Kinesiology

Program Faculty

Jennifer Beamer, Ph.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor

Jen’s research interests and instructional expertise revolve around best practices for including people with disabilities in physical education and activity.

Bradley J. Cardinal, Ph.D.
Professor

Brad's research interests include psycho-social and socio-cultural aspects of health and physical activity.

Cathleen Brown Crowell, PhD, ATC
Clinical Associate Professor
(Undergraduate Program Director)

Cathy’s research focuses on postural stability and human motion deficits in the physically active with lower extremity joint instability and chronic injuries. She works to determine mechanisms for injury and biomechanical characteristics that can lead to better patient outcomes.

Kathy Gunter, Ph.D.
Professor and Extension Specialist

Kathy’s research focuses on examining the effects of a physically active lifestyle on chronic disease prevention and management. Efforts are primarily directed toward youth, older adults, and rural populations, with a secondary focus on policies that influence physical activity behaviors.

Kim Hannigan, Ph.D., ATC
Clinical Associate Professor

Kim’s position includes overseeing the curricular development for the program, accreditation compliance and teaching of multiple courses in kinesiology and athletic training.  Her focus is on student learning and translation of classroom content to clinical practice.

Mark Hoffman, PhD, ATC, EMT, FNATA
Professor

Mark's research focuses on understanding and improving factors influencing the health, wellness, and safety of wildland firefighters. As well as understanding the intersections between Athletic Training and Public Health and supporting both professions.

Deborah H John, Ph.D., MS
Professor and Extension Specialist

Deborah's research integrates psychosocial and behavioral kinesiology with environmental public health sciences, particularly in studying physical activity as a behavioral disparity and health inequity in diverse populations in relationship to place-based sociocultural and environmental contexts across four physical activity domains, e.g., recreation, transportation, occupation and household.

Sam Johnson, Ph.D., ATC, CSCS
Clinical Associate Professor

Sam’s research focuses on athletic injury prevention by increasing implementation of best practice recommendations and by understanding how the nervous system controls movement. In the classroom, his goal is to help students learn and more importantly apply the material to their clinical practice.

Sam Logan, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Sam's research focuses on the health and wellbeing of typically developing children and children with disabilities, with recent work emphasizing the role of independent mobility in the development of language, cognition, play interactions, and motor behaviors of children diagnosed with cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Down syndrome, and other significant physical and cognitive diagnoses.

Megan MacDonald, Ph.D.
Professor

Megan's research interests are related to how motor skills and physically active lifestyles improve the lives of children and youth with and without disabilities. She has specific research interest in the movement skills of children with autism spectrum disorder including how to improve motor skills for children with autism and how motor skills interact with social communication skills.

William V. Massey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
(Graduate Program Director)

Will’s line of research focuses on the role of sport, play, and physical activity on cognitive and social development for children growing up in low-income and/or high violent communities. Within this, he focuses on how engagement in physically active environments can contribute to the development of children who are at risk for physical, cognitive, and social disparities.

Sean Newsom, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Sean's research is aimed at elucidating the mechanisms underlying improved insulin sensitivity following lifestyle modification – particularly exercise activity. The long-term goal of this work is to develop novel and effective therapeutic intervention strategies for the treatment of insulin resistance in humans.

Emily Norcross, MA, ATC
Instructor

Emily's position includes coordinating clinical experiences for students within the Pre-Therapy and Allied Health option and teaching of multiple courses in kinesiology and athletic training.

Marc Norcross, Ph.D., ATC
Associate Professor

Marc’s research seeks to reduce injury risk thorough the identification of modifiable factors that contribute to the use of unfavorable movement patterns. He also aims to improve population-level health and wellness by working to increase the implementation and dissemination of preventative best practices.

Mike Pavol, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Mike's research interests include clinical and ergonomic applications of biomechanics to older adults and people with disabilities. The primary foci of his research are in two areas: 1) preventing falls and fractures in older adults, and 2) ergonomics of assisted transfers of people with mobility disabilities between a wheelchair and vehicle.

Jay Penry, Ph.D.
Clinical Assistant Professor

Jay's research centers on problems of human performance, both in athletics and activities of daily living. He is particularly interested in improving field tests of human performance so that criterion measures can be better estimated in individuals who might not otherwise have access to a laboratory environment.

Andrew Pitchford, PhD, CAPE
Assistant Professor

Andrew's research focuses on preventing health disparities among individuals with developmental disabilities, including Down syndrome and autism spectrum disorder, across the lifespan. Many individuals with developmental disabilities experience poorer health than the general population, due at least in part to experiencing barriers for participating in physical activity. He works to systematically examine these health disparities and then identify, design, and test targeted interventions for health promotion.

Christine Pollard, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Christine’s research is dedicated to improving the scientific understanding of lower extremity injuries, and advancing injury-prevention and rehabilitation programs based on this knowledge. Her research is primarily focused in two areas: 1) identifying biomechanical changes at the knee in individuals’ post-ACL reconstruction; and, 2) examining the influence of varying types of running footwear on running biomechanics.

Matt Robinson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

Matt's research interests focus on understanding mitochondrial protein turnover and respiration during pathophysiology of Type 2 Diabetes and related metabolic disorders.

Kim Rogers, PhD, MPH, MS
Instructor

Kim's teaching expertise includes the psychosocial aspects of sport and exercise, and health promotion/health behavior. Her research interests include shame and self-compassion in the physical domain. In the classroom, she is committed to promoting the principles of DEI, daring leadership, and psychological safety.

John Schuna Jr, Ph.D.
Associate Professor

John's research areas encompass objective physical activity assessment, sedentary behavior assessment, and physical activity and sedentary behavior epidemiology. Recent work has focused on automated technology interfaces for physical activity assessment, and the value of total volume of physical activity (i.e., energy expenditure) irrespective of intensity.

Heidi Wegis, Ph.D.
Clinical Associate Professor

Heidi's research interests include assessment in physical education, mentoring student teachers, and the effects of physical activity on learning.

Erica Woekel, Ph.D.
Clinical Associate Professor

Erica's research focused on health promotion and exercise psychology in an ethnically diverse population and examination of physical activity promotion for postpartum women and health behavior promotion.