The progress, challenges, and politics around the landmark civil rights law
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF KINESIOLOGY | FALL 2022
TITLE IX AT 50
Of course, a big part of that growth includes making mistakes. The great leader and activist Nelson Mandela said, “I never lose. I either win or learn.” While winning might seem like the only goal, I would argue that learning from our mistakes is just as important. It helps us do better next time—and maybe even break through to a higher level of success.
There’s just something about a college campus in the fall— you can almost smell the possibilities in the air.
I’m reminded of this as I reflect on the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the landmark civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program that receives federal funding. Institutions across the country, including the University of Michigan, struggled to implement the law in consistent, impactful, and equitable ways. In this issue of Movement, Marissa Pollick, our faculty Title IX expert, discusses the progress, challenges, and politics around Title IX (p. 8).
On a personal note, I was saddened to learn of the passing of former director Dee Edington, who was one of Michigan Kinesiology’s first change agents (p. 5). He will be deeply missed, and we are committed to continuing the research, advocacy, and leadership excellence that he was so proud of.
With gratitude, Lori Ploutz-Snyder, PhD Professor and Dean School of Kinesiology
Above: U-M students at orientation. Austin Thomason/Michigan Photography. Below: Dean Lori Ploutz-Snyder. Eric Bronson/Michigan Photography.
I’m excited about the ways our school continues to use sport and physical activity to make the world a more equitable place. We still have a way to go, but every step forward builds momentum toward a better, healthier, and more just society.
LETTER FROM THE DEAN
I see our alumni, students, faculty, and staff creating meaningful change for so many different types of
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communities. For example, Dr. Dominique KinnettHopkins advocates for patients with multiple sclerosis to receive proactive exercise interventions as part of their treatment plan (p. 12). A group of Movement Science faculty have completely restructured a foundational course so it’s more inclusive and balanced for all students (p. 14). And Dr. Monique Butler has created scholarship, mentorship, and internship programs to help people from underrepresented populations begin and advance in their healthcare careers (p. 24).
I’m looking forward to welcoming our students back to campus (or to campus for the first time) and watching them learn, explore, and grow over the year.
Weak Spot Quad contraction changes after ACL surgery may cause lingering issues
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Associate Deans
Dr. Lori Ploutz-Snyder
Dr. Pete Bodary
Nondiscrimination Policy Statement
Drew Moser Writers
2021 homecoming and alumni awards Pathfinder
Dr. Greg Cartee Editors
Remembering Dee Edington
Linette Lao, Invisible Engines
Polarized Instagrammers fueled media coverage of NFL athlete activism
Dr. Steve Broglio
Emily Mathews
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Jordan B. Acker, Michael J. Behm, Mark J. Bernstein, Paul W. Brown, Sarah Hubbard, Denise Ilitch, Ron Weiser, Katherine E. White, Mary Sue Coleman, ex officio
Kinnett-Hopkins aims to add exercise interventions to MS healthcare
Dr. Monique Butler, class of 1997 Starting Fast
Is published three times per year (two digital, one print) by the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology. Visit us online at Deankines.umich.edu/movement
3 2022FALL|MOVEMENT| Connect with Michigan Kinesiology kines.umich.edu /umkines Let Us Know What You Think Contact emathews@umich.eduor Editor, Movement Magazine, U-M School of Kinesiology 830 N. University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048
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2 From the Dean 4 By the Numbers 5 Change Agent
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14 Equitable Learning Faculty team transforms MOVESCI 110 She Persisted
34 (Maize and) Blue Line Jenna Trubiano, class of 2017
The Human Touch Gates works to restore hand function in amputees
The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, height, weight, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the Senior Director for Institutional Equity, and Title IX/Section 504/ADA Coordinator, Office for Institutional Equity, 2072 Administrative Services Building, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1432, 734-763-0235, TTY 734-647-1388, institutional. equity@umich.edu. For other University of Michigan information call 734-764-1817.
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AES program grows exponentially since inception
Title IX Turns 50
10 Trainer Coordinator
Faculty Promotions
The Regents of the University of Michigan
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Laura Bailey, Vanessa Barton, Jean Hunt, Emily Mathews, Drew Moser Design
Evolution
© 2022 Regents of the University of Michigan
Paul Porter, class of 2010
Stack drafts proclamation to help Michiganders move more
Dancing with Science Anthony Milian, class of 2022 Moving Michigan
MOVEMENT MAGAZINE
Powder Keg
Dr. Kathy Babiak
AT master’s program completes successful first year
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Cierra Godsey, class of 2022 Faculty Retirements Kines Moves the World 2022 global opportunitiesengagement Back HoMe
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Alternate Route Kinesiology launches two winter-start programs
2022FALL|MOVEMENT|4 BY THE NUMBERS* MICHIGAN KINESIOLOGY *Numbers reflect 2021-22 data in comparison to 2020-21 data SAW A 21% INCREASE IN APPLICATIONS,UNDERGRADUATEFIRST-YEARA27% INCREASE IN AAPPLICATIONS,TRANSFERAND 19% INCREASE IN GRADUATE APPLICATIONS Taught 1,840 STUDENTS for 20,502 credit hours Generated $6,096,722 IN RESEARCH EXPENDITURES DESPITE LINGERING COVID-RELATED RESEARCH DELAYS AND DISRUPTION DURING THE NEW BUILDING MOVE Supportedfromstudents 42 STATES and 21 COUNTRIES PUBLISHED 142 research papers in peer-reviewed journals Gave $518,127 in scholarships & awards to 138 students Launched the Movement Science & Applied Exercise Science (MAES)programwinter-start(seep.42) Enrolled 370 newstudentsundergraduateand 64 newstudentsgraduate Welcomed 5 new faculty members & 19 new staff members and 3 new postdoctoral research fellows to our team (see p. 28) 48 RESEARCHINVESTIGATORSBYSUBMITTEDGRANTSPRINCIPAL (A SCHOOL RECORD!)
In 1978, Edington founded the Health Management Research Center (HMRC), which became a worldwide leader in discovering how health choices influence total health and productivity, quality of life, vitality, and health care economics throughout a lifetime. For nearly 50 years, the HMRC provided the scientific basis for organizational health. Its accomplishments, along with Edington’s work, continue to impact people across the healthcare spectrum and in every industry.
Edington’s expertise earned him high-profile awards, including Distinguished Contribution to the Science of Health Risk Appraisal, Society of Prospective Medicine; One-Hundred Health Industry Leaders VIP Award; Michigan State University Distinguished Alumnus, School of Education and Kinesiology Career Award; Lifetime Achievement Award–Governor’s Award, State of Michigan; Distinguished Career Award, Woodward Lecture, US Navy Medical; and the Excellence and Innovation in Value Purchasing Award, National Business Group on Health.
Dee Edington. Courtesy photo.
He also pointed to Edington’s significant research contributions.
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BY DREW MOSER
“I remember his first faculty meeting as director of our unit. He asked the faculty to name the top ten programs in the country and Michigan wasn’t named by those in attendance. He stated that his goal—our goal— should be within that ranking and ultimately become the top program in the US,” Templin said.
Remembering Dee Edington
CHANGE AGENT
Dr. Tom Templin, retired professor of Kinesiology, was a PhD student in 1976 and recalled Edington as a “change agent.”
“We have come a long way since Dee took on that position and we should all be grateful for his vision, leadership, and contributions to the fields of kinesiology and public health.”
Dr. Dee Edington, former Kinesiology director, professor, and renowned health and wellness researcher, passed away in June 2022. He was 84 years old.
In 1984, the university separated Physical Education from the School of Education, and Edington became the first director of the Division of Physical Education. In 1990, the U-M Board of Regents officially approved the Division of Kinesiology as a stand-alone, degreegranting unit with Edington at the helm.
Dr. Jeff Horowitz, professor of Movement Science, agreed that Edington was “an excellent leader who clearly put the school on a trajectory for success.”
Edington is survived by his wife Marilyn, son David (Stacie), and grandchildren Kaiya and Dylan. In recent years, anyone Edington spoke with would hear about his love for his family, including the tremendous joy that his grandchildren brought to his life. n
Edington received his BS in mathematics from Michigan State University, MS in physical education from Florida State University, and PhD in exercise physiology from Michigan State University. He began teaching at the University of Michigan in 1976, and in 1977 was appointed chair of the Physical Education program, which at the time was housed in the School of Education.
“His shift from conducting complex mechanistic research in exercise physiology to his high-impact work aimed at improving health and wellness in the workplace is truly impressive,” Horowitz said. “This is a testament to his passion, vision, and abilities to promote health and well-being in very different ways. He will be sorely missed.”
Edington was the author or coauthor of more than 800 articles and presentations. He also wrote several books, including Zero Trends: Health as a Serious Economic Strategy and Shared Values–Shared Results: Positive Organizational Health as a Win-Win Philosophy.
The University of Michigan Physical Education (PE) program began in 1870 and enjoyed robust enrollment until the 2010s. Although the quality of the U-M PE program remained high, undergraduate enrollment declined significantly year over year, both at U-M and at universities across the country.
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Students in AES 332, “Principles of Motor Behavior,” collect data. Austin Thomason/Michigan Photography.
Over the past four years, the University of Michigan Applied Exercise Science program has evolved into a highly sought-after major, with a 355% increase in student applications. That evolution was more than 150 years in the making.
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As a result, school leadership recommended transitioning the program’s focus from K-12 physical education to more comprehensive physical activity,
AES program grows exponentially since inception
HF faculty quickly realized that a number of required courses, some mandated by state certification requirements for the former PE curriculum, were no longer relevant for the HF major. Using data on current and future employment demands for health, fitness, and wellness professionals and input from leaders in the health and fitness industry, the HF faculty created a revised curriculum with a new name. The Michigan Association of State Universities (MASU) approved the curriculum for Applied Exercise Science (AES) in fall 2018.
BY EMILY MATHEWS EVOLUTION
health, and wellness education and research. In spring 2013, the U-M Board of Regents approved the transition of PE to Health and Fitness (HF).
The program’s more open structure enables students to complete minors, take courses outside of Kinesiology, and study abroad. Jacobs thinks this flexibility is one of the best parts of AES. “There’s so many different options and there’s so many different ways that you can go with [AES],” he said. “It’s just great for coming into college with a general concept of what interests you and then as it goes on, figuring out specifically what you want to do with it.”
In their first two years, AES students learn fundamental concepts to address the breadth of content in the health and fitness industries. This approach helped AES senior Ben Jacobs discover his passion. Coming into the program, he thought he’d focus on athlete exercise physiology. But as he learned more in his classes, “I wanted to completely flip what I thought I wanted to do with [my degree],” Jacobs said. He spent the past summer interning with the Michigan Medicine Cardiac Rehabilitation Department. “I’m working under a group of clinical exercise physiologists,” Jacobs said. “[We’re] using exercise as rehabilitation as medicine to help people with peripheral artery disease, or recovering from any kind of heart surgery, get back their functional fitness and be able to live their lives the way they want to.”
The AES program provides applied interdisciplinary training in the foundations of the scientific understanding of exercise and health through the lifespan. Students engage in study that is certification-based and practice-oriented: courses and practical experiences directed toward certification by organizations such as the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) or the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).
in the Movement Science and Sport Management programs. “My first semester here I was actually in Sport Management. I switched [to AES] my second semester,” she said. “I think learning that you could mix a lot of things together, and still have a successful career, is what drew me to [AES]. Sport Management and Movement Science are two very different things, but they found a way to kind of combine them with AES.”
Ultimately, the AES program prepares students to work in the private or corporate fitness industry, communitybased health organizations, and university or hospital settings. And graduates have a lot of experience under their belts already when they join the workforce. “This major gives you a lot of room for potential careers,” said Vanderlende, whose most recent internship focused on worksite wellness. “Having the internships as a requirement definitely helps get your foot out the door into the real world. And helps kickstart things that can come to fruition after you graduate.” n
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Lecturer Kathy Kern (left) assists a student in AES 332. Austin Thomason/Michigan Photography.
In their last two years, AES students choose between two tracks, clinical and management, to specialize their required coursework, internships, and field experiences. AES senior Ericka Vanderlende likes that the program takes advantage of the course offerings
Marissa Pollick and the 1977 U-M women’s tennis team. Bentley Historical Library.
IX50
After Title IX’s enactment in 1972, sport opportunities and resources for girls and women significantly began to change. These changes were first reflected in the dramatic increase in participation numbers for girls and women in high school and college athletics. Over time, girls and women also began receiving equitable treatment and benefits in those athletic programs, in comparison to their male counterparts. Today, nearly five decades after its enactment, Title IX is considered responsible for major social and cultural changes in sport, including the widespread acceptance of women as athletes and the recognition of women as potential leaders in the sport industry.
