IRVINE, Calif. – Two of the longest-tenured athletic trainers at Concordia University Irvine are transitioning in to new leadership roles with our Golden Eagles.

Glory Fung has served as Head Athletic Trainer for the past decade and will now concentrate specifically as a full-time administrator on evolving initiatives geared towards CUI student-athlete success. He will focus particularly on mental health and positive student-athlete experience and can be more proactive in taking on more projects in this expanded role. Fung will still oversee and assist the athletic training and strength and conditioning branches of CUI Athletics.

In 2021, Fung was promoted to his current title of Associate Athletic Director of Student-Athlete Health and Well-Being.

"No one in our department is more deserving of promotion than Glory," said CUI athletic director Crystal Rosenthal.  "He is the definition of servant leader, as he consistently leads with the best interest of our student-athletes in mind. It has been amazing having the support of our Executive Vice President Tim Odle and the cabinet to acknowledge the need to grow our administration team, and support Glory in this new chapter in his career."

The CUI Athletics department is also proud to announce the promotion of Jeff Brown to Head Athletic Trainer. Brown will assume additional duties in this new role such as scheduling our ATC coverage for Concordia's 22 athletic programs and coordinating day-to-day logistics throughout the school year.

These two changes in the structure of the athletics department will help make a positive impact in multiple ways.

"After working with Glory over the past several years, the first phrase that comes to mind is servant leadership, so I am very excited for this opportunity and I plan to continue leading this department in that direction," said Brown. "I am excited to serve in this new leadership role and bring a few new ideas to the table, but I am more excited to see how Glory is able to grow our athletic department in his new role."

"Our entire athletic training staff is unbelievable, so to have someone like Jeff ready to step up is a great testament to the department Glory has established," continued Rosenthal.  "I am well aware of the importance of our ATC staff to our student-athlete experience, and I look forward to the department continuing to grow under Jeff's leadership."
 
Fung has served nearly two decades as a certified athletic trainer at multiple schools on the west coast. After starting his career as a graduate assistant at California State University Monterey Bay in 2003, he gained experience at California Baptist and his alma mater Azusa Pacific as a full-time athletic trainer. He has worked at Concordia since 2012 and worked tirelessly to help steer our school through the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We are all thankful to work at an institution and with a President, Executive Vice President and Athletic Director that are pouring resources in to meeting these needs for our student-athletes," said Fung. "We are trying to set ourselves a part from other NCAA DII institutions and make sure we allocate time and service programming to better position our student-athletes for success."

Brown earned his bachelor's degree in athletic training at Concordia and also earned his master's degree in sports medicine at University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS). He has served at Concordia as an assistant ATC for the past five school years since coming on full-time in 2018.  His duties have included working with a number of our programs, such as women's basketball, men's and women's tennis, and both cross country teams in recent seasons.
 
"I would describe our athletic training staff as cohesive and selfless," added Brown. "We highlight each other's strengths and continuously support each other, and I could not ask for a better group to work with."
 
"My favorite part about working with our student-athletes is watching them succeed on and off the field, and being able to play even a small part in that," admitted Brown. " I also love getting a chance to catch up with our student-athletes when they come back to campus as alumni, and see what they have gone on to do after graduation."
 
Please join us in congratulating this dynamic duo and all our athletic training staff for what they do for our student-athletes and our university!