Cheryl Cooky, Ph.D., associate professor at Purdue University and affiliated scholar of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport, is quoted in the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. The article titled “#TimesUp in sport, too” mentions Cooky’s report that women’s sport receives just two per cent of total media coverage.
Dengel shares insight on impact of Olympic Games
With the XXIII Olympic Winter Games opening in Pyeongchang County, South Korea on February 8, Donald R. Dengel, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Laboratory of Integrative Human Physiology, is quoted on the U of M homepage on the long-term impact the Olympic Games can have on host countries. Read the feature here.
During winter break, Dengel led a course in London, England, about the impact of the 1908, 1948 and 2012 Olympics on the city, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and on sport. He also taught Sport and Politics Collide: 1936 & 1972 German Olympics.
Weiss receives Legacy Award by Girls on the Run International
Maureen Weiss, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology, was recognized with the Legacy Award, the highest honor given by Girls on the Run International at its annual Summit in Austin, TX, in January. Girls on the Run is a 501(c)(3) organization and physical activity-based positive youth development (PA-PYD) program designed to enhance girls’ social, psychological, and physical skills and behaviors to successfully navigate life experiences. The program uses running and other physical activities as a platform for teaching life skills and promoting holistic health outcomes for girls in grades 3-8. The organization’s reach is national—in all 50 states with over 200 local community councils, 50,000 volunteer coaches, and over 1.5 million girls served since inception. The organization is committed to diversity—serving girls from all walks of life and backgrounds. Nearly 50% of girls receive subsidized registration fees to enable them to attain the psychosocial and behavioral benefits of participating in each season’s 10-week program.
Weiss’ Legacy Award was based on eight years and hundreds of hours devoted to serving this non-profit organization—as a board member, consultant, speaker, and contributor to curricular development and effective coach delivery—as well as conducting an independent longitudinal evaluation study that demonstrated strong and lasting positive impact of program participation on girls’ life skills learning and psychosocial and behavioral outcomes—confidence, competence, connection, caring, character, and contribution to community and society. The study received widespread attention in a press release last August and Weiss presented the study results at the Summit meeting in a presentation titled, “How and Why Girls on the Run is an Exemplary Positive Youth Development Program.”
Joey Kronzer to serve as volunteer assistant tennis coach for Hamline University
Joey Kronzer, a current Kinesiology master’s student with an emphasis in sport and exercise psychology, and a member of the Sports Medicine Psychology Laboratory, has been named the Volunteer Assistant Coach of the Hamline University Men’s and Women’s Tennis Teams. The complete announcement is available here.
Kronzer is advised by Diane Wiese-Bjornstal, professor in the School of Kinesiology.
Lewis is co-author of article on fall prevention and physical activity resources for older adults
Beth Lewis, Ph.D., professor and director of the School of Kinesiology, is a co-author with U of M colleagues from the School of Nursing, the School of Public Health, and the Department of Psychology, an article in The Gerontologist. “Older Adults’ Utilization of Community Resources Targeting Fall Prevention and Physical Activity” discusses the effects of older adults knowing about and using local community resources to improve their level of physical activity, which is related to fall prevention in older adults. The study shows that the effects are only short-term and suggests research to identify future strategies.
Leon co-author on Alzheimer’s study
Art Leon, M.D., professor of exercise physiology in the School of Kinesiology, is a co-author of a study recently published in the American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias. The article is titled “Determination of Aerobic Capacity via Cycle Ergometer Exercise Testing in Alzheimer’s Disease.” The study investigated older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) to determine individualized aerobic capacity and ability to perform treadmill testing due to balance or gait issues.
First author of the publication is Leon’s former doctoral student Ulf G. Bronas, Ph.D., ATC, associate professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Health Science, College of Nursing, at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
NFL Players Association presents to Sport Management students
As Minneapolis hosts Super Bowl LII, on Tuesday, January 30, over 100 School of Kinesiology sport management students had the opportunity to listen to some of the top executives in the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA). Students from Dr. Jo Ann Buysse’s Sport in a Diverse Society class, Christopher Nettleton’s Sport Marketing class, and Ji Wu’s Sport Business class attended this event. Not only did they learn about the NFLPA, they also had the chance to ask questions about important social, medical, and business issues affecting the players in the NFL.
The National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) is the union for professional football players in the National Football League. Established in 1956, the NFLPA has a long history of assuring proper recognition and representation of players’ interests. The NFLPA has shown that it will do whatever is necessary to assure that the rights of players are protected—including ceasing to be a union, if necessary, as it did in 1989. In 1993, the NFLPA was again officially recognized as the union representing the players, and negotiated a landmark Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the NFL. The current CBA will govern the sport through 2020.
The NFLPA was represented by Carl Francis, Director of Communications, Don Davis, Sr., Director of Player Affairs, and Senior Advisor to the NFLPA Executive Director, and George Atallah, Assistant Executive Director of External Affairs.
