Baumgartner announces USA Wrestling Ad-Hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee members

USA Wrestling President Bruce Baumgartner announced today the members of the organization’s newly revived Ad-Hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee, made up of 15 people, including seven women and eight men.

USA Wrestling’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee’s mission is to lead, and support athletes in achieving excellence by inspiring all levels of USA Wrestling to embrace unique perspectives and practices that create awareness, appreciation, acceptance and celebration of diversity, equity and inclusion.

According to USA Wrestling by-laws, President Baumgartner has the authority to create and populate ad-hoc committees. To populate the Diversity and Inclusion Committee, Baumgartner carefully reviewed applications from interested USA Wrestling members as well as several outside of the wrestling community and also sought out recommendations from a variety of USA Wrestling constituencies.

Baumgartner selected USA Wrestling Secretary and Executive Committee member Kerry McCoy as the chairperson of the committee. McCoy is a two-time Olympian and 2003 World silver medalist in men’s freestyle. After his athletic career, McCoy focused on coaching, with head coaching stints at Stanford and the University of Maryland. He currently serves as the head coach and Executive Director of the California RTC.

Learn about the other 14 members of the USA Wrestling Ad-Hoc Diversity and Inclusion Committee:

• Jenna Burkert – three-time World Team member; Pan American Games silver medalist
• Lauren Burroughs – former Buffalo news journalist; co-founder of annual NCAA Kick-Off Party Fundraiser
• Veronica Carlson – 2009 Junior World silver medalist in women’s freestyle; USA Wrestling Executive Committee member; chairperson of USA Wrestling Athlete Advisory Committee
• Michial Foy – 1989 World silver medalist in Greco-Roman; 1992 Olympian; Executive Director of National African-American Wrestling Hall of Fame
• BJ Futrell – Men’s Freestyle Sports Committee representative; 2014 University World silver medalist; Beat the Streets Philly Mentoring Director
• Erin Golston – National Team member; three-time Junior World medalist in women’s freestyle
• David Gonzalez – Junior Olympic Wrestling Committee representative; USA Wrestling Arizona state chairperson
• Eric Guerrero – Coaches’ Council representative; 2004 Olympian in men’s freestyle
• Afsoon (Roshanzamir) Johnston – two-time World medalist in women’s freestyle; 2016 U.S. Olympic coach
• Heather Lawrence-Benedict – professor of Sports Administration and Business at Ohio University; USA Wrestling Long Range Planning Committee member
• Jay Lewey – active duty Army Chief Warrant Officer 5; former Army Equal Opportunity representative
• Ndidi Massay – attorney; commissioner on the NY State Athletic Commission; Big Ten Conference Anti-Hate & Anti-Racism Coalition member
• Alan Merrill – U.S. Wrestling Officials Association representative
• John Stefanowicz – Greco-Roman Sports Committee representative; 2019 World Team member

To begin, the Diversity and Inclusion Committee will meet twice a month and on an as-needed basis to get the work started. Then the committee will set a regular schedule moving forward.