Joanne C. Gerstner is an award-winning multimedia journalist, author, college professor and Fulbright specialist. She extensively covers, and is an expert, on sports, concussions in sports, the global business of athletics, women in media, and journalism/social media for outlets such as The New York Times, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, the BBC, USA Today, ESPN.com and Detroit News.
She is the co-author of “Back in the Game: Why Concussion Doesn’t Have to End Your Athletic Career”, with Dr. Jeff Kutcher (Oxford University Publishing, 2016), an Amazon No. 1 hot seller on youth sports and concussions. She has also written four children’s books.
In 2019, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer appointed her to the state’s first Women in Sports Task Force.
Gerstner is a sought-after expert, speaker and panelist, appearing at SXSW Sports, the University of Michigan, Jacobs Foundation, the American Academy of Neurology’s Concussion conference, the Association for Women in Sports Media, and numerous media appearances (BBC, NPR, etc.)
She is the Sports Journalist in Residence at the School of Journalism at Michigan State University, and has won fellowships with Knight-Wallace at the University of Michigan (2012-2013), Jacobs Foundation (2015) and Steve Saler-Medill (1995).
Gerstner is the recipient of Oakland University’s Distinguished Alumni Award (2020); the Association for Women in Sports Media’s Ann Miller Award (2014); Faculty Impact Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at Michigan State University (2017); and the Headliner Award from the Association for Women in Communications Detroit chapter (2017).