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Movement Magazine: In your opinion, what are the most significant improvements/ changes for which Title IX is responsible?
Pollick was also a U-M student-athlete during the early years following the enactment of Title IX.
Marissa Pollick: From a legal perspective, it is critical to recognize that Title IX helped ensure civil rights protections based on sex in educational institutions, including access to higher education, employment of faculty and staff, and sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. Its application to athletics created the most controversy at the outset, including a multitude of legal challenges.
MM: Which areas lag farthest behind?
an ongoing debate and controversy. It is a vivid reminder that Title IX enforcement is a function of our federal government agencies and accordingly subject to political influence. Under the Trump administration, the Department of Education rescinded guidance that extended Title IX protections based on gender identity and transgender status. The Biden administration is expected to restore those protections. The sexual harassment regulations were also modified under the Trump administration. This narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and permitted a higher evidentiary standard that raised concerns among victim advocates that complainants will be more reluctant to come forward and policy violations will be more difficult to prove.
ne sentence that improved the lives of millions of women turned 50 in June 2022. Under Title IX, the civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in any education program or activity receiving federal assistance, access and equity for women has improved, but there’s still work to do. Marissa Pollick, attorney, Sport Management lecturer, and Title IX expert, discusses progress, challenges, and politics around Title IX.
MM: What might this rule mean for NCAA sports? Currently, each sport is able to set its own rules regarding who participates.
department is expected to issue a rule codifying protections for transgender students and rolling back former US Secretary of Education Betsty DeVos’s controversial rule about sexual assault and harassment. What will this mean for transgender students and assault MP:survivors?Thisis
MP: The vast majority of schools and institutions receiving federal funds are not in full compliance with Title IX athletics regulations related to participation, scholarships, and treatment. There is also a widespread misunderstanding of Title IX’s application to sexual misconduct in educational programs and the basis for civil liability of schools and institutions that fail to promptly investigate and take appropriate remedial action for sexual misconduct policy violations.MM:Theeducation
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TITLE TURNSIX50
BY LAURA BAILEY
MM: In the future, are there other areas that you expect will become bigger issues that are subject to Title IX?
All of the above was noncompliant with Title IX and its implementing regulations specifically related to athletics. Unfortunately, schools like Michigan were given extensions of time to comply, and there was no individual cause of action recognized under Title IX to sue and recover money damages. Enforcement was handled exclusively through federal agency complaint investigations that were slow and lacked follow-up and monitoring.
MM: You were a student athlete here. Can you talk a little about how Title IX impacted sports at U-M?
MP: I expect transgender participation in sports will remain at the forefront given the current political climate. Also, sexual abuse in educational programs, including athletics, is a prominent concern.
The vast improvements in participation opportunities, scholarships, and treatment for Michigan women athletes occurred much later following significant changes in university leadership and athletic administration. By the 1990s, University of Michigan announced policy commitments to foster success of women faculty, students, and staff which included more equitable allocation of resources in all areas, including athletics. There was greater awareness and attention to institutional obligations under Title IX law and regulations, which in turn led to the development and progress of our current nationally-elite women’s athletics teams. n
MM: How much do these rule changes really mean if each administration can just dismantle the previous administration’s work?
Mr. Canham and then football coach Bo Schembechler also led a national campaign to preclude women athletes from receiving the Block M. I was among
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The 1910 U-M women’s tennis team. Bentley Historical Library.
MP: This is a good question in the context I previously noted. The 50-year history of Title IX reflects that enforcement was lax under certain political administrations that did not prioritize civil rights protection based on sex.
MP: It is important to remember that civil rights protections for transgender status under Title IX extend to employment and educational programs beyond athletics. It has recently generated the most controversy in sports as transgender participation in women’s sports has become a political wedge issue. If the definition of sex under Title IX is expanded to include gender identity and transgender status, it will be at odds with recent NCAA policy changes as well as many state laws and high school athletic association policies. This will be a matter for judicial interpretation and there currently are pending cases presenting these questions in high school and college sport settings.
MP: I was a four-year letter winner in tennis at Michigan in the “early” varsity years [1974-78]. Our athletic director, Don Canham, was among the leading opponents of Title IX in the nation. He reluctantly established a bare-bones athletic program for women that included just six varsity sports. We had limited access to facilities and practice times and were provided one uniform. We had no locker room in a facility [Track and Tennis Building] that had multiple locker rooms for male athletes. We were bumped from our practice facility whenever certain men’s teams wanted to move indoors for extra workout space.
the first group of women athletes to receive a varsity letter, which was a small and discolored Block M imitation, as well as the first athletic scholarship, which was arbitrarily capped at 50% in-state tuition for women. Our per diem for travel and meals was less than half of the amount received by male athletes.
Our head coach was a local tennis player with no coaching experience. Because she was a woman, she was classified as “part-time clerical” and paid an artificially low salary, as were all women coaches hired by Mr. Canham.
Paul Porter (AT ‘10) knew in high school that he wanted a career in sports. The Michigan Athletic Training program helped get him one.
describes his role as an 80/20 split between leadership and treatment duties, Porter’s favorite part about his job is helping the athletes. “Once we identify the source, we use manual therapy and corrective exercises to help them get off the table and back to their craft,” he said.
BY DREW MOSER
Paul CourtesyPorter.photo.
As the San Diego Padres minor league athletic training coordinator, Porter travels around the country and oversees the medical and health needs of the Padres’ minor league players. The Padres have teams in El Paso, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; Fort Wayne, Indiana; Lake Elsinore, California; Peoria, Arizona; and the Dominican Republic. The Padres also have a training facility in PorterArizona.communicates daily with the team’s athletic trainers, receiving updates on injuries, helping coordinate player rehabilitation assignments, and overseeing their return-to-play
gymnastics, women’s crew, women’s tennis, and women’s soccer. He finds himself applying different techniques he learned from each sport every day. He recalled one player being amazed that Porter could incorporate a wrist-wrapping technique from tennis into “Thebaseball.athletic training team at Michigan is one of the largest and most diverse in terms of skill set and experience in the country,” Porter said. “I knew I was going to get a great education. It was the clinical experiences where I had the most on-the-job training and gained a variety of exposures to different techniques.”
trainer coordinator
Whileprotocol.he
Porter credits his diverse clinical rotation experiences in preparing him for his job. While at Michigan, he embedded with U-M football (twice), men’s and women’s
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PAUL PORTER, CLASS OF 2010
Porter dug through the league’s 120-page health and safety manual to figure out how to implement it in a stadium he was unfamiliar with.
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“I was living in Arizona, where our spring training complex is, I[management]whenaskedmetotakeonthisrole.hadn’tsetfootinPetco
One role his education didn’t prepare him for was serving as the Padres’ infection control and prevention coordinator during the height of the COVID-19
Porterpandemic.thought
Porter’s advice for new graduates is simple: be patient, be hungry, and ask your clinical instructors lots of questions. He added that the hours put in doing the little things will help you reap the rewards later.
“The athletic training team at Michigan is one of the largest and most diverse in terms of skill set and experience in the country.” —Paul Porter
Park before, having been new with the team and with the pandemic, so it was a lot of learning on the job,” he said.
it would be a simple two- or three-week break when everything first shut down in March 2020. Of course, it wasn’t that short or straightforward. He had weekly Zoom calls with Major League Baseball to stay updated on the negotiation process with the MLB Players’ Association and the progression of the league’s health and safety protocols. Once the MLB and MLBPA agreed to resume play in June 2020, everything shifted into overdrive.
The memories and friendships Porter made at Michigan will last a lifetime. He attended a classmate’s wedding in Idaho over the summer, and they spent the entire time reflecting on their experiences.
After graduation, Porter interned with the Detroit Lions for a year before attending Louisiana State University for his master’s degree. He then worked as an athletic trainer in the Arizona Diamondbacks minor league system. Two years later, he was promoted to assistant minor league medical coordinator. Over the next five years, he would return as an athletic trainer at the Diamondbacks AAA affiliate before returning as the assistant minor league medical coordinator. He joined the Padres organization in January 2020.
One of Porter’s favorite memories is the 2007 Michigan vs. Ohio State football game. He was running down the tunnel at Michigan Stadium with quarterback Chad Henne, who was returning from an injury. “I remember hearing the crowd roar as we appeared from the tunnel. Instead of turning right to have a free path to the Michigan sideline, Chad chose to run left directly through the entire Ohio State team, including the band, to get back to our friendly sideline with me in tow. It spoke to the competitor he was,” he said.
He said the little things he learned at Michigan—being calm under pressure, thinking clearly, working with teammates—helped him through that first month.
“Athletic training is not always the most glamorous of jobs. You will need to work hard and leave your ego at the door. As you learn and grow as an athletic trainer and gain the trust of your clinical supervisors, you will be able to do more and have a more hands-on, inclusive experience,” Porter said. n
“It wasn’t until orientation where they went over athletic training in-depth I was like, ‘That is what I want to do,’” Porter said. “We then go around the room and introduce ourselves, and I raise my hand and say I’m in the Athletic Training program. Afterward, they pulled me aside and asked if I wanted to switch from PE to Athletic Training. I said yes, and they go, ‘Okay, we’ll help you out.’”
Attending U-M was always Porter’s dream. His mother was an alum and he had a lot of family in Michigan, especially the Ann Arbor area. Growing up in England, he had the opportunity to come to the US during the summer as a teenager to shadow some of his aunt’s physical therapy colleagues at Chelsea Community Hospital. Those experiences sealed his decision to apply to U-M and the School of Kinesiology. However, Porter didn’t know what athletic training was until he went to his Kinesiology orientation session. He remembers watching tennis on television as a kid, and the commentators would talk about the athletic trainers (called “physiotherapists” in England) when they ran onto the court. When reviewing his degree options, he thought athletic training “sounded like lifting weights,” so he enrolled as a physical education major.
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While completing her undergraduate degree at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, KinnettHopkins volunteered in the Exercise Neuroscience Research Laboratory, which promotes physical activity and exercise in people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS). It was a life-changing experience. “Exercise provided an opportunity for research participants to take back some of their power. Participants explained it as their way of fighting against the disease, and I loved it,” she explained.
Dominique Kinnett-Hopkins. Courtesy photo.
BY DREW MOSER
For her dissertation, Kinnett-Hopkins surveyed Black individuals with MS to identify what their ideal exercise program would look like. She then interviewed them to understand their perspectives on physical activity and exercise, including how they could integrate it into their lives. Finally, she did a feasibility study with a subset of the group, using a home-based exercise program that incorporated their feedback.
Movement as Medicine
Dr. Dominique Kinnett-Hopkins, assistant professor of Applied Exercise Science and Movement Science, got into academia because she enjoyed teaching and wanted more representation of Black full-time faculty members in higher education.
After that experience, Kinnett-Hopkins decided to continue at UIUC to earn a doctorate in kinesiology. Her primary interest was teaching, but once she started conducting her own research, she discovered communities she wanted to advocate for. During her graduate training, new evidence emerged that African Americans have a 47% increased risk of developing MS1, but less than 1% of MS research published before 2014 focused on minority populations2 Kinnett-Hopkins knew she wanted her research to focus on the experiences of Black individuals with MS.
During her dissertation research, Kinnett-Hopkins saw how many people seeking treatment struggled to navigate the healthcare system. She took a postdoctoral fellowship at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine to further study this issue. While at Northwestern, she also participated in several lupus studies. Lupus, Kinnett-Hopkins said, is another chronic condition that is highly prevalent in minority populations, and shares a similar symptom of fatigue with MS.
At U-M, Kinnett-Hopkins is the director of the Translational Physical Activity Laboratory, where she looks to build upon her previous MS and lupus work. Her first research priority is to integrate the evidencebased behavioral interventions that get people with MS more active into the healthcare system and make them sustainable.
Kinnett-Hopkins aims to add exercise interventions to MS healthcare
“Many courses focus on quantitative research, and quantitative research can provide a lot of meaningful information, but it doesn’t always explain why,” she said. “There is something magical about being able to communicate with someone and understand their story. It’s about how to build trust in an interview setting and how to ask the right questions. Then, how do you analyze the data and take it from a transcript to a research paper of Kinnett-Hopkinssubstance.” is also excited to continue building partnerships with faculty in Kinesiology and across campus, and to take advantage of the many opportunities U-M has to offer.
