NCAA Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Brian Hainline announced his retirement Tuesday, effective May 31. He was appointed the NCAA's first chief medical officer in 2013.
Hainline founded and oversaw the NCAA Sport Science Institute, which aims to provide college athletes with the best environment for safety, excellence and wellness. During his tenure, he guided the Association in the development of key consensus-based guidance that served the membership in its efforts to support the mental and physical health, safety and performance of student-athletes.
Under his leadership and guided by the concerted voice of student-athletes, the Association identified and defined the unique mental health challenges confronting student-athletes. Developed in collaboration with the NCAA Mental Health Advisory Group and the Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports, the Association published the seminal resource in support of college athlete mental health and wellness. Mental Health Best Practices: Understanding and Supporting Student-Athlete Mental Health, an interassociation consensus document, was first published in 2016, revised in 2020 and updated in 2024.
In close partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense, Hainline was instrumental in securing the organizational support and funding for the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium. Founded in 2014, the CARE Consortium is the largest concussion and repetitive head impact study in history. To date, CARE has enrolled student-athletes from 30 participating member schools representing 26 NCAA sports. The study has informed NCAA policy changes meant to improve the health and well-being of student-athletes.
Hainline also led a distinguished panel of nationally and internationally recognized medical providers in navigating the Association through the COVID-19 pandemic, culminating in an unprecedented 2021 Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Championships conducted entirely in the Indianapolis and San Antonio regions, respectively. During much of this period, Hainline provided NCAA members with weekly live updates on the emerging medical and public health guidance and what it meant for college athletics.
Before the NCAA, Hainline was actively involved in sports medicine both nationally and internationally, including serving as chief medical officer of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships and the United States Tennis Association. He is a clinical professor of neurology at New York University Grossman School of Medicine and Indiana University School of Medicine, has authored or co-authored nine books and over 120 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, abstracts and textbook chapters. He has co-chaired two International Olympic Committee consensus meetings: pain management in elite athletes and mental health in elite athletes, both of which led to consensus and subspecialty publications. In 2025, he will co-chair a second IOC consensus meeting on mental health in elite athletes.
A former Division I tennis student-athlete and lifelong fan and avid supporter of the game, Hainline currently serves as chairman of the board and president of the USTA, the organization's most senior leadership position. Additionally, he is vice president of the International Tennis Federation, the world's governing body of tennis, and is a member of the Grand Slam Board, which oversees the four Grand Slam tennis events.
He earned his undergraduate degree from Notre Dame and his medical degree from the University of Chicago.
