Kloos, Kate

Dr. Kate Kloos (MHK 2010) works as an educational developer and instructor at the University of the Fraser Valley’s (UFV) School of Kinesiology. Her current position has brought her full circle to where she started her academic journey. She went to UFV to pursue a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology, and then came to UBC to complete a master’s with a focus on Coaching Sciences.

While at UBC, Kate conducted her graduate research with the mentorship of KIN professors Dr. Patricia Vertinsky, Dr. Wendy Frisby, and Dr. Dick Mosher (1944-2021). She cherishes her experiences with her supervisor, Dick Mosher, who she considers to be one of her biggest inspirations and recalls how much she loved hearing about “his experiences coaching women’s soccer.” The personal connections she formed with her professors and peers, and later her collaborative projects with them, made her time at UBC nothing short of an unforgettable experience.

Upon completing her MHK, she went on to have a family and simultaneously began work in amateur sport in Vancouver. In 2015, she was introduced by a few professional connections to Dr. Jonathon Edwards, who became her Ph.D. supervisor at the University of New Brunswick. Dr. Edwards supported her throughout the program and who served as another strong mentor to her. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies, focussing on coaching education. Kate went on to complete a Diploma in University Teaching in 2021.

As a youth, Kate had a keen interest in sport, but due to socio-economic obstacles, she did not have the opportunity to pursue a sport. Even as a university student, she faced many economic challenges, as a mother and a woman in a male-dominated field. “Compared to my male colleagues,” explains Kate, “I’ve had to work extra hard to prove my knowledge and capabilities. In addition, my family was not wealthy. I was a commuter student from Chilliwack and most often enrolled as a part-time student, having to work a lot in order to pay for my tuition and accommodation. Because of this, I was not able to participate in many extra-curricular activities or develop deep relationships with my peers and professors, which often excluded me from some opportunities.” Despite these challenges, her post-secondary studies motivated her to improve sports experiences for individuals and communities in her future career.

Currently, Kate is interested in researching politics in coaching and sport leadership. She hopes to carry on with her research and professional development in teaching university students and to continue to learn more about leadership, project, and change management, in education.

Kate’s advice to students: “As the brilliant Laura Watson (a fellow UBC alum) used to repeat, ‘you don’t learn from experiences, you learn from reflecting on your experiences.’ Life has thrown me some interesting and difficult challenges and I have been fortunate to be able to reflect on these experiences and learn. It’s not always easy and it’s not always instant, but you will always have the opportunity to reflect on those experiences and grow from them.”

If you are interested in learning more about her research or would like to reach out to her, follow @kate_kloos on Twitter or send her an email:kate.kloos@ufv.ca.

Jasmine Gill

Jasmine Gill is part of the UBC Fall Class of 2021 and will graduate with a Master’s degree in Kinesiology (MKin). She took courses in both Performance Sciences and Clinical Kinesiology streams, focusing on the prevention and management of sports injuries and performance planning.

Jasmine has worked throughout her studies with youth, ages 6 and up, as a Junior Development coach at the Universal Athletics Club. Her coaching approach utilizes long-term development “to ensure children are equipped with the appropriate physical literacy skills to be active for life.” Prioritizing long-term development in children’s physical education is important to her work in kinesiology and personal growth. “As a former track and field athlete who struggled a lot with injuries, I wanted to make sure that I was adequately prepared to prevent and manage injuries in the athletes that I coach,” states Jasmine. She values proper injury management in her coaching style because injuries can negatively harm a young athlete’s physical and psychological state. Likewise, Jasmine notes that “only 39% of Canadian children and youth meet the recommended physical activity guidelines,” according to ParticipACTION.

Prior to coming to UBC, she studied Biomedical Physiology at Simon Fraser University to learn about the physiology and pathophysiology of the human body. Joining the honours program led her to conduct cardiovascular research at the Molecular Cardiac Physiology lab, “performing echocardiography on zebrafish (a model for human hearts) to examine heart function.” Her research background in physiology and her desire to apply it to a coaching and clinical practice influenced her decision to enroll in UBC’s School of Kinesiology to pursue “advanced practical courses and build on her science background.”

