Faculty
Kinesiology program
Our dedicated kinesiology faculty teach across both undergraduate and graduate programs, bringing their diverse expertise in various kinesiology disciplines to the classroom and beyond.
Bradley J. Cardinal, PhD
Professor
Not accepting PhD or MS students
Brad's research interests include psychosocial and sociocultural aspects of health and physical activity.
Cathleen Brown Crowell, PhD, ATC
Clinical Professor
(Undergraduate Program Director)
Accepting PhD students
Not accepting MS students
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.
Dee Gillen, MS
Senior Instructor
(Kinesiology Experiential Learning Coordinator)
Dee brings an enthusiastic blend of her diverse kinesiology background and hiring history to her classes. In classroom courses, students apply interpersonal and kinesiology-career skills to take to the field. Within the community, Dee provides the workplace support for students and host companies for impactful experiential learning.
Kathy Gunter, PhD
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.
JJ Hannigan, PhD, ATC, CSCS
Assistant Professor
(OSU-Cascades)
Accepting PhD students
Not accepting MS students
JJ's research focuses on identifying biomechanical risk factors and improving treatment strategies for orthopedic injuries. His current research focuses on the effect of footwear and trail surfaces on running biomechanics and running injury risk.
Kim Hannigan, PhD, ATC
Clinical Associate Professor
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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. He also works to understand the intersection between athletic training and public health.
Deborah H John, PhD, MS
Professor and Extension Specialist
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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, PhD, ATC, CSCS
Clinical Professor
(Master of Athletic Training Program Director)
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, PhD
Associate Professor
Accepting PhD students
Not accepting MS students
Sam's research focuses on the health and well-being of typically developing children and children with disabilities. His recent work emphasizes 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, PhD
Professor
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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, PhD
Associate Professor
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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 highly violent communities. 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.
Colin Mulligan, PhD, ATC
Clinical Assistant Professor
(Clinical Education Coordinator)
Colin’s research focuses on deceleration during agility and change of direction maneuvers to better understand risk factors related to ACL injury. He also aims to reduce secondary ACL injury by improving our understanding of the functional tests used for athletes returning to sport following ACL reconstruction surgery.
Sean Newsom, PhD
Associate Professor
Accepting PhD students
Not accepting MS students
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
Senior Instructor
(Pre-Therapy and Allied Health Coordinator)
Emily's position includes coordinating clinical experiences for students within the pre-therapy and allied health option and teaching courses in kinesiology and athletic training.
Marc Norcross, PhD, ATC
Professor
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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, PhD
Associate Professor
Accepting both PhD and MS students
Mike's research interests include clinical and ergonomic applications of biomechanics to older adults and people with disabilities. Research focuses on preventing falls and fractures in older adults, and the ergonomics of assisted transfers of people with mobility disabilities between a wheelchair and vehicle.
Jay Penry, PhD
Senior Instructor
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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.
David Phillips, PhD
Assistant Professor
(OSU-Cascades)
Accepting both PhD and MS students
David's research focuses on neuromuscular coordination patterns, proprioception and virtual reality applications to human performance, successful aging and injury prevention.
Andrew Pitchford, PhD, CAPE
Assistant Professor
Accepting PhD students
Not accepting MS students
Andrew's research focuses on the physical activity, physical fitness, motor behavior, and health of individuals with developmental disabilities across the lifespan.
Christine Pollard, PhD
Professor
(Senior Associate Dean at OSU-Cascades)
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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, PhD
Associate Professor
Accepting PhD students
Not accepting MS students
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
Assistant Professor of Teaching
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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, PhD
Associate Professor
(Graduate Program Director)
Not accepting PhD or MS students
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, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor
(MAPE program director)
Not accepting PhD or MS students
Heidi's research interests include assessment in physical education, mentoring student teachers, and the effects of physical activity on learning.
Erica Woekel, PhD
Clinical Associate Professor
(Director Lifetime Fitness for Health)
Not accepting PhD or MS students
Erica's research focuses on health promotion and exercise psychology in an ethnically diverse population and examination of physical activity promotion for postpartum women and health behavior promotion.