Kinnett-Hopkins is conducting a study, funded by the School of Kinesiology’s Marie Hartwig Pilot Research Award, to determine if a proactive physical therapy delivery model developed for Parkinson’s disease can work for MS. The intervention has patients begin physical therapy sessions as soon as they’re diagnosed with the disease instead of waiting until they have an impairment. They will attend physical therapy one to four times over a six-month period. The goal of the study is to pilot a reimbursable, proactive physical therapy delivery care model for MS patients that supports long-term engagement in Kinnett-Hopkins’sexercise.
second research priority is to determine the best delivery and interventions for promoting physical activity in patients with lupus. She currently has a home-based exercise program underway thanks to funding from the Lupus Foundation of America. In the study, 30 people will be randomized to either the intervention or waitlist control group to see if the exercise program will increase their physical activity and reduce symptoms of fatigue.
Kinnett-Hopkins is looking forward to getting back in the classroom after taking the winter 2022 semester
“Michigan has a great way of supporting junior faculty through mentorship, seminars, and frequent reviews,” she said.
“We see a majority of people with MS are not sufficiently physically active. For the people who are, we see an association with increased quality of life, lower levels of fatigue, anxiety, depression, and perhaps better sleep quality,” she said. “We know that exercise is one way to manage the manifestation of MS. However, there’s currently not a clear pathway in our healthcare system that allows for that promotion.”
“Since my arrival, I’ve felt extremely supported. It’s a great community and you feel welcomed and a part of it.” n
The School of Kinesiology is dedicated to making our ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion our reality. We spent this past year assessing our DEI progress, reviewing our DEI efforts (policies, practices, and programs), and revising our DEI strategic plan likewise for DEI 2.0. We have much to be proud of regarding the strides made to improve our climate, our organizational culture, and our compositional and ideological diversity. But, much work remains. We encourage you to embrace our motto of KIN ALL-IN! Get in the game, and join in our efforts. Visit kines.umich.edu/DEI to learn more.
—Dominique Kinnett-Hopkins
1. Langer-Gould A, Brara SM, Beaber BE, Zhang JL. Incidence of multiple sclerosis in multiple racial and ethnic groups. Neurology 2013 May 7;80(19):1734-9. doi: 10.1212/ WNL.0b013e3182918cc2.
2. Khan O, Williams MJ, Amezcua L, Javed A, Larsen KE, Smrtka JM. Multiple sclerosis in US minority populations: Clinical practice insights. Neurol Clin Pract. 2015 Apr;5(2):132-142. doi: 10.1212/CPJ.0000000000000112.
“Exercise provided an opportunity for research participants to take back some of their power. Participants explained it as their way of fighting against the disease.”
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Update
off from teaching. She developed a course on qualitative research methods, which will be offered again during the winter 2023 semester.
Gross added that students are assessed through weekly consolidation assignments instead of exams. “This provides a more accurate assessment
A MOVESCI 110 group works together in a hybrid format. Emily Mathews/Michigan Kinesiology.
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BY DREW MOSER
EQUITABLE LEARNING
So in 2019, Movement Science faculty Dr. Pete Bodary, Dr. Melissa Gross, Dr. Mike Vesia, and Dr. Rebecca Hasson began brainstorming. They wanted to transform the foundational course from a content-driven class into a blended learning environment with students and instructors all
Four Movement Science faculty members worked tirelessly to transform MOVESCI 110, “Biological and Behavioral Bases of Human Movement,” into a more equitable classroom experience for first-year students.
Bodary, Gross, Vesia, and Hasson formed a collaborative design partnership with U-M Center for Research on Learning & Teaching (CRLT) staff to overhaul the entire MOVESCI 110 structure. Using CRLT’s Foundational Course Initiative, the team developed a weekly cadence that structured the course, made the learning process explicit, and provided multiple ways for students to demonstrate their understanding. The week would start with students completing pre-work opportunities before class that introduced information on what would be discussed in class the next day.
“We made sure these pre-work assignments leveled the playing field and gave them many opportunities to practice,” Vesia said.
together in one classroom. They recognized that first-year students come from different backgrounds and academic environments, so they also wanted the class to create more equitable and inclusive learning outcomes for all. Ultimately, the faculty knew they needed to design a holistic strategy that accomplished their goals of equity, preparation, self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging.
The challenge was figuring out how to introduce Movement Science as an interdisciplinary field and then explain how each content area—biomechanics, exercise physiology, and motor control—fits holistically within it. The course material also needed to be taught sequentially in a way that allowed students’ teamwork, scientific communication, and real-world problem-solving skills to build over the term.
The goal is for students to come to class starting at the same knowledge point. Then, the faculty instructor teaches a short lecture before having the students start team assignments.
Faculty team transforms MOVESCI 110
The class now meets in-person twice a week with 120 students, three faculty, and three learning assistants (former MOVESCI 110 students) in the classroom together. Following a 20-minute lecture at the beginning of class, students break into teams of five or six, with whom they stay for the entire semester, and complete daily learning activities. They use shared Google Suite products to interact with the data they collect and to engage with team members both in the classroom and remotely.
Michael Stack
Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive so far. 94% of students who took MOVESCI 110 said the new course structure helped them stay on task, and 87% rated it better than other classes at creating a sense of belonging.
Four units make up MOVESCI 110. The first three answer questions about body and movement: How is movement described and quantified? How is it generated and controlled? How does the body adapt to exercise? The fourth unit examines how socio-environmental and personal factors shape physical activity.
“They had a chance to get to know some people, which as a first-year student coming to campus or a transfer student who’s at the sophomore level, it’s important,” Gross said.
The team planned on implementing the new curriculum in Fall 2020 but had to make significant changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic and university protocols.
One student wrote, “The class is very accessible and has lots of different ways to learn the content and get help, if needed.”
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When Cui became a MOVESCI 110 learning assistant during the winter 2022 semester, she used her own experience to help the new students. “I remember
and authentic reflection of the students’ skills and knowledge,” she said. “Offering multiple modes for students to demonstrate their learning is a core principle of equitable teaching.”
Mingming Cui (MVS ’22) took MOVESCI 110 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said the hardest part was switching back and forth from a shared document to a Zoom window. However, she created bonds with her teammates that lasted throughout her time in Movement Science.
“We’re looking into the future and looking at these students and asking, ‘How can we support them in being successful in their desired pursuits? How can we set them up for success going forward?’ That is a different way to approach a class,” she said. n
“We feed off each other,” Vesia said. “Sometimes, in the middle of class, Pete, Melissa, or I might bring something up, and we say, ‘What do you think would happen here?’ We push each other, and I think the students gain from that.”
“It’s valuable to have multiple instructors in that space. It helps us learn from each other and appreciate what assumptions we might make as experts in our content area that will be confusing for the students,” Bodary said.
The first semester was spent lecturing over Zoom and trying to navigate entering and exiting breakout rooms. “It was difficult going in and out of Zoom rooms, and trying to manage seven, eight groups was quite the challenge, to say the least,” Vesia said.
MOVESCI 110 students get creative while measuring different types of gait. Emily Mathews/Michigan Kinesiology.
Additionally, students reported that being with the same team the entire semester was helpful.
Vesia and Bodary agreed this format has been beneficial for both the students and the instructors.
Gross added that this project challenged the team to reimagine what it means to get a Michigan education.
the learning assistants were committed to helping [my class] learn the material,” she said. “When I would review the worksheets for the next class, I went back to my worksheets to remember where I had trouble so I could help [the new students] grasp the concept.”
Cierra Godsey. Courtesy photo.
Ongoing orthopedic and airway issues from the accident forced Godsey to drop more classes, which affected her financial aid. She took even more time off because she had to pay for classes herself. It was a frustrating experience.
And yet, she persisted.
Godsey was in a coma for 12 days. When she awoke, she was laser-focused on her recovery. It should have taken her six to eight months to walk again by herself, but with physical therapy and determination, she was walking in six weeks. She started taking medication and seeing a neuropsychologist to help with the mental changes she had noticed after her brain injury. Godsey’s paralyzed vocal cords made breathing difficult at times, but she refused to let that stop her.
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“I don’t know how people do part-time all the way,” Godsey said. “It seems like you’re never getting anywhere.”
Like many of her classmates, Cierra Godsey (SM ’22) found her way to Sport Management through a childhood love of sports. But her path involved some life-changing twists and Afterturns.high school, Godsey completed a year of college but then took time off to work. People warned her that if she didn’t finish college right after high school, she more than likely wouldn’t finish at all. But Godsey was determined and, two years later, she was ready to continue her education in biology at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, MI.
“My ex-boyfriend and I went out to lunch one day and I was like, ‘I have to go [to Schoolcraft] tomorrow.’ He asked, ‘For what?’ and I responded, ‘I told you I was going back to school.’ He’s like, ‘You’ve been saying that for a couple months now. I just figured you would come up with some excuse,’” Godsey said. “Well, don’t tell me I’m not going to do something. So I signed up for winter 2018 courses [at Schoolcraft] the following week and started going Godseyfull-time.”was also still working full-time. In addition to her primary golf course job, she picked up a second job at Mike’s Pizza Bar in Little Caesars Arena and worked 20-35 hours a week. “I paid for my entire associate’s degree, so I do not have any student loan debt from that,” she Whensaid.she started back at Schoolcraft after her accident, Godsey’s academic advisor, Gary DeGuzman, began helping her plan her next steps. Godsey had always wanted to be a pediatric orthopedic surgeon but she also really loved sports, particularly ice hockey. “I grew up with a single teenage mom. My biological father was never in the picture,” she said. “My grandpa is like my dad; we’ve always been super close. I grew up watching hockey with him; the Red Wings were our favorite.” DeGuzman thought Godsey would do well with one of the majors in the School of Kinesiology and, if she
She Persisted Cierra Godsey, class of 2022
BY EMILY MATHEWS
“I am so hard on myself and if I do something, I do it to the fullest,” Godsey said. “I applied for that next semester [at Schoolcraft], with the brain injury from three months prior, and I took 16 credit hours.” She found that subjects that had come easily to her before the accident, like math, were now more complicated. She dropped some classes, continued working with her neuropsychologist, and got a tutor.
The Friday before classes began, Godsey was in a terrible car accident. She sustained a three-millimeter frontal cortex brain bleed, a fractured humerus and femur, and emergency intubation that resulted in bilaterally paralyzed vocal cords.
In a fitting twist of fate, Godsey was the very last student to cross the stage at the School of Kinesiology commencement ceremony this spring. “It hadn’t hit me that I was graduating,” she said. “And then once I was sitting [in Hill Auditorium], I was like, ‘Don’t cry. Don’t cry.’” It helped that her aunt and cousin were in the audience, cheering her on. Her grandpa also had fun at the Big House graduation that weekend. Godsey said, “He calls me all the time and every time he says, ‘Just called to say I’m proud of you.’” n
To Godsey’s surprise, she was accepted into the Sport Management program for the fall of 2020. “I wasn’t expecting to get into U-M because I’m so nontraditional,” she said. “I’m so much older. I took so much time off and got into some trouble when I was younger. I just created so many different and unnecessary roadblocks over the years that have made things more difficult than they ever needed to be.” Her grandpa was over the moon. “He’s a diehard Michigan fan,” Godsey said. “I was always a [Michigan] State fan. So when I got accepted, he was so excited.”
Circled: Cierra, her cousin Tyler, and her new friends Steve and Colton at the Detroit Red Wings game. Courtesy photo.
Godsey wanted to make the most of her two years in the Sport Management program and knew that internships were integral to her experience. The summer before she began classes, she emailed multiple U-M Men’s Hockey staff members to ask if they were looking for interns. As a result, they brought her onboard for a role in the External Communications Department. Godsey also accepted a public relations internship at Tunnel Vision Sports, a start-up sport media company. And she continued volunteering for the Ted Lindsay Foundation, created by the Red Wings star to support autism research and educational programs for the southeast Michigan autism community.
Cierra and her grandpa. Courtesy photo.
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Through her classes, internships, and networking, Godsey has decided to pursue a career in broadcasting, public relations, or media relations, ideally with the National Hockey League. And now, about a decade after she first began her education, her hard work, experience, and degree in Sport Management will help her achieve her goal.
Because of her outgoing personality, Godsey also networks organically wherever she goes. Once at a Detroit Red Wings game, she and her cousin Tyler started chatting with a man, Steve, and his young son, Colton. Godsey invited Steve to have Colton sit with them next to the visitor’s bench so he’d be closer to the action. Tyler, who works for Red Wings security, was also able to get Colton some game notes and a practice puck. And Godsey discovered that Steve is the Vice President of General Counsel for the Minnesota Wild. “I met and became friends with somebody [in the industry] because I said his son could sit with me,” Godsey said. “It’s not even going out of my way; it’s just being a good human being.”
changed her mind about going into medicine, she could pursue a career in sports instead. DeGuzman told her she would qualify for the Go Blue Guarantee, which would fully cover her tuition, and he helped devise her schedule to make sure all her credits would transfer.