Jasmine advises students who are considering grad school to “take the time to connect with faculty members” and study what they are enthusiastic about. “Faculty members are extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and want students to succeed!” remarks Jasmine, “so take advantage of the events, research, and volunteer opportunities that they offer.” After graduation, she hopes to become a Certified Exercise Physiologist and coach athletes at different competition levels.

Interested in learning more about Jasmine’s work? Follow @jasminegill_13 on Twitter!

Graduating Student Spotlight: Jamie Hawke

Congratulations to Jamie Hawke, who will join the UBC Class of 2021 this fall, with her MA in Kinesiology. Her graduate research combines dance education and dance science by using interpretive methodologies to explore participant experiences. For her master’s thesis, she examined what dance educators experience when helping pre-professional ballet dancers develop their dance skills. With Dr. Shannon Bredin as her supervisor, Jamie is expanding her dance education research to explore knowledge translation in her Ph.D. dissertation that she has now begun.

Jamie started off at UBC and graduated with a BKin in 2016, then pursued a BFA in ballet at the University of Calgary, followed by a graduate degree in ballet at the University of Utah. With an MFA under her belt, she became a dance educator. She states that “it was during my first years of my career as a dance educator that I became interested in how kinesiology related to my teaching practices and decided to return to UBC to study kinesiology once again.” It was while she was a KIN student, that she was introduced to research. And she reflects, “I was inspired by the diverse research interests of the faculty. I knew that the interdisciplinary strengths of UBC KIN would help support me in pursuing research in my own field.”

When asked why kinesiology is so important to her, Jamie stated that “as a dance educator, she could see the direct impacts of research within the dance community and in her own teaching practices.” Globally, dance education and science are thriving subfields that “intersect with, and contribute to, many different disciplines,” especially kinesiology. Jamie has started a PhD in KIN and hopes to help grow these research areas to their full potential and to contribute to the field.

Jamie reflects that KIN’s MA program has been a great learning experience for her, and that “keeping an open mind to different research methodologies has allowed me to ask research questions I had never considered before. I have discovered that remaining flexible with my interests in dance research has introduced me to new learning and research opportunities.”

Dr. Guy Faulkner is recognized as a “Highly Cited researcher” for 2021 by Clarivate

Nov. 16, 2021 – Congratulations to Dr. Guy Faulkner for being recognized as one of the most Highly Cited researchers for 2021 by Clarivate. A “Highly Cited” researcher refers to whose publications rank in the top 1% by citations in their field and publication year in the Web of Science. Dr. Guy Faulkner has published multiple high-cited papers in the Cross-Field category in 2021. Check out Dr. Guy Faulkner’s profile here!

Read more about “Highly Cited Researchers” here!

New study published by Science Direct, in collaboration with Dr. Guy Faulkner.

New study published by Science Direct, with Guy Faulkner collaboration as part of the research team: “Longitudinal trends and predictors of muscle-strengthening activity guideline adherence among Canadian youths”

Muscle-strengthening activity (MSE e.g. push-ups, sit-ups, use of weight machines) is linked to multiple health benefits for youth, and is part of the global physical activity guidelines for children and adolescents (5–17 years). However, MSE is rarely assessed in youth health surveillance. This study describes the longitudinal trends and predictors of MSE among a cohort of Canadian youths.

For the full paper: Click Here.

Mannella, Staci

This Fall, Staci Mannella graduates with her MSc in Kinesiology. Her master’s thesis is a socio-psychological study on high-performance, visually impaired athletes and their relationships with their sighted guides. Under the supervision of assistant professor Dr. Andrea Bundon, Staci “explores the intersections of disability sport cultures, experiences of impairments, and athlete mental health.”

