Speaker Profile

Dr. Chris Nowinski is CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation and a social entrepreneur leading a global conversation on concussions, CTE, and the future of sports. An All-Ivy Harvard football player-turned pro wrestler-turned neuroscientist, he discovered the concussion crisis when an inadvertent kick to the chin in a WWE match caused a brain injury and sent him on a journey that has changed how we play sports.

Dr. Nowinski wrote the investigative expose Head Games: Football’s Concussion Crisis in 2006 and co-founded the Boston University (BU) CTE Center and VA-BU-CLF Brain Bank, where he leads outreach, recruitment, education, and public policy programs. Dr. Nowinski earned his doctorate in Behavioral Neuroscience from Boston University School of Medicine and has authored over 30 scientific publications. Sports Illustrated said, “It is Nowinski’s figure which looms behind the doctors and the headlines and the debate roiling over sports’ newfound commitment to minimizing head trauma.”

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