May 22, 2023 | Kim Graber
It’s my pleasure to share with you the spring 2023 issue of KCH E-News. As you will see, we’ve had an eventful semester and academic year. I am extremely proud to be the head of a department in which scholars are making so many significant contributions to health, physical activity, and disability studies.
Many faculty in KCH consistently receive grants to help fund their research. For example, with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (the National Institutes of Health component dedicated to environmental health research), assistant professor Sarah Geiger will investigate how exposure to certain chemicals in the womb affect how children sleep later in life.
In other research developments in the department, Assistant Professor Dominika Pindus recently published a study which found that adolescent girls who engage in more moderate and vigorous physical activity each day have better attentional control. Associate Professor Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo’s recent research explored the mental health of Black and Latina women during the pandemic lockdown and found increases in depression and anxiety.
Assistant Professor Rachel Hoopsick’s research showed that methamphetamine’s mortality rate increased fiftyfold between 1999 and 2021, with most of the added deaths also involving heroin or fentanyl. All of these findings have significant implications for designing effective interventions that improve health.
In this issue, you also will meet two of the newest scholars to join KCH, Assistant Professors Matt Hanks and Josh Leonardis. Both apply biomechanics to the study of shoulder pain and pathologies in people who use manual wheelchairs. While Josh’s goal is to fully understand why some users experience pain while others do not in hopes of creating more specific and effective treatments, Matt’s research focuses on the role of physical activity in addressing the problem.
The Department of Kinesiology and Community Health is strong. Our faculty’s productivity and innovation in classrooms and laboratories ensure that our students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels are receiving a world class education that is research-based and on the cutting edge of knowledge. I am committed as head of this department to providing faculty, students, and staff with the resources they need not only to succeed but also to excel. I hope if you are ever on campus, you will stop by to say hello and see this commitment in action.
Kim Graber
Professor and Department Head
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