And then COVID-19 happened. All of Godsey’s classes at U-M were remote, which she found out right before they began. “I learn much better in person now,” she said. “Because of my brain injury, I have exacerbated ADHD and anxiety. I can’t stand sitting in front of a laptop all the time, especially six to eight hours a day for class and then another few hours to do homework. So I put a lot of stuff off until the last minute.” Plus, due to state regulations, the bars and restaurants where Godsey worked had to shut down entirely for a time. But she kept going, taking out student loans so she could live in Ann Arbor.
After earning her PhD in 1990, Clark spent nine years as a research investigator with U-M Department of Cell and Developmental Biology. She then worked for several years at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), including as a chief scientist working on the International Space Station and the Human Exploration for the Development of Space (HEDS).
In 2019, Clark was honored with the Kinesiology Students’ Excellence in Teaching Award. One of her students commented, “Dr. C. is tough, but cares so much about her students. She will push you to be your best but support you tremendously along the way. All-around my favorite professor at this university!”
Movement Magazine: You worked for several years at NASA—what part of space travel interests you the
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FACULTY RETIREMENTS
MM: What are your plans for the future?
KC: Bob and I are doing some traveling, and we enjoy very lazy mornings without the need to get dressed for work. I have also stepped into a limited role in the U-M Space Institute, associated primarily with the College of Engineering. I’m spearheading an effort to start a space medicine working group within the Space Institute, and we are trying to gather people from all over the university (medicine, engineering, kinesiology, business, etc.) to solve some of the big problems associated with space flight.
Kathymost?Clark:
shortly thereafter. That was in the winter of 1985. We got engaged in the summer, and married in October 1986. He retired from the U-M Medical School in July 2019.
After 23 years as an economics professor at Washington State University, Dr. Rod Fort came to U-M Kinesiology in 2007 as a Sport professor,Managementspecializing in sport economics. In addition to authoring the textbook Sports Economics, Fort is author or co-author of Hard Ball, Pay Dirt, and over 100 academic journal articles.
Fort is known worldwide for his sport economics expertise. His blog, Rodney Fort’s Sport Economics, is archived in the Library of Congress. He was lead author on an amicus brief during the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) v. Alston Supreme Court case. In addition to his blog, Fort maintains a Twitter account (@rodneyfort) and occasionally consults.
Dr. Kathy Clark (MVS MS ‘83, MVS PhD ‘90) came back to Kinesiology in 2011 as a Movement Science lecturer, and served as associate MVS program chair from 2017-2022. She held a dual appointment at the U-M Department of Aerospace Engineering from 2019-2022.
DR. KATHY CLARK
In 2022 we said goodbye to three impactful faculty members—Drs. Kathy Clark, Rod Fort, and Tom Templin. Best wishes to them as they begin their post-Kinesiology lives.
MM: How did you meet your husband, Dr. Bob Ike?
KC: I met Bob in a lab at the U-M. His advisor and mine wanted to do a project that eventually fell apart (it wasn’t physically possible to do), but Bob and I started dating
I started doing research for NASA from a U-M lab in 1993. I then went to NASA headquarters in 1998. I like astronomy, but my real passion is pathophysiological adaptations to space flight.
BY JEAN HUNT
DR. ROD FORT
RF: While studying for my master’s and PhD, there was no “sports economics” per se. I didn’t even realize one could apply economics to sports until I worked for one of my profs on their consulting on a baseball case. But in the 1990s that all changed. I had written one paper on salary determination and that drew reporters like crazy during that tumultuous time. And I just kept working on sports after that.
In the 1970s, after teaching middle school physical education and German, Templin attended the U-M School of Education to earn a PhD in education.
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RF: That’s a bit like asking which child you like best. But I think it is the paper that still commands the most citations—my 1995 paper with James Quirk in the Journal of Economic Literature, “Cross-Subsidization, Incentives, and Outcomes in Professional Team Sports
Templin and his wife, Sarah, live in Indiana and have been married for 50 years. They have two children, three grandchildren, and two former Seeing Eye dogs.
Movement Magazine: Is that a photo of Secretariat on your Twitter profile?
Fort and his wife, Leslie, have three children and nine grandchildren.
DR. TOM TEMPLIN
Sarah and I will engage in both domestic and international travel from time to time, and of course, spend time with our kids and grandkids. Also, I may play a bit of golf!
MM:Leagues.”Weunderstand that you are traveling in an Airstream—what’s on your itinerary?
Dr. Tom Templin came to U-M Kinesiology in 2015 as associate dean for faculty and undergraduate student affairs, taking over from the retiring Pat Van Volkinburg. He had previously taught at Purdue University for 38 years.
MM: Your master’s and PhD theses, on “Community Support for Rural Hospitals” and “Analysis of Commodity Futures Price Distribution,” seem far removed from sport economics. Maybe the field didn’t exist then?
MM: Of all your achievements—books, amicus brief, having your work archived in the Library of Congress— which are you most proud of, and why?
Movement Magazine: When you were working towards your PhD at the School of Ed, were you aware of the fledgling Division of Kinesiology, and what did you think of
TT: I will stay involved as the executive director of the American Kinesiology Association, and continue to engage with InPACT [a U-M Kinesiology program promoting exercise for children in school and at home during COVID-19], on mixed method methodology employed in the research, with a focus on teacher perceptions of InPACT.
Yes, I was well aware of the division. My advisor, Shirley Cooper, was a professor there and I was preparing to become a professor of Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE). It was clear that the division was going to be quite successful. When Dee Edington became the director, I knew that the unit was going to achieve great success in research, teaching, and MM:service.What are your short- and long-term plans?
TT: My colleagues, students, and friends are number one on the list. It has been an honor and real joy to work with such a talented group of faculty, staff, and students in the best Kinesiology program in the world. Being associate dean was the crowning experience in my 45-year career in higher education. Thank you! n
RF: First, visiting each of our three kids and the eight (soon to be nine!) grandkids in Colfax, WA (our new residence); Kalispell, MT; and Salem, OR. Short trips in between. Then we have Airstream trips planned to the Pacific Coast beaches, the Southwest, and the Gulf Coast. Can’t wait for the Tampa to Key West leg!
Tomit?Templin:
MM: You were at U-M Kinesiology for nearly seven years—what will you miss most?
Rod Fort: Secretariat was quite possibly the greatest athlete in any sport. I admire that.
BY VANESSA BARTON
KINES MOVES THE WORLD
2022 GLOBAL OPPORTUNITIESENGAGEMENT
UKItaly
This year, the School of Kinesiology Center for Global Opportunities was able to safely reinstate semesterlong education abroad programs. Students were excited to participate, and traveled to the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom for study.
This page, top: SM juniors Hannah, Hallie, and Jordin at the Dolomites in Northern Italy. Courtesy photo.
Over the course of a month, health science students from Kinesiology, Nursing, and Engineering traveled across Italy for “Art and Anatomy in the Italian Renaissance,” led by Dr. Melissa Gross, associate professor of Movement Science. Through visits to museums and historical sites in Florence, Bologna, Milan, Padua, and Rome, students applied their knowledge of musculoskeletal anatomy and improved their observational skills in the context of Early Modern Italian art. They learned how body representations in both art and science were linked to cultural norms in the past and how that relationship is still relevant today.
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Sport Management students spent ten days in the UK for “Managing Sport Business Culture in the United Kingdom,” led by Sport Management faculty Kelli Donahue and Ron Wade. The class visited London, Edinburgh, and Manchester to learn about British sport industry operations, the deep historical and cultural significance of many British sport programs, and the growth and expansion of American sports abroad.
Students visited one to two sport organizations, venues, or agencies per day. They toured some of the UK’s most prominent sport sites, often meeting with leadership teams to expand their knowledge of sport marketing, partnership, and event operations. Highlights included Tottenham Stadium, McLaren Racing, Lord’s Cricket, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, St. Andrews, Etihad Stadium, and Wimbledon.
Kinesiology students continue to benefit greatly from the global opportunities made possible by the generosity of our donors, Bruce and Claudia Resnikoff, Dale and Beverly Ulrich, and Carl and Joan Kreager. Please visit the school’s Instagram account, instagram. com/umkines, for more visual representations of our students’ adventures abroad. n
After completing the course, students were able to explain how anatomical knowledge was discovered, learned, and shared through art and science; observe and describe details of visual phenomena with greater acuity through sustained looking and critical thinking; understand how mediated looking affects our understanding of representations of the body; articulate the parallels between represented bodies in Early Modern art and contemporary tools used in health science training; and develop greater awareness of personal biases and historical/cultural perspectives.
Previous page, top, clockwise from left: SM students visit Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, McLaren Racing, and Etihad Stadium. Austin Mital-Skiff/Michigan PreviousKinesiology.page,
In addition to the semester-long experiences, Kinesiology offered two faculty-led programs to meet the academic needs and professional interests of our health science and Sport Management students.
bottom, clockwise from left: Health science students on a rooftop overlooking Rome, at an anatomical wax collection in Bologna, and at the Milan Duomo. Austin Mital-Skiff/Michigan Kinesiology.
This page, bottom: MVS junior Collette and her University College Dublin classmates enjoy the great outdoors. Courtesy photo.
Dublin Florence
Dr. Victor Katch joined the U-M Department of Physical Education in 1972 and retired from the School of Kinesiology in 2015, after a long and distinguished career. Katch has been a prolific writer, reviewer, and editor, lending his expertise to numerous scientific journals like Pediatric Exercise Science, Annals of Human Biology, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He authored the award-winning, best-selling textbook Exercise Physiology: Energy, Nutrition and Human Performance, now in its 8th edition and considered to be the gold standard in exercise physiology.
A number of Katch’s former students and colleagues created our school’s new Victor L. Katch Award for Excellence to support outstanding Movement Science and Applied Exercise Science students who have conducted significant research prior to graduation.
Kinesiology Alumni Society Board Chair Liz Sibilsky Enselman (SM ‘07, AT ‘08) then welcomed the attending Alumni Achievement Award recipients. The 2021 honorees include:
BY JEAN HUNT
The homecoming crowd. Luke Hales/Michigan Photography.
Dr. Victor Katch. Courtesy photo.
2021 homecoming and alumni awards
DEAN’S MEDAL
Given to an individual whose accomplishments merit special recognition.
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Back HoMe
Dean Lori Ploutz-Snyder opened the program by welcoming guests and describing highlights of the Kinesiology Building facilities, citing the increased number of classrooms and 36,000 square feet of research space—all with improved technology and flexibility. The dean also mentioned the school’s high COVID-19 vaccination rates, allowing students and faculty to participate in person for nearly all classes.
n a gorgeous September Friday, Kinesiology alumni, students, and guests gathered for the 2021 Kinesiology Homecoming. Refreshments and the award ceremony were staged on Ingalls Mall South, and for the first time we were able to offer our guests building tours of the newly renovated School of Kinesiology Building (SKB), our home sweet home on the Diag.
Andrew Karson (SM ‘04) is senior VP of brand marketing and solutions at BSE Global, where he leads the marketing, content, creative, game presentation, and partnership strategy efforts for the Brooklyn Nets, Barclays Center, the NBA G League’s Long Island Nets, and the NBA 2K League’s NetsGC. Prior to BSE, Karson spent 13 years at the Madison Square Garden Company, ultimately becoming vice president of marketing partnerships. In this role he brokered strategic partnerships with leading digital media companies, and expanded digital product offerings.
Left to right: Joshua Bartelstein. Brandon Rhodes, Andrew Karson, and Dr. Patty Freedson. Courtesy photos.
Dr. Patty Freedson (PE ‘75, MS ‘76, PhD ‘80) is professor emerita and former chair of the Kinesiology Department at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, where she served on the faculty for 35 years. She was founding editor of the Journal for the Measurement of Physical Behavior. Freedson is a Fellow of the Research Consortium, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the National Academy of Kinesiology. She has also served as president of the National Academy of Kinesiology and the New England Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine. During her career Freedson published nearly 200 papers. n
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LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Given to an individual whose service to Kinesiology has enhanced and changed the school over time.
Given to Kinesiology alumni who have shown outstanding professional and personal achievement throughout their career in their chosen field and/or public service in any field.
EARLY CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
During his senior year at U-M, Bartelstein was team captain of Michigan’s 2013 Final Four men’s basketball team. He later published a book about his experience, titled We On: An Inside Look at Michigan Basketball’s Final Four Run.
Brandon Rhodes (SM ‘13) is vice president of business development at the sports network Overtime, where he leads strategic multi-pillar partnerships, revenue generation, special projects, and athlete relations. Prior to Overtime, he worked at Gatorade, where he performed several job roles, including social strategy, digital media planning, data acquisition, and product management. As a U-M student, he co-founded the Michigan Sport Business Conference (MSBC), the #1 student-led sport business conference in the country, per Forbes. Rhodes is a current member of MSBC’s Board of Advisors, and a past member of our school’s Sport Management Advisory Board.
