re: AD Candidates

In his 23rd year at Arkansas, Kevin Trainor is in his 10th year as associate athletic director and his eighth as the head of the department’s Public Relations department after being promoted from his previous role in media relations. Trainor coordinates the department’s executive and crisis management communications and works as a department liaison with the Razorback Foundation, University Relations, the National Football Foundation, the Southwest Conference Hall of Fame and other organizations. He is the executive editor of the Razorback Athletics Annual Report and Inside Razorback Athletics. He is also in his eighth year as the sports administrator for baseball.
Trainor was a nearly 20-year veteran in the media relations office before assuming his current role including 10 years as the sports information director and Associate Athletic Director for Sports Information overseeing publicity for all 19 Razorback sport programs including football.
During his tenure in that position, Arkansas boasted nine All-Americans, including 2006 and 2007 Doak Walker Award winner and Heisman Trophy runner-up Darren McFadden, 2007 Rimington Trophy winner Jonathan Luigs and 2003 Outland Trophy and Lombardi Award finalist Shawn Andrews.
As associate SID, Trainor worked closely with football and served as the primary contact for the 2000 SEC Tournament champion Arkansas basketball squad. He also served as the color analyst on the Razorback Baseball Radio Network for five years.
A university graduate in journalism in 1994, he earned his master’s at Arkansas in 2005. He is a member of the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) and the U.S. Basketball Writers Association of America (USBWAA). Trainor is also a member of the board of directors for the Northwest Arkansas Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame.
In 2013, he was honored nationally by PR Daily for “Best in Crisis Management.” He has also been recognized multiple times by the Northwest Arkansas chapter of PRSA for the Razorback Athletics Annual Report. He has also served as an adjunct professor in Sports Public Relations in the university’s College of Education and Health Professions.
Trainor has been selected to serve at some of the most prestigious sporting events in the country. He has worked as the primary team media relations liaison to one of the competing teams in each of the first three College Football Playoff National Championship games. For eight years, Trainor has been the press conference moderator for the nationally televised SEC Football Media Days. He has also been selected to serve as the press conference moderator at multiple SEC Football Championship Games and the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament. Trainor has been a member of the media relations team for more than 20 Cotton Bowls and has worked numerous Master’s Tournaments for CBS Sports.
Trainor and his wife, the former Ruth Whitehead, are the parents of two daughters, Emma and Ellie. His brother, Kendall, a UA Sports Hall of Honor inductee, was a consensus first-team All-American at placekicker for the Razorback football team and a three-time letterman for the Razorback baseball team.

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