American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance - AAHPERD

Charlene R. Burgeson

Executive Director, National Association for Sport and Physical Education

Charlene R. Burgeson is the executive director of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE), a nonprofit membership organization of over 18,000 professionals in the fitness and physical activity fields, dedicated to strengthening basic knowledge about sport and physical education among professionals and the general public and putting that knowledge into action in schools and communities across the nation.

A former employee of the Division of Adolescent and School Health (DASH) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, GA, Burgeson has been active in NASPE as a member and chair of the executive committee of the Council on School Leadership in Physical Education (CSLPE) and has facilitated NASPE involvement in various federal activities. In 2000 she co-authored a report from the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Secretary of Education to the President of the United States entitled “Promoting Better Health for Young People through Physical Activity and Sport.” She was also the lead author for the Physical Education chapter of SHPPS 2000 - School Health Policies and Programs Survey published by CDC in 2002.

From 1994-1997 Burgeson worked at NASPE as a program administrator facilitating physical education issues and projects. A former elementary physical education teacher in Fairfax County (VA) Public Schools, she also coached local youth sports. Burgeson received her bachelor of science in health and physical education from Slippery Rock University and her master of arts in physical education from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.