Zachary Kerr, PhD, MPH

Assistant Professor, University of North Carolina

Dr. Zachary Yukio Kerr is an Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise and Sport Science at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, and serves as Core Faculty with the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center and the UNC Human Movement Science Curriculum. He is also the EXSS Director of Undergraduate Research and a Bowman & Gordon Gray Distinguished Term Professor with the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Kerr completed his doctoral work in Epidemiology at the UNC Chapel Hill in 2014. He previously served as Director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association Injury Surveillance Program. Dr. Kerr’s research applies epidemiology as a toolbox to examine the multiple levels of influence affecting the incidence, identification, and management of adverse outcomes. His work spans traumatic brain injury, exertional heat stroke, and policy and organizational factors such as occupational stress and burnout. Through collaborations with experts across disciplines, Dr. Kerr has published over 275 research articles and received funding from organizations including the CDC, NIH, NSF, NFL, and NATA Foundation. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (2023), an Honorary Member of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (2025), and the 2018 recipient of the ACSM New Investigator Award. At UNC Chapel Hill, his teaching has been recognized with honors such as the Student Undergraduate Teaching Award (2024) and the EXSS Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award (2023, 2024).