Connie Magnuson, Ph.D., director of the Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies program, is a recipient of the 2014 President’s Award for Outstanding Service. This highly prestigious award is presented each spring and recognizes exceptional service to the University, its schools, colleges, departments, and service units by an active or retired faculty or staff member. Recipients of this award have gone far beyond their regular duties and demonstrated an unusual commitment to the University community.

In the award letter, President Kaler writes, “Your excellence is a model for your colleagues and co-workers to emulate. True to the mission of this great land-grant institution, you have done more than your share to make the University of Minnesota one of the preeminent institutions in the nation.”

Magnuson has directed the Recreation, Park, and Leisure Studies program since 2006 and founded the all-University Gopher Adventure Race. This past January, she led a group of students to Tanzania and to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro as part of her course, REC 4301.

The School of Kinesiology has had one other recipient of the President’s Award for Outstanding Service. Faculty member and former director Prof. Mary Jo Kane received the award in 2006.