ALLISON BOWERSOCK, 37 / Owner, RunAbout Sports Roanoke
Allison Bowersock double-majored in Health Science and Nutrition & Wellness at Bridgewater College, following up with her master’s in Kinesiology from JMU, as well as a Ph.D. from Virginia Tech in Education, Curriculum, and Instruction, cognate in Health Promotion. As owner of RunAbout Sports, she has grown the free online training program, Team RunAbout, from 220 runners to almost 700 people, providing support for runners of all ages and skill levels. Bowersock has lobbied Roanoke County elementary schools to adopt additional recess guidelines passed by state legislature, authored a textbook chapter and has been quoted twice by Runner’s World. She serves on a variety of community program tasks forces, including Healthy Roanoke Valley and leads fundraising goals for various nonprofits and organizes donation drives for Matthew’s Child. “I’m hopeful my passions impact others by motivating them to look to physical activity as an antidote for many of the things that ail on an acute and chronic level,” she says.
- Keynote speaker for the Go Red for Women luncheon
- Named among the top four Exercise is Medicine leaders by the American College of Sports Medicine
- Ran the Boston Marathon
From the Nomination: “Allison Bowersock is a tireless advocate for all things health and fitness for our community. … Bowersock works incredibly hard in many facets of our community to make positive change through advocating for healthy lifestyle habits. She does not take her education or her professional experience for granted, and she feels very strongly that opportunities she has been given should be used to help others not so fortunate. … she is on the ground making efforts right here in our community to share the information she has with people who need it right now. Bowersock is a true champion for wellness and fitness for the whole community. She has a rare and unstoppable combination of academic credentials, teaching abilities, athletic prowess, community organizing skills and heart. This unique set of qualities has enabled her to make real differences for people throughout the Roanoke Valley, from motivating someone to become physically active, to helping elite runners become faster, to helping lawmakers make changes that improve children’s quality of life. Unlike so many others, Bowersock is always willing to share what she knows with others, and she does so in creative ways … Bowersock uses her platform to consistently and compassionately help others improve their fitness and wellness for the better.”
What do you love about Roanoke?
Bowersock: “I love the recent upswing in young professionals moving here and starting families here. When I moved to Roanoke in 2006, the vibe was very different than it is now. Roanoke is now a very fun, active and vibrant place to live with lots of things to do for people of ALL ages, but particularly people who love the outdoors. I also love that Roanoke has so many amazing community events and activities. It seems like on any given weekend there are multiple fun activities happening and it’s a good problem to have to pick which one to attend and not feel like you need to leave town to have a fun family experience or outing with friends.”
How does your passion impact our community?
Bowersock: “I have been a lifelong proponent of exercise as medicine, and I feel that this passion reinforces the many hats I currently wear in my personal and professional life. Overseeing a retail running and walking store with almost 700 people in our training group following allows me to apply my physical activity-related degrees in helping our folks use exercise as medicine for fitness, stress, performance, weight management, self-esteem and many other variables which can impact your quality of life. My appointment at the medical school allows me to apply my dissertation research in a very practical way and teach future physicians how to prescribe physical activity for their patients but also for themselves and why it is important to do so in both cases. Both scenarios are incredibly meaningful to me: the store allows me to help people on a large group and individual level, and my work with the medical school is very special as VTC is one of only a handful of medical schools in the country who teach physical activity prescription in almost all levels of undergraduate medical education.”