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Given to recent Kinesiology alumni excelling in their chosen field.
Joshua Bartelstein (SM ‘13) is executive vice president of operations and chief of staff at the Detroit Pistons. Previously he was VP of strategy and chief of staff at Palace Sports & Entertainment, where he oversaw major initiatives, such the Pistons’ move from The Palace of Auburn Hills to Little Caesars Arena, and the bid to bring a professional soccer team to Detroit.
Top: Guests checking in. Luke Hales/Michigan Photography. Bottom: Dean Lori Ploutz-Snyder welcomes everyone to the festivities. Luke Hales/Michigan Photography.
Even though multiple sclerosis sapped her mom’s strength, Butler said she was still able to “share pearls of wisdom that would change our lives.” According to Butler, one of her mom’s favorite sayings was, “The biggest room in the house is the room for improvement.”
Butler is also driven to give back. In honor of her mother, who passed away in 2007, Butler created the Grant Foundation to help improve health equity in the US. “We know that there is a shortage of primary care physicians across the nation, exacerbated even more by the [COVID-19] pandemic, and when we look at the number of underrepresented minority physicians, the shortage increases exponentially,” Butler explained. “The goal is to help individuals like myself, from humble beginnings, to be able to go to a university like Michigan and matriculate to medical school and become physicians.”
DR. MONIQUE BUTLER, CLASS OF 1997
Dr. Monique Butler. Courtesy photo.
That quote would serve as daily encouragement for Butler and her two sisters. Butler became the first person in her family to graduate from college, with a bachelor’s degree in Movement Science. “I felt pressure, but it was an honor to be the first to graduate from college. Everyone rallied around me to ensure that matriculated,”Ishesaid.
pathfinder
Two-and-a-half years later, Butler was promoted to her current position as chief medical officer for HCA Healthcare’s North Florida Division. She oversees 15 hospitals, 35 graduate medical education residency programs, and approximately one million patients.
The Grant Foundation established the Pathfinders Scholarship Award to help first-generation and underrepresented Michigan Kinesiology students
BY DREW MOSER
“Chief medical officers are responsible for recruiting the brightest and best physicians, ensuring that we’re providing safe clinical care, and ensuring that there is a standard of excellence that physicians utilize while executing on fiscally-sound clinical operations,” she explained. “My focus is on ensuring that every patient and family that comes to us receives the highest standards of care possible and that this care is reliable, no matter the time of day or the doctor or nurse caring for them.”
Dr. Monique Butler (MVS ‘97) draws a lot of inspiration from her mother, Theresa Mae Grant Roberts, who emphasized the importance of education, a healthy lifestyle, and extending love and grace to others.
Butler has been advancing ever since. She moved up the ranks from an administrative physician at Detroit Medical Center (DMC) to become the chief medical officer of two DMC hospitals—the first woman to assume those roles. Butler also completed her Master of Business Administration degree during that time. After a year as chief operating officer at Children’s Hospital in Michigan, she was then recruited to join HCA Healthcare as chief medical officer at one of HCA’s flagship hospitals in Denver, Colorado.
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pursue a career in health care. Butler doesn’t want social determinants or socioeconomic status to stop students from completing their degree. She recalled that in college she had to work multiple jobs to earn gas money to attend class, and sometimes she would go hungry at night.
After medical school at Wayne State University, Butler decided to combine her medical and Movement Science degrees to become an internist focusing on nutrition, exercise physiology, and primary care. The combination of preventive medicine with allopathic medicine enabled her to care for her community holistically. Butler completed her residency at the Detroit Medical Center as a chief resident of internal medicine. She graduated from residency directly into an administrative leadership position as DMC’s medical director of corporate health promotions, a brand new department she built based on her background in kinesiology.
When Butler was in medical school, she and four of her Black classmates started Young Doctors of Detroit, a program for medical students to connect and mentor high school students from underrepresented populations who are interested in a career in medicine. The program is still in existence, and Butler said she has had eight physicians go through the program.
“It doesn’t sound like a large number, but to go from high school all the way through and finish medical school, is a long haul, and to have eight of them, knowing that they’ll be able to go back to communities, is powerful and impactful,” she said.
Butler always felt called to the medical field, but she also had a deep interest in nutrition and movement. As a teenager, she would help one of her Inkster High School (state-champion) basketball teammates, who suffered from asthma, after games. “When I look back on it now, I was sort of her sports doctor or personal trainer, and that’s when my interest in kinesiology and movement science became evident,” she said.
Butler has seen firsthand the impact her multifaceted knowledge has made on patients.
Butler’s mentoring efforts extend into all aspects of healthcare. She started a six-week paid summer shadowing opportunity for underrepresented students when she was in Denver and is planning a similar internship in the North Florida Division. Butler is also working to create a program that assists HCA’s licensed practical nurses (LPNs) in becoming registered nurses (RNs). Program participants, most of whom are first-generation college students, will gain access to benefits and tuition reimbursements, and getting on the RN track helps elevate their communities. Additionally, Butler continues to mentor School of Kinesiology health science students.
Butler’s scholarship isn’t the only impact she has made on the school. In her senior year of college, she became president of the Kinesiology Student Government (KSG), and her number-one priority was creating a career day and panel for students.
No matter where she goes next, Butler will always be a Wolverine. She remembers driving to Ann Arbor with her husband every year to attend the university’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day events. They would get to campus early, attend the keynote lecture, and then head to Knight’s for their famous chili. In 2021, the School of Kinesiology asked Butler to give the U-M Health Sciences MLK Day Keynote, “Where Do We Go From Here: Body Politics & Movement Towards Racial Empowerment.” It was a full-circle moment. “For me to be asked to keynote was amazing,” she said. n
“I wanted to ensure that students understood the role kinesiology plays in society,” Butler said. “We invited organizations and graduate schools to participate in the inaugural career fair to showcase opportunities within this vast field.” Through her work on the Kinesiology Career Fair (which is still running 25 years later), Butler found a mentor and landed her first job in corporate wellness at Detroit Diesel Corporation. She completed the necessary post-baccalaureate classes for medical school while working full-time as a wellness specialist, teaching aerobic classes, smoking cessation, and ergonomics for the Roger Penske-owned company.
“It helped me stand out when I practiced medicine as a physician of wholeness and wellness,” she said. “I was talking with patients about the choices they made around food and activity before, for example, prescribing blood pressure medication.”
“Kinesiology gave me access to a healthy lifestyle that is a part of my life today,” Butler said. “In addition to being a very solid platform and undergraduate degree for medical school, studying kinesiology has helped me to understand the importance of wellness, fitness, and taking care of our bodies through preventative medicine.”
This is why she’s passionate about mentoring the next generation of healthcare workers.
Butler said she wouldn’t have accomplished everything she has without everyone who helped her along the way. She specifically remembers thanking the medical school library’s janitor during her medical school graduation speech for leaving a light on so she could continue studying after the library closed.
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AT master’s program completes successful first year
When they aren’t in the classroom, students are gaining first-hand experience in clinical settings across the university through partnerships with Michigan Athletics, Michigan Medicine, and University Health Service. They also have off-campus rotations at Eastern
Starting Fast
AT master’s student Payton James came into the program two years removed from her undergraduate degree. She had very little athletic training experience, but with a background in neurobiology and experience as a former rower at the University of Wisconsin, she quickly got up to speed. She also found the faculty to be very “Gettingsupportive.launched right back into so much school was a little wild, but it was a great way to get to know the other people in my program, as well as Adam and Brian,” James said. “Adam and Brian want you to succeed; it’s their number-one goal. When things got challenging, Brian would host more reviews, and Adam made sure he went over everything before the exam. They were there to make sure we were going to be as successful as Fellowpossible.”ATmaster’s student Jacquelin Kluge said she felt “shell-shocked” walking into the classes that were smaller than she had experienced during her undergraduate days. She also found the curriculum to be refreshingly different. “The things we study in the program are much more in-depth and there is so much more detail and hands-on experiences, which I like,” Kluge said. She enjoyed going immediately into the lab to put into practice what she learned earlier in class that day.
Dr. Brian Czajka, clinical assistant professor of Athletic Training and director of Athletic Training education, said the high caliber of students made the transition easy. They came from across the US and world to join the inaugural cohort. “They’re not necessarily coming here just to take advantage of what we have in Ann Arbor,” Czajka said. “They’re here to be educated well and to have opportunities elsewhere. We’re providing that, and that’s Studentsgreat.”hitthe ground running from the moment they step into the classroom.
The University of Michigan Athletic Training master’s program is sailing into its second year following a successful first-year cohort of 15 students.
AT master’s student Justin Wagler had never taped an ankle before coming to U-M. The classroom experiences helped prep him for his clinical rotations with U-M men’s ice hockey and U-M women’s softball. “To have that classroom experience, where you get to learn all the foundations of everything and then put it into practice, is really helpful just for learning and to be able to go on to your future career,” Wagler said.
BY DREW MOSER
The program began transitioning from a bachelor’s to a master’s level in response to a 2015 national mandate from the AT Strategic Alliance, which is comprised of four key athletic training organizations. The transition was “essential to ensuring our future ability to meet the expectations of the health care team, to continuing to improve patient outcomes, and to keeping our profession sustainable for generations to come,” the alliance said via a press release.
Dr. Adam Lepley, clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science, Athletic Training, and Movement Science, serves as the program’s clinical education coordinator. He found that faculty can go more in-depth with master’s students, digging deeper into the injury mechanisms and how people respond to them. “We’re able to give students a wider range of knowledge than we could at the undergraduate level,” he explained.
Michigan University, Concordia University, and Ann Arbor Public Schools. “[Students are] not only getting world-class educational opportunities, but they’re also working with world-class athletes and medical professionals. They get a lot of exposure to how it should be done and the right people that are doing the right things,” Lepley said.
Lepley had nothing but praise for the work Charlene Ruloff, graduate student affairs manager, and Tahirah Gimson, graduate student affairs coordinator, have done with AT student recruitment. They have been distributing informational packets to advising offices and kinesiology programs at universities across the US, and hosting virtual open houses for prospective Lepleystudents.added that the new School of Kinesiology Building is one of the unsung heroes of the program. “I’ve been at a variety of places, and most athletic training classrooms are in cinder block rooms located in the basement. The ability for our classes to have access to windows and state-of-the-art equipment is awesome,” he said.
Ultimately, a passion for sports and science is the foundation of the AT master’s program. “Athletic training is the perfect mix of being involved in athletics at all different levels and working in the healthcare provider role to treat and take care of people in a setting you love,” Wagler said. n
“We’re able to give students a wider range of knowledge than we could at —Adamlevel.”undergraduatetheLepley
This page and opposite page: Students get hands-on practice in AT 501, “Prevention and Care of Athletic Injuries.” Austin Thomason/Michigan Photography.
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worked with Lepley to find an immersion experience at Harvard University with the men’s volleyball team. Kluge said all it took was a 20-minute Zoom call to set everything up.
Students can complete their immersions when they feel the time is right for them. Kluge knew she wanted to complete hers during the winter sports season, so she
Now that the AT master’s program is up and running, the school’s next step is to continue recruiting students and growing the cohorts.
Students also have a required semester-long immersion rotation, where they work 40 hours a week at a clinical site of their choosing. They become “fully immersed in the day-to-day life of an athletic trainer,” Lepley said. This requirement also gives students an idea of what their chosen career will actually be like. “It’s good to see the whole picture, so you know exactly where you’re getting into,” Czajka said. “Students will have ideas about working in the NFL, professional baseball, or in a clinic, and if they don’t have the full view of what that’s like, then they might get surprised by something and have to make a change.”
The only limit to these experiences is the students’ imagination. Lepley has coordinated rotations with Amazon, the Detroit Tigers, the University of Washington, Houston Ballet, and Detroit Medical Center to name a few. “Our students are very ambitious and they want to do these high-level types of experiences,” he said. “We have gotten to explore our alumni base and the different connections we have.”
DR. LAURA RICHARDSON joined our school in January as a clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science and thesheoffromearnedScience.MovementSheherPhDtheUniversityAkron,wheretaughtinCollegeofHealth
her PhD from the University of Virginia, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention through Boston Children’s Hospital. Lempke’s research interests include quantifying gait biomechanics using wearable technology for youth runners, and exploring musculoskeletal and other physical factors as they relate to injury.
DR. NARI SHIN joins our school this fall as an theearnedManagement.professorassistantofSportSheherPhDfromUniversityofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute for Peace and Conflict at Texas Tech University. Before coming to U-M, Shin was an assistant professor at Texas Tech University and the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include sport and physical activity participation by people of color, minorities, and immigrants; sport as a global civic movement; and the impact of transnational diaspora and globalization on the management and development of sport and physical activity.
