Matea Wasend, former School of Kinesiology MS student in sport sociology and 2-time recipient of the Tucker Center‘s Pam Borton Fellowship, is the inaugural recipient of the Erin Reifsteck Student Paper of the Year award from the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal (WSPAJ). Wasend receives this award for her publication, “Are women coached by women more likely to become sport coaches? Head coach gender and female collegiate athletes’ entry into the coaching profession,” appearing in WSPAJ volume 27, issue 2, and published with co-author Nicole M. LaVoi, PhD, Kinesiology senior lecturer and director of the Tucker Center. To honor Wasend’s work, her winning article has been given open access for the coming year.

The Reifsteck award recognizes high quality research that challenges current thinking, offers novel insights about a topic, and/or provides relevancy to a timely topic focused on women and girls in physical activity settings. The award, named in recognition of Dr. Erin Riefsteck, is given annually to a scholar of student status who has had an original research article published in the WSPAJ during the previous 12 months.

Wasend was also a 2-time recipient of the Tucker Center’s Pam Borton Fellowship for the Promotion of Girls and Women in Sport Leadership.