Left to right: Ji Wu, Christopher Nettleton, Leo Lewis, Carl Francis, Jo Ann Buysse, Don Davis, George Atallah
Inoue secures funding for Japan College Sport Research program
Yuhei Inoue, Ph.D., assistant professor of sport management in the School of Kinesiology, received 20k funding from the Sport Industry Research Center at Temple University.
For the last two years, Inoue is part of the Japan College Sport Research program, where he and the project leads, Dr. Jermey Jordan and Dr. Daniel Funk at Temple University are assisting the University of Tsukuba, Japan with its effort to create a new athletic department and disseminate its newly adopted model of athletics administration to other universities across Japan. The project funds Inoue received as co-investigator will be used to deliver workshops for Japanese university administrators and to develop the organizational structure for the new athletic department at Tsukuba.
For more information about this project and Inoue’s involvement, see The Japan Times article “Japanese collegiate sports study ends Phase 1.”
LaVoi discusses Character Development in Sport on MomEnough podcast
For the recent issue of the MomEnough parenting podcast, Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology and co-director of the Tucker Center, discusses character development in sport, reflects on expectations, and parental issues. She also provides practical tips for supportive parenting.
Visit the podcast’s website and listen to the audio titled “Youth sports, child health and character development: Candid reflections and practical tips from Dr. Nicole Lavoi of CEHD (U of M).”
Kinesiology’s Betker and Orr involved in 3MT® events
In preparation for this year’s 3-Minute Thesis (3MT®) competition, CEHD is hosting a Mentoring Workshop on February 1. Last year’s University-wide 3MT winner Madeleine Orr, a sport management doctoral student in the School of Kinesiology will serve as a panelist at this event.
In addition, Orr and Kinesiology’s Morgan Betker, doctoral student with a focus on exercise physiology and previous winners of the CEHD 3MT competition are asked to be judges for the preliminary round of the competition, which will be held on Monday, February 26 and Thursday, March 1 of this year.
LaVoi’s edited book, Women in Sports Coaching, an international best-seller
The book “Women in Sports Coaching“, published 2016 by Routledge and edited by Nicole LaVoi, Ph.D., senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology and co-director of the Tucker Center was selected by Choice magazine as one of their Outstanding Academic Titles (OAT) for 2017.
The book is part of the Routledge Research in Sports Coaching series which provides a platform for leading experts and emerging academics to present ground-breaking work on the history, theory, practice, and contemporary issues of sports coaching.
A total of 24 titles (over 7,000 books are published by Taylor & Francis/Routledge) are selected by Routledge and CRC Press as Outstanding Academic Titles (OAT), awarded by Choice Magazine from 2012-2017.
Sport Management Graduate Student Madeleine Orr interviewed for CEHD’s Vision 2020
Madeleine Orr, Ph.D. student in the School of Kinesiology with the emphasis on sport management was recently interviewed for the CEHD Vision 2020 blog about her research on the economic, social and environmental impact of large-scale international sporting events.
As Minneapolis prepares for the upcoming Super Bowl events, Orr talks in the article titled “Does Hosting Sports Events like the Olympic Games or Super Bowl Really Benefit Cities?”, about how Minneapolis prepares for the upcoming “Big Game” events, as well as the impact that hosting the Olympics can have on cities.
Kinesiology student and goaltender Sidney Peters nominated for 2018 Hockey Humanitarian Award
Sidney Peters, a School of Kinesiology senior majoring in kinesiology and minoring in biology, and Gophers Women’s Ice Hockey goaltender is one of 11 nominees for the 2018 Hockey Humanitarian Award. The award is presented by the Hockey Humanitarian Award Foundation and is presented annually to a hockey student-athlete who makes significant contributions to both his/her team and community through leadership and volunteerism.
With over 785 volunteer hours logged, Peters is involved in many community outreach volunteer activities. She is a certified Emergency Medical Technician and volunteers for both the University of Minnesota EMS and the Rush-Copley Emergency Department in Aurora, IL. In the summer of 2016, Peters traveled to Haiti with Project Mediashare, an organization dedicated to providing and empowering Haitians with quality health care. While she was there, she volunteered at Hospital Bernard Mevs, which is the country’s only critical care and trauma hospital. Peters has also volunteered as the head goalie coach for Hockey Ministries International seasonal sports camps in Chicago.
During her Gopher career, she has given back to the community by volunteering locally with HopeKids, Special Olympics Minnesota, University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital.
Finalists for the Hockey Humanitarian Award will be announced in February, and the 2018 recipient will be honored on April 6 as part of the NCAA Men’s Frozen Four weekend in St. Paul, MN.
For more information on Peters and her nomination, visit gophersports.com.
British newspaper The Independent writes about Stoffregen’s research
Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory, has his research mentioned in the British newspaper The Independent.
The article titled “Virtual-reality headsets ‘make women sick,” is based on Stoffregen’s peer-published study that measured motion sickness using the VR headset Oculus Rift, which was originally published in Experimental Brain Research. The Independent piece quotes Stoffregen saying that motion sickness research reveals that “pretty much always women are more susceptible than men.”
