Michelle Boyd, MS, ATC is the Head Athletic Trainer for the Truman State University Department of Athletics. Boyd leads Truman’s comprehensive sports medicine program, overseeing the health and safety of more than 450 Division II student-athletes across 18 sports. She works alongside a staff of four full-time certified athletic trainers and athletic training students, in collaboration with team physician Dr. John Bailey, to provide high-quality, student-centered healthcare.
A member of the athletics department’s executive and administrative leadership team, Boyd has served Truman State in multiple leadership capacities, including Interim Co-Athletic Director from August 2024 through May 2025. In that role, she helped oversee daily department operations, guided executive staff decision-making, participated in key coaching and administrative searches, and assisted in securing sponsorship funding and developing long-term facility improvement plans. She also serves as Truman’s Senior Woman Administrator.
Boyd joined Truman State in 1994 as an assistant athletic trainer and has served as Head Athletic Trainer since 2001. During her tenure, she has provided direct care for numerous Bulldog programs, including football, cross country, and track and field, while also managing department-wide initiatives such as secondary insurance coordination and the development and implementation of COVID-19 testing and safety protocols.
In addition to her athletic training responsibilities, Boyd has had a long-standing impact in the classroom. She is an instructor in Truman’s professional Master of Athletic Training program, where she teaches a wide range of courses, including cadaver anatomy labs, and has taught more than 13 courses within the Health and Exercise Sciences Department. Boyd also served multiple terms as Program Director for Truman’s CAATE-accredited Athletic Training program, helping develop curriculum, author accreditation self-studies, and strengthen one of the state’s premier athletic training education programs.
Highly respected at the state, district, and national levels, Boyd has held numerous leadership roles within the athletic training profession. She is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the Mid-America Athletic Trainers’ Association and previously served as President of both the Mid-America Athletic Trainers’ Association (District 5) and the Missouri Athletic Trainers’ Association. She has also served on the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Ethics Committee, chaired the BOC Standards Committee, and remains active in advocacy and brain injury awareness initiatives.
Boyd’s excellence has been recognized with numerous honors throughout her career, including being named the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association in 2023 and induction into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame and Mid-America Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame in 2022. She was also honored with the Athletic Training Service Award at the 2009 NATA Convention and received Truman State University’s Dr. Herman P. Wilson Distinguished Faculty-Staff Award in 2025.
Boyd earned her bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1992 and her master’s degree in Exercise Physiology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1994. As a graduate student, she served as head athletic trainer at Quaker Valley High School in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania, while completing her graduate studies.