Dr. David Lipps, Dr. Pete Bodary, Dr. Adam Lepley, and Josh Mergos were promoted this fall after approval from the U-M Board of Regents. Read more on p. 36.
Dr.CongratulationsPeteBodary , clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science and Movement Science, is our new associate dean for undergraduate student affairs. Dr. Kathy Babiak, professor of Sport Management, is our new associate dean for faculty affairs. They began their terms this July after approval from the U-M Board of Regents.
DR. ERIN GILES joins our school this fall as an assistant professor of Movement Science. She earned her PhD from McMaster University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the Colorado Nutrition Obesity Research Center at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. Before coming to U-M, Giles was an professorassistantat Texas A&M University. Her research is focused determiningonhow inflammation in the breast adipose and tumor microenvironment link menopausal weight gain and subsequent breast cancer risk, and using exercise, diet, and menopause.comorbiditiestheseinterventionspharmacologicaltodecreaseobesity-associatedafter
Professions before coming to U-M. Richardson is a certified clinical exercise physiologist with extensive experience using exercise as a mode of therapeutic intervention for patients diagnosed with immunological, metabolic, pulmonary, disorders.cardiovascular,neuromuscular,andorthopedic
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DR. ELEANNA VARANGIS BURNS joins our school this fall as an assistant professor of Movement Science. She is also a Michigan Concussion Center faculty member. Burns earned her PhD from University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in the UniversityColumbiaDepartment of Neurology. A cognitive neuroscientist, Burns uses the tools used to explore relationships between brain function and cognitive outcomes to probe mechanisms by which concussive injury may affect brain and cognitive function long-term.
faculty & staff updates
DR. ALEXANDRA DEJONG LEMPKE joins our school this fall as a clinical assistant professor of LempkefacultyScienceExerciseSheExerciseAppliedScience.isalsoan&SportInitiativemember.earned
MARY ROBERTS, adjunct lecturer
MARIA SANTIAGO-RODRIGUEZ, research area specialist associate
ASHLEY RETTMANN, research tech intermediate
DANIEL YANG, lecturer I
JENNIFER RICHARDS, adjunct lecturer
ANNA LAMPORT, clinical subjects associate
PROFESSOR EMERITUS DEE EDINGTON passed away on June 21, 2022, at the age of 84. For 22 years, he inspired students and colleagues as director of the Division of Kinesiology. Read more about Edington on p. 5.
FIDDY DAVIS JAIHIND JOTHIKARAN, postdoctoral research fellow
BETHANY WILLISTON, student services specialist
TREVOR KILGORE, student engagement coordinator and academic advisor
IN MEMORIAM
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR EMERITA JOYCE LINDEMAN passed away on September 8, 2021, at the age of 88. Lindeman joined the University of Michigan Department of Physical Education in 1967 as an assistant professor. Her career in what would later become the Division of Kinesiology included a distinguished record of teaching and service. She was promoted to associate professor in 1973, served as chair of the Department of Sport Management and Communication from 1989 to 2000, and also served as associate director of curriculum and instruction from 1991 to 2000. In 1990, Lindeman was recognized by the State of Michigan’s Teaching Excellence Fund and the University of Michigan for her outstanding teaching.
SUSHOVITA MUKHERJEE, research lab specialist
SUSAN RINALDI, Exercise & Sport Science Initiative program officer
LISA MICHELIN, associate director of operations
OLIVIA STUMP, research specialist
JORDAN KARTES, laboratory coordinator
EMILY KLINKMAN, research associate
In addition to her academic and administrative positions, Lindeman also established the University
TANNAZ SABETFAKHRI, research coordinator
JENNA MCCORMICK, admissions coordinator
AARON WOOD, research data manager
CHAUNA BLACK, administrative assistant intermediate
LANDON LEMPKE, postdoctoral research fellow
DOO JAE PARK, lecturer III
SUSANN WOLFRAM, postdoctoral research fellow
We also welcomed these new staff, lecturers, and postdocs:
TINA CHEN, Michigan Concussion Center managing director
JACKIE SHEEHAN, financial specialist intermediate
of Michigan Varsity Synchronized Swim Team in 1972 and served as its coach until 1983. During that time, the team produced outstanding international athletes and consistently ranked among the top three teams in the nation. Additionally, Lindeman served as coach or team manager for a number of US teams that competed or gave clinics abroad, served on two International Olympic Committees and the United States Synchronized Swimming Incorporated (USSSI) Board of Governors, and acted as the USSSI executive vice president for ten years. She was also instrumental in crafting the original USSSI Coaches’ Certification Program.
SAMUEL REED, research specialist
AMANDA MELVIN, research project manager
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The U-M study doesn’t directly examine media bias, but the results find that media’s decisions to cover the protests were distorted by consumer preferences, rather than being entirely objective and neutral, Wang said. This is consistent with previous research. n
POLARIZED INSTAGRAMMERS FUELED MEDIA COVERAGE OF NFL ATHLETE ACTIVISM
This reader polarization on Instagram was triggered Sept. 22, 2017, when former president Donald Trump criticized the athletes who took a knee during the national anthem.
Interestingly, the increased coverage of the anthem issue on Instagram—despite social media users’ differing opinions—conflicts with previous findings on bias in traditional media, Wang said.
“[After Trump’s comments], media were very sensitive to the differing views of those commenting on their Instagram posts,” Wang said. “They were substantially more likely to post about President Trump’s and other politicians’ involvement in the protests when there was a large difference in user sentiment among their own Santreaders.”said
“Research shows that media have an incentive to select news content that conform with readers’ prior beliefs, and when there is a large degree of heterogeneity among readers, media would have less incentive to selectively report news or distort information,” she said.
“Our results actually suggest the opposite.”
Those studies suggest that traditional media may report information based on viewers’ and the media firms’ political stances, she said, which could be due to the different functions served by each media form: Television and print mediums deliver content, while social media fosters discussion and engagement.
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POWDER KEG
Americans tend to be interested in sportrelated topics whether or not they identify as fans of a particular athlete, sport or team.
“Athlete involvement in activism and the divisiveness of our politics has led to even more interest in what happens on and off the field,” she said.
BY LAURA BAILEY
Before Sept. 22, 2017, media were more likely to cover the athlete protests on Instagram when they saw an increase in the number of comments on their Instagram accounts.
From the media’s standpoint, such engagement on their social media accounts, even with negative sentiment, could still be effective in increasing the popularity of the media, particularly because readers were more annoyed by the protests than with the media, the researchers said.
Wang and Dr. Stacy-Lynn Sant, also an assistant professor of Sport Management, co-authored a study this year that analyzed 496 official Instagram posts and 137,735 user comments to determine whether media actively modified their coverage of athlete protests in response to user interest and sentiment.
After Trump’s criticism spotlighted the NFL athlete protests, readers became more interested and displeased with the protests, and likelier to discuss and debate the topic on social media.
Wang was surprised by how media firms responded to the differing views of their readers.
Before that, the media’s decision to cover the NFL anthem protests on Instagram was not responsive to reader interest and sentiment—but to user engagement (likes and comments) on the media’s own Instagram account, said Dr. Wenche Wang, assistant professor of Sport Management.
News media covered the National Football League national anthem protests more heavily on their Instagram accounts when readers’ reactions to protest were more negative and more polarized, according to a University of Michigan study.
The findings appear in Sport Management Review. Read the journal article at doi.org/10.1080/14413523. 2022.2051393.
ACL is a common musculoskeletal injury, with about 300,000 occurring annually in the United States. Yearly treatment costs exceed $2 billion.
“Muscle atrophy can play a role, but it is also possible that other noncontractile elements of muscle are clogging up the system and not allowing it to contract effectively,” Lepley said. “The tissue left behind may be more fibrotic or have more fat infiltration, hence the contractile nature of the muscle may change.”
Next, Lepley’s team will test subjects with a history of ACL injury while they’re walking.
Lindsey Lepley. Courtesy photo.
The study compared 14 people recovering from ACL injuries to healthy subjects. They used ultrasonography to image the quadricep muscle during knee extension movements in an isokinetic dynamometer, a machine that can measure muscle strength. They looked at the vastus lateralis, which sits on the outer thigh and is the largest of the quadricep muscles.
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But researchers at the University of Michigan have found an additional cause, which could help clinicians design more effective rehabilitation programs.
The findings appear in the Journal of Biomechanics. Read the journal article at doi.org/10.1016/j. jbiomech.2021.110808.
“Generally our group has been saying that an ACL injury prematurely ages the limb—the joint itself often shows signs of arthritis within 10 years and the muscle also exhibits factors like aged muscle tissue,” Lepley said.
After an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery, it’s common to experience quadriceps weakness, which was thought to be caused primarily by muscle atrophy, or shrinkage.
They found that besides muscle loss, the quadricep muscle—specifically, the fibers within that muscle— contract differently. Taken together, these deficits result in a muscle that is weaker and behaves like that of someone much older.
“We’ll build on this by taking what we learned in this more stationary experiment, where we looked at participants on a strength machine, and move it to a more dynamic condition with people walking,” she said. “We will be actively recruiting for this walking study in the coming weeks.” Kinesiology doctoral student McKenzie White will lead the project.
The surgical leg contracted differently, meaning that bundles of muscle fibers in the quadriceps were slower and lengthened less. Essentially, these fibers rotate less during a contraction, and when they rotate less, they ultimately position themselves in a way that results in less force production—in other words, this underlying behavior of muscle fibers can lead to muscle weakness.
Quad contraction changes after ACL surgery may cause lingering issues
Co-authors include Dr. Adam Lepley, clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science, Athletic Training, and Movement Science; Steven Davi and Dr. Lindsay DiStefano of the University of Connecticut; and Ross Brancati of the University of Massachusetts. n
“This is the first humanbased paper that is focused on proving that muscle is not just smaller after injury, but it also contracts differently,” said Dr. Lindsey Lepley, assistant professor of Athletic Training and corresponding author on the study. “This is a key new discovery that helps explain the persistent weakness that is so commonly Lepleyobserved.”said her group follows the aging literature and that many of the factors that plague aged muscle also emerge after ACL injury.
BY LAURA BAILEY weakSP T
The lab uses motion capture technology to quantify movement compensations, or how bodies create new movement patterns to achieve functional motor skills when a normal movement pattern is unavailable, which can cause musculoskeletal and coordination issues. According to Gates, nearly 50% of amputees have pain in their intact limb because they start doing everything with that limb, or use compensatory strategies that
Gates’s Rehabilitation Biomechanics Laboratory team is incorporating brain signals into a prosthesis with its own suite of sensors that returns some sense of touch to an individual.
According to Gates, there are currently no viable options that give patients the intuitive control they need for everyday living. Most prosthetic hands are controlled by triggers, which can either come from co-contraction of muscles, gesture control (fast movements of the arm), or EMG pattern recognition (machine learning that deciphers surface muscle activity).
peripheral nerve interfaces (RPNI) by attaching a small piece of muscle from another part of the body to the end of the nerve.
“This prevents a neuroma [painful growth on the end of a nerve] from growing and reduces phantom limb pain,” explained Gates. “If you try to put an electrode right in the nerve itself, it’s hard to differentiate neural signals from the noise. The muscle amplifies those signals such that we can recognize what the user intended to do.”
GATES WORKS TO RESTORE HAND FUNCTION IN AMPUTEES BY DREW MOSER
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the human touch
“There is this definite need to enhance the control [patients] have and make it more reliable and intuitive. That’s what we’re trying to achieve when we access these signals,” Gates said.
Deanna Gates and a prosthetic hand prototype. Scott Soderberg/Michigan Photography.
For the past eight years, Dr. Deanna Gates, associate professor of Movement Science, and colleagues from Michigan Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering have been working to perfect advanced prosthetic devices that can give amputees more of their hand functionality back.
Gates and her colleagues are looking to change that.
Human hands are amazing. They help us define by touch whether things are hot or cold, hard or soft. They enable us to grab and hold onto objects. We need them to do so many everyday activities.
A second surgery places small electrode wires into the muscle. The wires come out of the skin and are attached to a connector, which attaches to a computer that controls the hand.
Once the surgery is complete, Gates and her lab staff begin using tasks and evaluations to assess the individual’s hand functionality and the cognitive effort associated with their daily living activities.
Gates is working with researchers in plastic surgery to measure signals from severed peripheral nerves in the amputated limb. Surgeons create regenerative
“We’re trying to achieve something that is going to be intuitive for [patients]. We’re trying to capture the signals that would’ve gone to that muscle to cause that action. And if we can measure that and then predict what action they wanted to do, then the hope is that it will replicate what the body did,” Gates said.
