addition to the MacArthur Fellowship, Guskiewicz's research earned recognition from sports medicine and athletic training professional organizations, and his work was supported by grants from entities including NOCSAE and other organizations focused on athlete safety.

His appointment to leadership positions at two major public research universities—first as chancellor of UNC-Chapel Hill and subsequently as president of Michigan State University—further reflected the regard in which he was held within the higher education community.

Legacy

Kevin Guskiewicz's research career is situated within a broader transformation in how sports organizations, medical professionals, and the general public understand the risks associated with head injuries in athletics. His contributions to concussion epidemiology and assessment methodology came during a period when growing evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy among retired professional athletes was prompting fundamental reassessments of safety practices in contact sports.

The Balance Error Scoring System and related postural stability assessments that emerged from Guskiewicz's research program became standard tools in the athletic trainer's toolkit for sideline concussion evaluation. His work on head impact biomechanics, conducted through instrumented helmet studies, helped establish a quantitative framework for understanding the cumulative exposure to head impacts experienced by football players, contributing to subsequent rule changes and practice limitations implemented by organizations including the NCAA and NFL.

The Matthew Gfeller Sport-Related Traumatic Brain Injury Research Center at UNC, which Guskiewicz helped establish and lead, continues to serve as a research hub for the study of sports concussions and traumatic brain injury.

As a university administrator, Guskiewicz represents a relatively uncommon pathway from active research faculty to the presidency of a major public university, having risen through academic ranks rather than through a career in professional administration or politics. His leadership at UNC-Chapel Hill through the COVID-19 pandemic and his appointment to lead Michigan State University during a period of institutional recovery mark significant chapters in the modern governance of American public research universities.