chattanooga MOCS

Laura Herron is in her 30th year working in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Athletics Department and has held a variety of roles during her tenure.  She currently serves as the Executive Associate Athletics Director for Compliance and Administration and Senior Woman Administrator. 

Herron has oversight and supervision of the UTC compliance and sports medicine departments, serves as sport administrator for women's basketball, softball, volleyball and beach volleyball, oversees student-athlete welfare and serves as Deputy Title IX Coordinator for athletics. She has served as Tournament Director for several NCAA and Southern Conference postseason events.

Success in competition is no stranger for Herron as she has overseen many conference championships in her tenure.  2023-24 was no exception, with women's basketball, beach volleyball and softball all adding to the trophy case and representing the Mocs in the NCAA postseason.  

Herron was honored by the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame in 2024 with the Betty Probasco Female Lifetime Achievement Award. She received praise throughout campus and the community for her efforts as the Mocs Interim Director of Athletics from July 16, 2012, until April 24, 2013. 

She is also a 2013 graduate of the University of Tennessee Leadership Institute. The UT Leadership Institute's purpose is to increase participants’ understanding of leadership in higher education and promote leadership effectiveness in the University system.

Herron has been the driving force behind the Mocs efforts for improving their Academic Progress Rate (APR) scores.  She worked to develop and implement a long-term strategy that resulted in record APR scores. In 2022-23, a total of seven programs at UTC beat the national average for APR scores, while all 15 were well above the NCAA minimum of 930. 

Herron began her time at Chattanooga as an Assistant Athletic Trainer from 1994-04, adding the title of Senior Woman Administrator in 1999. She was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director/SWA in 2003 and moved out of the Training Room and into the Compliance Office in 2004 where she served as the department’s compliance officer for three years.  In 2007, Herron moved into Administration where she was promoted to Senior Associate Athletics Director/SWA in July 2010 and to Executive Associate Athletic Director/SWA in 2018.

Prior to her arrival at UTC, Herron was the Head Women's Athletic Trainer at Florida Southern College. She received her Bachelor of Science degree in Corporate Fitness and Recreation from the University of West Georgia in 1991. While working as a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Troy University, Herron earned her master's degree in Foundations of Education in 1993.

A native of Rising Fawn, Ga., Herron worked with USA Softball for five years as the athletic trainer. From 1999-2003, she accompanied the National Team to several international tournaments in San Diego, Hawaii and Canada. In the summer of 2000, she put her athletic training skills to work for the Olympic Gold-Medal winning USA Softball Team as it prepared for the 2000 Summer Olympics with its "Central Park to Sydney" U.S. Tour.  In 2001, Herron interned at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Updated August 2024.