Dr. Margaret Stran is an internationally recognized leader in adapted athletics, a two-time Paralympian, national championship coach and athlete, and a pioneer in the development of collegiate opportunities for student-athletes with disabilities. She currently serves as Associate Director of Adapted Athletics and Clinical Associate Professor of Kinesiology at The University of Alabama, where she has been a member of the university community since 2003.
Stran is a co-founder of Alabama Adapted Athletics and has played a central leadership role in building the program from its inception into one of the nation's premier collegiate adapted athletics programs. Working alongside her husband and co-founder, Dr. Brent Hardin, she helped establish the program in 2003 and has been instrumental in its development, expansion and national prominence. What began with a women's wheelchair basketball program has grown into a comprehensive adapted athletics operation encompassing competitive and developmental opportunities for students with disabilities. The program has captured 26 national championships across wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis.
A decorated wheelchair basketball athlete herself, Stran competed collegiately at the University of Illinois, where she helped lead the program to three consecutive national championships from 1992-94 and earned All-Tournament recognition twice. She later competed for the Music City Lightning, becoming the first woman to play for the men's Division I team. She also competed for the University of Alabama's wheelchair basketball team, earning the program's Sportsmanship Award in 2005.
Stran went on to an accomplished international career with Team USA. She represented the United States at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympic Games, helping the U.S. Women's Wheelchair Basketball Team earn a silver medal, and returned to the Paralympic Games at Atlanta 1996, where Team USA captured the bronze medal. She also earned a silver medal at the 1994 World Championships in England.
Her coaching career has been equally distinguished. Stran was the first-ever head coach of the University of Alabama women's wheelchair basketball team, serving from 2003-07, and helped guide Alabama teams to three national championships as a coach. She also served internationally as an assistant coach with the U.S. Women's National Wheelchair Basketball Team, helping the United States win a gold medal at the 2010 World Championships, and served as head coach of the U.S. Women's U23 National Team, leading the team to a gold medal in Sydney, Australia. Her coaching career began in 1999 as head coach of the BlazeSports junior wheelchair basketball team.
Beyond competition, Stran has been a leading advocate for the expansion of Paralympic and adapted sport opportunities through higher education. She has helped develop Alabama's Paralympic Sport Initiative, which integrates high-performance sport with education, outreach, research and professional development. The initiative provides opportunities ranging from camps, courses and internships to community collaborations and a University of Alabama Paralympic Sports Certificate. Stran serves as the initiative's education contact and has helped advance its mission of expanding understanding and participation in Paralympic sport.
Her leadership extends beyond the University of Alabama. In 2024, Stran was elected to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Board of Directors, where she is serving a four-year term from 2024-28. In this role, she contributes to the governance, strategic direction and continued development of wheelchair basketball nationally.
Academically, Stran earned her Ph.D. in Kinesiology from The University of Alabama in 2007. Her academic and professional interests include adapted sport and disability, grant writing, leadership development, inclusion and accessibility. Her teaching emphasizes experiential learning and the use of sport as a vehicle for education, leadership and personal development.
Stran's professional and community leadership has also included service with the Lakeshore Foundation Board of Advisors and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities Advisory Council. She has also contributed to the field through research examining adapted athlete performance, concussion assessment and injury prevention in wheelchair sport.
Through her career as an athlete, coach, educator and administrator, Stran has helped shape the development of collegiate adapted athletics and has been a consistent advocate for creating meaningful opportunities for students with disabilities to learn, compete and succeed.
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