Karl Newell, professor, has been named the 2013 Alliance Scholar by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD). The Alliance Scholar program promotes scholarship among AAHPERD’s members and seeks to encourage and facilitate research and creative activities that enrich the depth and scope of health, leisure, sport, dance and related activities. As the Alliance Scholar, Newell will present the Alliance Scholar Lecture at the 2013 AAHPERD National Convention & Exposition in Charlotte, N.C., and will work to disseminate findings to professionals in the field and others. “Karl Newell has arguably had more impact over the past years on the shape of contemporary kinesiology than any other individual,” said Scott Kretchmar, professor, who nominated Newell for the award. “His ground-breaking articles, which promoted ‘kinesiology’ as the name of the profession, expanded the scope of the field from sport to physical activity and reconceptualized relationships between theory, practice, and performance.” Newell is a leading researcher in the field of motor behavior. His research focuses on coordination, control, and skill of normal and abnormal human movement across the lifespan. Among Newell’s many academic honors is the Distinguished Scholar Award of the North American Society for Psychology and Sport Activity and the Faculty Scholar Medal of Penn State. He served as head of the Department of Kinesiology from 1993 to 2001 and again from 2007 to 2012. In between, he was associate dean for research and graduate education in the College of Health and Human Development. He earned a Ph.D. degree in physical education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1973.
Sayers John Miller, III, Receives National Athletic Trainers’ Association Award Sayers John Miller, III, assistant professor, has received the 2012 National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Continuing Education Excellence Award. The award honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the profession of athletic training in the area of continuing education. In particular, the award recipient must have demonstrated noteworthy commitments to continuing education via creative works, volunteer service, speaking engagements, and other distinguished professional activities.
Photo Credit: Gene Maylock
Photo Credit: Gene Maylock
Karl Newell Named 2013 Alliance Scholar
Miller received a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Penn State and a master’s degree in physical therapy from Stanford University. He then served as an assistant athletic trainer with the San Francisco Forty Niners and as the athletic trainer for the U.S. Freestyle Ski Team at the 1992 Olympic Winter Games in Albertville, France. He also owned an outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic in Seattle, Wash., for ten years. Miller eventually returned to Penn State, where he earned a Ph.D. degree in kinesiology in 2001. He then joined the faculty of the department as an assistant professor. Since that time, he has conducted research on orthopaedic injury rehabilitation, including manual therapy, functional testing, and outcome assessment. He also has practiced as a physical therapist at the Penn State Center for Sports Medicine. In addition, he has pursued extensive continuing education in the areas of manual therapy and spinal dysfunction and has presented nationally and internationally on these subjects.
Steriani Elavsky Receives 2011 New Investigator Award
Elavsky’s research focuses on physical activity, psychological function, women’s health, and aging. Specifically, she examines the biopsychosocial mechanisms of physical activity effects on health and quality of life, the biopsychosocial determinants of physical activity behavior across the lifespan, and menopause.
Elavsky joined the Penn State faculty as an assistant professor in 2006. She earned a master of arts degree in Czech language and literature and English as a second language at the University of Ostrava in the Czech Republic in 2000, a master of science degree in exercise psychology at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign in 2002, and a Ph.D. degree in exercise psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2006.
Photo Credit: Gene Maylock
Steriani Elavsky, assistant professor, has received the 2011 New Investigator Award from The North American Menopause Society. The award recognizes the outstanding abstract submissions to the NAMS Annual Meeting of four investigators who have achieved their degree within the past seven years.