Jerry Ainsworth was raised in Louisiana where he received a B.S. degree in health sciences from Northwestern Louisiana State University. He subsequently obtained an MPH in public health from Yale University and an Ed.D. from the University of Arkansas. During his collegiate years, he competed as a gymnast, trampolinist, and diver and served as an official at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, Germany. He pursued postdoctoral studies with the department of Social Medicine at the Universidad Nacional Autonama in Mexico City. During more than thirty years of teaching and administering college cour...