Faculty Promotions

BY JEAN HUNT

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.

DR. PETE BODARY, promoted to clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science and Movement Science.

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. 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. “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.” DR. ADAM LEPLEY, promoted to clinical associate professor of Applied Exercise Science, Athletic Training, and Movement Science.

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

a faculty member in an athletic training program.”

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.

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.

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 explained.

Lipps 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,” 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.”

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. Neuromonitoring (IONM), and decided to make it his career.

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.”

JOSH MERGOS, promoted to clinical associate professor of Movement Science.

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 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.

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

Left page, clockwise from top: Pete Bodary, David Lipps, and Adam Lepley. Above: Josh Mergos. Michigan Kinesiology/Michigan Photography.. | MOVEMENT | FALL 2022 37