“By stimulating their peripheral nerves, we can make them have some sensation in that area they used to have a limb in,” he said. “That is always a fun experience to see their eyes open wide and begin describing where the sensation is being felt.”
The next step is to create a small, unobtrusive version of the wireless device that could be placed under a bandage and feature the same wireless circuitry as an implant. If things go well, the team would then test an implanted system.
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n
Christina Lee, another graduate student research assistant in the lab, helps design the functional tasks that assess the subject’s movements and determine how much compensation is being made. For example, Lee has participants make a cup of coffee in order to measure multiple hand grips. Using a Keurig coffee machine, Lee monitors how well the patient pours water into the Keurig, inserts the coffee pod, closes the lid, turns the machine on, and pours a packet of sugar into the mug.
move their torso in order to get their hand to interact with Michaelthings.Gonzalez, a graduate student research assistant in Gates’s lab, focuses on sensation and how sensory feedback plays a role in the prosthesis’s control loop. His main goal is to figure out how sensation is different for prosthesis users versus individuals using an anatomical limb. He studies the differences in how individuals pick up, grab, and touch objects and uses those measures to improve the way sensation and sensory feedback are given to individuals with prostheses.
“Ideally for everyday use, you would want a fully implanted system that would send signals wirelessly to the prosthesis so you don’t have to worry about regularly cleaning and rebandaging the exit sites,” Vaskov Sussexexplained.tested the portable system in June 2022 by carrying a bag from Panera Bread back to the lab. “I was also able to open a door with this prosthesis, which I cannot do with my body-powered one,” she added.
Sussex said it’s easier to complete tasks with the prosthesis in Gates’s lab than with her current bodypowered one. She said her body-powered unit fatigues her left arm and shoulder and limits what she can do.
Alex Vaskov, a postdoctoral research fellow in biomedical engineering, is developing ways to make the new prosthetic control approach portable. He places a receiver in a backpack worn by the user that sends signals to a wireless receiver in the prosthesis socket.
“When I wear it at home, I can only stabilize my pots and pans and pick things up off the floor,” Sussex explained. “I would not want to carry a glass, cup, bowl, or plate of food across the room because I would drop it and have a mess to clean up.”
The test also examines the patient’s body posture changes when wrist motion or multiple grips are added to a “Wetask.canthen provide a quantitative assessment of the functional improvement,” Gates said. “There are a lot of things we can look at from a hardware side of how accurate this is, but the functional benefit is really what is going to take it into the future.”
According to Gates, the goal is to have the wearable version ready for at-home trials in the next five to eight “Iyears.think this is amazing,” Sussex said. “I feel like I’m doing a lot for not only me but for people that would come through this after me. In the future, a lot of people will be able to use this type of prosthesis more freely because of what the other participants and I are doing here.”
Karen Sussex, from Jackson, Michigan, has been participating in Gates’s research for the last three years. Five years ago, she had part of her right hand amputated following an illness. After surgery, she wasn’t able to move her hand because the tendons in her arm were destroyed. She saw Dr. Paul Cederna, the Robert Oneal professor of plastic surgery and chief of plastic surgery at Michigan Medicine, for the amputation and RPNI Itsurgeries.wasn’tuntil the follow-up surgery that she heard about Gates’s research.
Karen Sussex makes coffee using a prosthetic hand prototype. Scott Soderberg/ Michigan Photography.
JENNA TRUBIANO, CLASS OF 2017 BY DREW MOSER
for our players and making sure they’re safe and have access to these resources is my numberone goal,” she said. “When I’m talking to parents, I tell them, ‘If their child decides to come to Michigan and plays for our program, we’re going to take care of them. We’re going to make sure they’re safe.’”
After she got her skating up to snuff, Trubiano started competing against players who had been skating since they started walking. She honed her craft and worked up to playing at the Tier 1 AAA level, the highest level for girls and women in the state of Michigan. She won two state championships at that level and then decided to play hockey for the University of Michigan. She graduated with a degree in Health and Fitness in 2017.
Financial struggles have been one of the club’s biggest obstacles. Not only do they have to pay to use the ice at Yost Arena for practice and games, but also travel, officiating, medical, and athletic training costs.
This past season, Trubiano and her staff hired all the league-required trainers for their games. They also began renting university buses to help players get back and forth from matches. Trubiano remembers driving herself to games as far away as Delaware as a firstyear student in 2013 because transportation wasn’t
The lack of resources hasn’t stopped the team. They made it to the semifinals of the Central Collegiate Women’s Hockey Association league tournament before losing 3-0 to Indiana Tech.
It’s the simple yet profound answer to the question of what began Jenna Trubiano’s love of hockey.
While she’s pleased with the program’s growth, she’s frustrated that women’s hockey is still only recognized as a club sport, which falls outside of U-M Athletics and into U-M Recreational Sports. The program competes in the Division 1 level of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA), regularly going up against varsity teams supported by their universities.
(Maize and) BLUE LINE
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When she was ten years old, Trubiano was watching a Red Wings game with her father when player Henrik Zetterberg pulled the puck backwards across the blue line and did a toe drag around a defender. She turned to her dad and proclaimed, “I want to do what Zetterberg just did.” “My dad said ‘okay, but you’ll have to learn how to skate first,’” she recalls.
Now Trubiano is back at the university as head coach of the varsity women’s club hockey team.
“Advocatingprovided.
“For this being my first season and not knowing what to expect, and having 15 new players on the roster, I was impressed by making it to the tournament semifinals,” Trubiano said. “For the upcoming season, we have all but three players returning. We have a strong group that understands the direction we’re heading and wants to put in the work on and off the ice and in the classroom. We will do whatever it takes to compete at the highest level.”
Jenna Trubiano as hockey coach. Courtesy photo.
The Detroit Red Wings.
She served as an assistant coach right after graduation, and in 2021 took over the head coaching duties. The program began in 1994 and competed in its first club game in 1995. “I’m excited to see the direction the program is headed. We’ve built an alumni base. We’ve built recognition, and we’re at the point where we’re continuing to grow, become more competitive, and play more competitive teams,” Trubiano said.
At the end of the day, it all comes back to her alma mater. “I originally applied to the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts and had gotten in, but I knew I wanted to be in Kinesiology,” Trubiano said. “Being in Kinesiology was the best thing that happened to me at Michigan.” n
Enrolling in the School Kinesiology enabled Trubiano to connect with like-minded students and make the University of Michigan feel smaller. She said it can be intimidating at first when stepping onto U-M’s campus.
Trubiano has been attending showcases, recruiting events, and tournaments to highlight the program, and her recruits are showing a lot of interest in playing hockey for U-M. “I want women to realize this is a special and unique opportunity for them,” she said. “They have an opportunity to go to the top public university, get a great education, and play hockey.”
Trubiano remembers breaking her leg during a hockey tournament in Massachusetts the day before an exam, and her Kinesiology professors worked with her so she could finish her courses that semester.
“I couldn’t make it, but my professors were extremely understanding of my situation, knowing it would be a process for me to get back into the classroom and into a mental state where I could perform on my exams,” she explained. “They were able to put the time in outside of their lecture hours to accommodate my needs.”
“I want women to realize this is a special and —Jennaandgettop[Theyopportunityuniqueforthem.can]gotothepublicuniversity,agreateducation,playhockey.”Trubiano
“Kinesiology offers that small community feel within a big university. It’s a way to connect with people who share the same passions and interests as you,” she said. “I was able to get to know my professors on a personal level, and having classes with the same students helped tremendously; we supported each other in the classroom and hyped each other up before exams. It was a great community to be involved in.”
Coaching isn’t Trubiano’s only passion. When she isn’t on the ice, she works as a digital account executive for the National Sanitation Foundation (NSF) in Ann Arbor. Trubiano discovered her interest in public health as an undergraduate and pursued an internship with the NSF marketing department. Immediately after graduation, she applied for a full-time position as an account manager in the NSF water business unit. Her current role has expanded to include managing certification services for filtration clients in multiple states throughout North America.
Jenna Trubiano as hockey player. Courtesy photo.
Trubiano said her health and fitness classes helped her recognize the importance of strength conditioning for preventing ACL tears and concussions. As a result, she is looking to incorporate a more structured strength and conditioning program for the upcoming season. She added that her degree has also helped her build relationships with her players.
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Initially interested in athletic training for a career, Bodary discovered during his undergraduate studies that he enjoyed research. He went on to earn a PhD in exercise physiology from the University of South Carolina and did postdoctoral training in cardiology at Michigan Medicine. Joining the Kinesiology faculty in 2008, Bodary subsequently received five Kinesiology Students’ Excellence in Teaching Awards, including one this year.
DR. PETE BODARY, promoted to clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science and Movement Science.
DR. ADAM LEPLEY, promoted to clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science, Athletic Training, and Movement Science.
education to replace the retiring Dr. Tom Templin. This puts him in charge of curriculum and instruction, including academic integrity, student discipline, and lecturer hiring and evaluation.
Bodary was recently named associate dean for undergraduate
A native of Saginaw, Michigan, Lepley received a PhD in exercise science from the University of Toledo. He initially aspired to be an athletic trainer with a professional or collegiate team, but he also wanted to practice his long-held passion for teaching.
“I also became very interested in research during my undergraduate degree, and found it fascinating to be able to generate the evidence that current clinicians could use to improve the care of their patients,” Lepley said. “I knew that I could achieve these goals by becoming
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Faculty promotion cases involve a long chain of events. Each candidate compiles their body of work and it is reviewed and evaluated at multiple levels, involving the program faculty, executive committee, dean, provost, university president, and ultimately the U-M Board of Regents. This year we congratulate four Kinesiology faculty who met the criteria for promotion.
FACULTY PROMOTIONS
BY JEAN HUNT
“My new role affords me the opportunity to help tackle new challenges for our school,” Bodary said.
Bodary, his wife Cricket, and their five daughters call New Boston, Michigan, home. They are pet parents to a retired Leader Dog, five cats, and two rabbits. Bodary enjoys homesteading, focusing mostly on food production; the family has a hoop house, large garden, and “a dozen or so hens.”
Like many first-year college students, Josh Mergos didn’t know which academic program he wanted to pursue. He began as a theology major, but ultimately earned a master’s degree in biomedical engineering from Wayne State University (WSU). At WSU he learned about the new, fast-growing field of Intraoperative
JOSH MERGOS, promoted to clinical associate professor of Movement Science.
As director of the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics and Imaging Laboratory (MBIL), Lipps and his lab members study the mechanisms behind soft tissue injury within the human body. “Our approach combines developing technologies in the fields of robotics and ultrasound imaging to quantify mechanical changes to human joints and their underlying muscles, tendons, and ligaments,” he Lippsexplained.says that his promotion will allow him to conduct research he may not have otherwise done. “I feel achieving tenure provides me with more freedom to explore high-risk, high-reward projects,”
a faculty member in an athletic training program.”
Mergos is married to a first-grade teacher, April, and has four children and three barn cats. When he isn’t teaching, he enjoys camping with his family and fixing and building things. n
Originally from Arlington Heights, Illinois, Lipps earned a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan in 2012. He joined the Kinesiology faculty in fall 2015.
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Neuromonitoring (IONM), and decided to make it his career.
Lepley was recently honored with the Kinesiology Students’ Excellence in Teaching award. He is director of the Michigan Performance Research Laboratory (MiPR) and a member of the Exercise & Sport Science Initiative (ESSI).
Lepley is married to fellow Kinesiology faculty member Dr. Lindsey Lepley (PhD ‘14). Together they live in Ann Arbor with their two children and their golden retriever. Lepley enjoys hiking, kayaking, and spending as much time with family as he can. He joined the Kinesiology faculty in fall 2019.
DR. DAVID LIPPS, promoted to associate professor of Movement Science.
Mergos was recently inducted as a Fellow in the American Society of Neurophysiological Monitoring (ASNM). He presented the lecture “Cerebral Blood Flow Anatomy and Physiology” at the 2022 ASNM conference.
Lipps and his family live in Ann Arbor. “Most of my time outside of work is spent playing with my two young kids and remodeling our home,” he said.
He joined the Kinesiology faculty in 2012 and helped the school launch the very first accredited IONM undergraduate program. As its current director, Mergos said he “look[s] forward to the next chapter for the [IONM] program, which will include the development of a master’s degree and expanded clinical rotations around the country, and eventually, the world.”
Left page, clockwise from top: Pete Bodary, David Lipps, and Adam Lepley. Above: Josh Mergos. Michigan Kinesiology/Michigan Photography..
he said. “One new project with collaborators in U-M Engineering is to build a wearable device with sensors that conform to the shape of the shoulder to measure shoulder mobility. The goal is to ultimately get these sensors embedded within a shirt that can be sent home with breast cancer patients after surgery to monitor their shoulder health.”
