Parkside Athletics

A winner of the UW-Parkside Distinguished Alumni Award, Dr. Barbara Osborne is a Professor with a joint appointment in Exercise and Sport Science and the School of Law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She directs the graduate program in Sport Administration, which was the first in the U.S. to focus solely on college sport.  She also started the undergraduate program in sport administration and a dual degree program in law and sport administration.  

Osborne works as a consultant for school systems, schools and athletics programs providing Title IX education, evaluations and audits, and as a court-appointed Title IX compliance monitor. Osborne's current academic research focuses on legal issues in intercollegiate athletics, gender equity and discrimination in sport, and medical issues in sport.  She is the co-author of three books (including the most widely used sports law textbook, now in its 5th edition). She has written 33 book chapters for various sport law and sport management texts, published 44 articles in academic journals, with another 38 invited publications.  

A life-long athlete, Barbara was inducted into the Kenosha Sports Hall of Fame in 1999 for her pioneering achievements in cross country and track at Mary D. Bradford High School and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010 as a member of the 1980 National Championship cross country team. In addition to her degree in communications from Parkside, Dr. Osborne also has a sport management degree from Boston University and a law degree from Boston College.