Douglas E. Abrams is a University of Missouri law professor, and recently retired from a 42-year career coaching youth hockey. He now speaks and writes law journal articles and newspaper editorials about player safety and the role of youth sports in America.

In addition to being a member of the MomsTEAM Institute Board of Directors, Prof. Abrams is a member of MomsTEAM.com’s Team of Experts, and writes a column for the MomsTEAM website called “Youth Sports Hero of the Month,” which profiles players, coaches and teams whose values and sportsmanship set a special example.

Prof. Abrams played a major role in creating mid-Missouri’s organized youth hockey program beginning in 1991.  During his 11 years as the new association’s first president, enrollment grew from 25 players to 185 by assuring equal opportunity, providing need-based scholarships, and stressing citizenship education. His teams’ community service projects won national, state and local recognition; a local newspaper called one team “a philanthropic organization on skates.”

With royalties from his four books about family law and juvenile law, Prof. Abrams founded Happiness for Health, a permanent endowment providing toys, stuffed animals, games, and parties for patients at the University of Missouri Children’s Hospital.

Prof. Abrams served on the Missouri Bar’s Children and the Law Commission, and was the principal drafter of several pediatric health and safety statutes.  He currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Advisory Board of the Missouri Division of Youth Services, one of the nation's foremost juvenile justice treatment agencies, and serves on the Advisory Board of the University of Missouri Children’s Hospital, and on the Board of Directors of the Missouri Juvenile Justice Association, and is a Fellow of the Missouri Bar Foundation, which improves the law through education, public service, and charitable initiatives.

Prof. Abrams is a past recipient of the Meritorious Service to the Children of America Award, presented by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, and in 2011 received the Missouri Bar's Distinguished Service Award for longtime contributions to the administration of justice.

A former standout hockey goaltender (he set the Eastern College Athletic Conference Division III record for most saves in a game with 64). Prof. Abrams graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Wesleyan University and received his J.D. degree from Columbia Law School.

The Manchester (N.H.) Union Leader has called Prof. Abrams “one of the people who help serve as the conscience for anyone involved in youth sports” and recognized him as “a nationally known authority on youth sports.”