SciencewithDancing
“I thought, well, as a dancer, I have a lot of experience with somatic practices, muscular engagement, and integration and activation of the pelvic floor, so now what,” he said.
BY DREW MOSER
That was the phrase Anthony Milian (MVS MS, ‘22) kept hearing over and over from Dr. Rebecca Hasson, associate professor of Movement Science, during his KINESLGY 615, “Philosophy of Science and Research in Kinesiology,” class.
So, after a conversation with one of his fellow researchers about pregnancy, Milian did what Hasson suggested and began researching the question that kept him up at night: how does pregnancy create movement issues? He discovered that very little research had been done around pregnancy-related biomechanics and exercise physiology. Understanding the etiology and pathology of pregnancy-related back pain was also still quite unclear.
Milian’s original plan was to use his MVS degree to research dance science and biomechanics. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from Ohio State University and is currently taking ballet courses through the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. He said the athleticism and the rigor in preparing for a dance performance is what inspires him.
Anthony Milian. Courtesy photo.
However, as Milian continued with his Movement Science coursework and research, the idea of improving a dancer’s performance and helping them become an even better athlete seemed too niche.
“Research a question that keeps you up at night.”
“It feels much more inspiring and encouraging. If I’m going to take the time to get a master’s degree or PhD and spend this time researching in school, I want to feel like I’m making a big difference in the world.”
Anthony Milian, class of 2022
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Milian said there are factors beyond carrying a growing fetus that may impact a pregnant person’s lower-back pain. They can be hormonal, such as the production of relaxin, which stretches ligaments and joints, or biomechanical, such as a person’s gait or pelvic measurement asymmetries. This discovery pushed him to help pregnant patients find new pain interventions.
“I found that type of passion when taking this group of women going through pregnancy and trying to improve their quality of life rather than looking at a dancer who already has a wonderful quality of life,” Milian said.
For now, Milian’s advanced studies will wait. He has accepted a contract to dance and perform full-time with Northwest Dance Project in Portland, Oregon, for the next year. He will also tour Germany as part of the performance schedule.
“Injuriessaid. can be caused by compensation for some type of muscular weakness or abnormality, so having this information from a data-driven approach helps make the athlete and clinical team aware of any potential issues,” he
“I never thought I would sit in a room with a biochemistry major from London or an anthropology major from California and not only understand the same general concepts of Movement Science, but also be prepared to take on such a diverse and different path immediately after graduation,” Milian said.
“I specialized in Kinesiology [at Ohio State], but I learned about researching movement from a qualitative, artistic perspective,” he said. “With [my U-M] education, I can dive into proper research to educate others
Milian was working with Hubbard Street Dance in Chicago before the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on performances. He took the opportunity to pursue graduate studies at U-M because he wanted to learn how to research movement in a more scientific, quantitative way.
“I know that education is always going to be prevalent in society. I think that while I have the opportunity I should go to Portland, use what I’ve learned in my Movement Science classes, and take advantage of the professional dancing while I can,” Milian explained. “A PhD I can pursue later on in life. Yes, it does become a little more difficult, but if the goal is still becoming a professor, I can still reach that in the end.” n
He praised the MVS program for preparing students for anything and allowing them to cultivate a path of their choosing. He added that the professors are willing to mentor students, no matter which direction they want to go.
Thisexplained.information
Coming to U-M for graduate school was nervewracking and intimidating for Milian. However, he found his footing thanks to the Kinesiology Bridge Program, which connects and engages students from underserved populations, and support from Dr. Ketra Armstrong, who was then the associate dean of graduate student affairs. He credits the Bridge Program for bringing the university down to a level that was approachable for him. Milian was also a Rackham Merit Fellow, a Kinesiology Student Government (KSG) graduate student representative, and a member of the Kinesiology Diversity & Inclusion Network (KDIN).
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While his long-term goal is to study pregnancy movement, Milian’s research at the School of Kinesiology has focused on data-driven approaches to gait analysis through the Michigan Performance Research Laboratory (MiPR), led by Dr. Adam Lepley, clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science, Athletic Training, and Movement Science.
allows for care teams to begin implementing different training strategies to minimize injury. Milian also sees the benefit for athletes.
“There is just something super imperative about awareness in general,” he said. “For example, if you’re walking and your right foot constantly rotates inward, that could feel normal to you and feel like both of your feet are pointing straight. You could go your entire life thinking you are walking normally, but if you’re aware of the asymmetry, you can physically work to correct it and reprogram your neurology to minimize further injury risk.”
If you’re aware of the [gait] asymmetry, you can physically work to correct it and reprogram your neurology to minimize further injury —Anthonyrisk.”Milian
about what is most helpful in a dance setting as well. Additionally, having a higher level of applicable body knowledge increases the longevity of my career.”
Not only has Milian discovered his passion, but he also now feels like a jack-of-all-trades because of how well the Movement Science program has prepared him in the areas of physiology, biology, chemistry, physics, and data collection and review.
Milian wrote the article “A Data-Driven Approach to Running Gait Assessment Using IMUs” (currently submitted for publication), which provides an overview of how gait analysis data helps U-M track and field athletes improve performance and prevent injury. After performing gait assessments on athletes, the team reviews the data for any significant asymmetries before sending a report over to the clinical care team. The significant asymmetries are flagged for the clinical team to monitor during training, Milian
Hasson,governor.whodeveloped
at-home and in-school exercise programs through InPACT@Home and InPACT@School, called this proclamation “beautiful.”
Emphasizing the mental health benefits of physical activity was a high priority for the governor’s office. Stack received feedback asking him to include and lead with the mental health benefits.
The proclamation, which Applied Exercise Science Lecturer Michael Stack (MVS ‘04) drafted, declares the importance of physical activity for one’s physical and mental health, especially during the pandemic. According to Stack, incorporating as little as 15 minutes of daily physical activity can reduce depression by 26%. He also said that additional research showed a 20% reduction in developing anxiety by maintaining higher levels of physical activity.
Previous physical activity campaigns focused on informing the public on how to become more physically active. Despite previous efforts, approximately 50% of Michiganders do not meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for overall physical However,activity.thisproclamation is reframing the argument. It’s targeting lawmakers, public health officials, the medical community, and the media to raise awareness that physical activity can be a public health solution.
Stack drafts proclamation to help Michiganders move more
Michigan Fitness Club Association (MFCA) members worked with Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to write a proclamation designating the month of May as “Michigan Moves Month.” Governor Whitmer announced the proclamation on Friday, April 29, 2022.
Dr. Rebecca Hasson, associate professor of Movement Science, agrees that physical activity extends well beyond physical benefits. It touches an individual’s psychological and emotional health.
“There is this heightened awareness and dissemination of physical activity resources at a time when people need it the most,” she said. “We know that physical activity has declined dramatically as a function of the pandemic. So the more that we can re-energize and reactivate people to get off the couch and get outside, this will be great for the public health of Michigan.”
The first step was raising awareness. Now, Stack wants to begin conversations with policymakers on making physical activity the “easy, simple, and accessible
Fitness specialists across the state of Michigan are taking aim at helping Michiganders improve their physical and mental health.
M O VING MICHIGAN
We’re trying to get [leaders] to understand the robust effect that activity can have on physical and mental health and how easy it can actually be to [make] it part of a treatment plan or public health strategy.” —Michael Stack
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Stack, who serves on the MFCA board of directors, realized the messaging could be more impactful if the physical activity stakeholders statewide came together with a unified voice. He worked with Tony Moreno, a member of the Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports, to get the proclamation in front of the
“Previous campaigns about physical activity were that it’s a nicety, and in some cases, entertainment or a luxury,” Stack said. “The MFCA is saying to the people making policies and decisions that physical activity is a liable medical and public health intervention to not only address chronic physical disease but more importantly and more saliently, mental health. We’re trying to get them to understand the robust effect that activity can have on physical and mental health and how easy it can actually be to operationalize it as part of a treatment plan or public health strategy.”
“Exercise helps you feel better; it helps build resilience. Exercise builds social and emotional skills that kids, parents, adults, and aging seniors can use to help cope with some of the stresses we continue to deal with during this pandemic,” she said.
BY DREW MOSER
“We’rechoice.”trying to simplify the term ‘intervention’ in policymakers’ minds. The idea is to co-create what
This month’s key event was the Michigan Moves Month Webinar featuring Elizabeth Hertel, director of the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Leaders from key physical activity organizations in the State of Michigan (MFCA, Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness, Society of Physical Educators, and mParks) joined Hertel to discuss strategies, initiatives, and programs to help get Michigan moving.
The MFCA formed in May 2020, during the height of the pandemic, to figure out the threat to the fitness clubs and gyms around the state following the stayin-place order. Now, the group has shifted its focus to strategically figure out how it can be a part of the healthcare delivery system and not just a luxury item or an option for the fit.
Michigan Moves Month serves as the launch point for the Michigan Moves coalition. The goal is to have a monthly initiative that runs indefinitely. Stack said May is the hallmark month because it ties in nicely with National Physical Activity Month and Mental Health Awareness Month.
“Now, we need to work with policymakers to see where the on-ramps are from a policy perspective to actually effectuate substantive change. n
A student in AES 336, “Methods of Instruction for Exercise,” leads a free group fusion exercise session. Austin Thomason/Michigan Photography.
He would also like to broaden the stakeholder base by connecting with members of the academic community and city-planning organizations to obtain their insight.
Stack’s goals for the upcoming year are 1) to grow MFCA membership; 2) to conduct an action plan review; and 3) to develop a strategic engagement plan for lawmakers, public health officials, and the medical community that addresses the physical activity needs of the communities MFCA members reside.
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Stack would love to do more formal events in May 2023, including a month-long physical activity challenge at the state legislative level. His idea is to model the challenge after the federal-level challenge, which saw representatives in the Senate and House of Representatives track their level of physical activity.
the physical activity environment looks like here in the state,” he said.
“I don’t have the answers to how policy needs to change, but I know the dramatic impact that physical activity can have on population health,” Stack said.
“The commercial health and fitness industry serves 20% of the population. The other 80%, those are the ones that are most important to serve,” Stack continued.
“Our strategic objective is, ‘How do we become a part of the healthcare delivery system?’ It’s through coalitions like Michigan Moves and by aligning with other physical activity stakeholders that we can begin to position ourselves there.”
The School of Kinesiology has created two new programs that enable more undergraduate students to enroll—and they come with some unique features.
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Both programs revolve around a spring/summer experience that’s exclusive to SMI and MAES students.
Kinesiology launches two winter-start programs
After their spring/summer experience, SMI and MAES students join the larger cohort for their major, fully on track to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in SM, MVS, or AES in the typical four-year period.
Currently, only waitlisted students are eligible for these winter-start programs. The SMI program, now in its third year, has seen steady growth; the MAES program, which launched this year, saw strong initial interest. All signs point to increasing demand for these two alternate routes to the School of Kinesiology.
Caption: Left: Biomechanics research with Michigan Athletics and Adidas. Eric Bronson/Michigan Photography. Right: SMI students take a tour of the U-M basketball facilities. Kelli Kearly/Michigan Kinesiology.
Learn more about the SMI and MAES programs at kines.umich.edu/SMI and kines.umich.edu/MAES n
The SMI spring experience consists of day trips to sports properties and urban entertainment districts in the midwest. This summer, the cohort had behindthe-scenes tours and networking opportunities with leaders at Michigan Athletics and professional sports organizations in Detroit and Cleveland.
The MAES spring/summer experience involves a special partnership with Michigan Athletics. Faculty and staff from areas such as performance nutrition, strength and conditioning, performance science, sport psychology, and athletic medicine will meet with MAES students to discuss these areas of specialization, including information about preparing for related career opportunities, and give tours to see their operations in action.
BY EMILY MATHEWS
Up to 50 students comprise each cohort. This smaller size helps ensure that students can take most of their required courses together, and form a tight-knit community both inside and outside the classroom.
The Sport Management Immersion (SMI) and Movement Science & Applied Exercise Science (MAES) programs begin during the winter term. A mid-year start gives incoming students a semester to explore professional or personal opportunities, such as travel, work, or volunteering, before beginning their undergraduate studies.
alternate route
But we also help with financial needs that pop up when a student least expects it.
The Kinesiology Student Enrichment Fund supports students with nonemergency incidentals that they need but can’t afford, like a replacement laptop, conference registration fees, or a little extra help with rent or groceries.
Because our next generation of Leaders and Best should be focused on learning, not on worrying.
Give online at myumi.ch/Bo8Do.
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Graduates walk from the Kinesiology Building to Hill Auditorium for the Kinesiology Commencement Ceremony. Eric Bronson/Michigan Photography.
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