Wood joins Razorback staff

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Eric Wood joins the University of Arkansas Athletics Department staff as the Assistant Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Development Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long announced today.

He replaces Marvin Caston who has moved to the Razorback Foundation to serve as an assistant director.

Wood will begin work Nov. 30, with the Razorbacks.

"We are excited to welcome Eric Wood to our staff," Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Jeff Long said. "His experiences in student-athlete development at both the Atlantic Coast Conference and Wake Forest will be of great benefit to our program as we continue to enhance programming to benefit our more than 460 student-athletes. Our goal is to establish a program that is recognized as one of the Division I-A CHAMPS/Life Skills ‘Programs of Distinction’. I am confident that with the efforts of our student-athletes, coaches and administrators we can achieve this goal."

Prior to joining the Razorbacks, Wood was responsible for student-athlete programs and compliance with the Atlantic Coast Conference in Greensboro, N.C., a position he has held since Oct. 2005.

While working at the ACC, Wood coordinated several events including the ACC’s Postgraduate Scholarship Banquet and the Futures Internship program. He coordinated the on-campus efforts of the ACC’s member institutions for Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and CHAMPS/Life Skills initiatives. He also serves on the NCAA/ Life Skills Advisory Team.

Wood served as the liaison to the CHAMPS/Life Skills administrator, the Directors of Academic Support, Athletic Trainers and the Student-Athlete Welfare Committee. In addition, he provided NCAA and ACC rules interpretations, processed medical hardship and medical absence waivers and directed the conferences’ National Letter of Intent program.

Wood spent a year at Wake Forest University as the assistant director of compliance as well as at the University of New Haven as the assistant director of athletics-compliance and student development before working for the ACC.

Wood is a 1998 graduate of Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Conn., earning his degree in psychology. He was a four year letterman in football and competed one outdoor track season, earning the Medal of Merit, the athletic department’s highest honor as the student athlete of the year. Wood completed his master’s degree in counseling and guidance services at Clemson University in May 2000.

A 2009 graduate of the NCAA’s Leadership Institute for Ethnic Minority Males and Females, Wood is active in the Winston Salem and Greensboro community as a member of the Alpha Pi Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. He has also worked with Habitat for Humanity, Greensboro Urban Ministries, The MLK Tutoring Center, Millis Road Elementary School and The Salvation Army while serving on the Board of Mary’s House-a ministry that provides transitional housing to women in recovery from substance abuse and their minor children.

Wood and his wife Celia are originally from the Bronx, N.Y. and currently reside in Winston-Salem, N.C.

For more information about Razorback athletics, log on to ArkansasRazorbacks.com.