Gao serves as co-investigator on NIH-funded R01 project
Zan Gao, Ph.D., associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory, together with researchers from the U of M, has successfully secured a 5-year NIH R01 research grant for $3.68 million. He is serving as co-investigator on the study.
The project titled “Measurement of glucose homeostasis in human brain by NMR” (2R01NS035192-17) will be led by Elizabeth Seaquist, M.D. and Gulin Oz, Ph.D., both professors in the School of Medicine. The goal of the study is to investigate how hypoglycemia leads to impaired awareness of hypoglycemia in individuals with type 1 diabetes using magnetic resonance spectroscopy and neurochemical approaches. Gao will serve as the physical activity specialist on the team to lead the measurement and analysis of patients’ physical activity behavior, sedentary behavior, and sleep patterns.
Lewis publishes article on sleep pattern changes and postpartum depressive symptoms
Beth Lewis, Ph.D., director and professor in the School of Kinesiology, has published the article “The effect of sleep pattern changes on postpartum depressive symptoms“ in BMC Women’s Health, a peer-reviewed, open access journal with a focus on the physical, mental, and emotional health of women.
The study finds an increased risk for depressive symptoms later in the postpartum phase if sleep problems with postpartum women worsen or show only minimal improvement over time. One conclusion recommends a six-week postpartum clinic visit to educate women about potential worsening of sleep patterns and to provide strategies for preventing sleep-related problems in order to decrease the risk of postpartum depression.
One of the co-authors is Katie Schuver, Ph.D., research associate in Lewis’s Exercise and Mental Health Laboratory.
Kinesiology’s Morgan Betker nominated for Midwest Association of Graduate Schools Excellence in Teaching Award
Morgan Betker, Ph.D. student in the School of Kinesiology, was nominated by the U of M Graduate School for the prestigious Midwest Association of Graduate Schools (MAGS) Excellence in Teaching Award. As the only doctoral student nominated, Betker will represent the U of M at MAGS’ 2018 regional competition. The award will be presented at the MAGS 74rd Annual Meeting, April 4-6, 2018, in Grand Rapids, MI.
MAGS Excellence in Teaching Award recognizes and encourages graduate students for future service as college and university faculty. It supports the Council of Graduate Schools’ (CGS) efforts to promote Preparing Future Faculty to meet needs in academia.
Betker is pursuing her Ph.D. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in exercise physiology, advised by Dr. Beth Lewis.
Kihl is editor, co-author of new book on corruption in sport
Lisa A. Kihl, Ph.D., associate professor of sport management in the School of Kinesiology has published an edited book titled Corruption in Sport: Causes, Consequences, and Reform. Published by Routledge, the book is a seminal text that explores the complexity of sport corruption in terms of its conceptualization, measurement, causes, consequences, reform, and future research. Corruption in sport is part of the “Routledge Research in Sport and Corruption” series.
Kihl wrote four of the chapters and was co-author on another. The book is available in print or as an
Tseng publishes on Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) in Journal of Motor Behavior
Yu-Ting Tseng, Ph.D. (2017), former advisee of Jürgen Konczak, Ph.D., professor in the School of Kinesiology and director of the Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory, is primary author on an article recently published in Journal of Motor Behavior. The article is titled “Position Sense Dysfunction Affects Proximal and Distal Arm Joints in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder. ”
Co-authors are Chia-Liang Tsai (National Cheng Kung Univeristy, Taiwan,), Fu-Chen Chen (National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan), and Jürgen Konczak.
Developmental coordination disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects up to 6% of all school-age children. Children with DCD have problems with coordinating movements, may have balance problems and show poor motor skill learning. This study assessed wrist joint position sense in a cohort of Taiwanese middle school children with DCD and related it to the observable motor deficits. Results document that children with DCD is associated with proprioceptive dysfunction of the wrist/hand complex, which likely contributes to the motor problems in children with DCD.
Yu-ting Tseng is currently a post-doc at the Division of Child Health Research, Institute of Population Health Sciences in the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) in Zhunan, Taiwan.
Gao and colleagues publish in BioMed Research International
Zan Gao, Ph.D., School of Kinesiology associate professor, has published an article with colleagues in BioMed Research International. This study synthesized literature concerning casual evidence of effects of various physical activity programs on motor skills and cognitive development in typically developed preschool children. Of the five studies, four (80%) showed significant and positive changes in language learning, academic achievement, attention, and working memory.
Nan Zeng, lead author on the article, is a Ph.D. candidate in Kinesiology and is advised by Dr. Gao.
The full citation:
“Effects of Physical Activity on Motor Skills and Cognitive Development in Early Childhood: A Systematic Review.” N. Zeng, M. Ayyub, H. Sun, X Wen, P Xiang, Z. Gao. BioMed Research International, 2017.