Sports journalist in residence Joanne C. Gerstner delivered panel discussion at the recent influential South by Southwest Sports/Interactive festival in Austin, Texas.

Her panel, “Does Sports Equal Brain Damage?” was with sports neurologist Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher of the University of Michigan and 2006 Super Bowl winning TE Ben Utecht. The trio discussed the medical, media and athlete perspectives on sports brain injury and took questions from the audience during their hour-long featured panel.

MSU Journalism alumna Jemele Hill was also part of SXSW, doing a live presentation of her ESPN podcast “His and Hers”, as part of the SXsports festival.

Gerstner and Kutcher held a Tweetchat before their panel, hashtagged #SXSWconcussion, discussing sports and concussion with a mass audience.

“The whole SXSW experience was fantastic, and I was thrilled to represent MSU and MSU sports journalism,” Gerstner said. “Sports concussion is a huge topic, and we are certainly helping to lead that global conversation.”

MSU will be hosting its first Sports Concussion Symposium on May 15 at CAS. Look for more information as it comes available.