Her motivation behind researching this topic stems from her personal experience of being a professional athlete who is legally blind. She is a two-time Paralympic champion who competed for the U.S. Paralympic Alpine Ski Team. As an athlete, movement and exercise played a huge role in her daily life so her research contributions meant that she would be “giving back to a community that was very influential in her life.” Furthermore, Staci remarks that “disability sport challenges us to think differently about what high-performance sport, bodies, and impairments look like.” Athletes with disabilities have been historically marginalized in sports and society, so this research gives them a platform on which to share their voices and experiences.

The variety of expertise and resources she could access in the Kinesiology MSc program made her learning experience fun, says Staci: “Research can be really fulfilling when it is driven by your own curiosities and excitement to explore a topic that is meaningful and interesting to you.” During her tenure as a grad student, Staci has worked as a TA and in several external research positions. She has worked at the GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre and the Canadian Blind Sports Association, “exploring quality participation of people with disabilities in adaptive snow sports programs” and “focusing on gender equity in Paralympic Sport” respectively.

According to Staci, what prospective students may find beneficial to know before entering graduate school is to ensure that they “keep open communication with the professor they are working with.” In this way, both the student and professor will “have the same expectations for the class and the TA work they will do to support student learning.” Currently, Staci is working on her Ph.D. in counseling psychology and hopes to contribute her findings to sports psychology research and clinical practice, specifically for athletes with disabilities. Staci likes to stay physically active by participating in CrossFit, riding horses, skiing, hiking, and biking.

If you are interested in learning more about her research, follow Staci on Twitter: @staciskier96.

Guan, Yanfei

Joining the Class of 2021 this fall, is Ph.D. Kin student Yanfei Guan!

KIN doctoral candidate, Yanfei Guan, will cross the stage as part of the UBC Class of 2021 at the Fall convocation. His dissertation examines “the relationship between inter-limb asymmetry and sports injury in youth athletes.” As part of his dissertation, he led four studies that combined sports medicine and biomechanics. Yanfei explains that he has a great interest in sports-related research, “My dissertation shows how injury prevention is important for athletes, especially for youth who are more vulnerable to soft tissue injuries.”

Prior to his doctoral studies at UBC, Yanfei studied kinesiology in China where he completed his bachelor’s degree at the Shandong University School of Sports Education and his master’s at the Shanghai University of Sports. In 2014, Yanfei travelled to Alberta to participate in a 6-month program at the University of Calgary. The experience was a turning point for him, and he decided to pursue his studies outside of China. Yanfei explains, “Being there influenced my decision to pursue a Ph.D. degree at UBC.”

Yanfei says that his time as both a Ph.D. student and a member of the UBC Kin community was nothing short of an eye-opening experience. His most important takeaway from the program is to “learn independently,” and explains that by solving problems on his own, he learned how to cope with them independently, became self-sufficient, and achieved self-improvement. After graduating this fall, he hopes to find a research position at a university in China to continue his research in sports science.

In Memoriam: Dr. David G. Russell, BPE ’70 and MPE ’71, 1937 – 2021.

It is with sadness that we announce the passing of David Gray Russell (International Fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology, 1993), an accomplished Professor and Emeritus Professor, School of Physical Education, University of Otago, New Zealand (NZ).

Professor Russell received his teaching certificate in NZ in 1958, his BPE (1970) and MPE (1971) from the UBC School of Kinesiology (head of the graduating BPE class). He completed an MA (psychology) in 1972 and his PhD (motor learning and control) in 1974 at the University of Michigan. David then was a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois before moving to the Human Movement Studies Dept at the University of Queensland in Australia where he was a Senior Lecturer from 1974 – 81 and Head of the Dept from 1978- 81.

In 1981 he became Dean of the School of Physical Education at the University of Otago, NZ until July 1991. Following his period as Dean of the School, David established the Life in New Zealand Activity and Health Research (LINZ) Unit and was Director of this Unit until his retirement in 2001. David’s research interests have included: coordinating a research review on drugs in sport for the Royal Society of NZ culminating in the publication ‘Drugs in Sport: Their Use and Abuse’; and exploring the cost of inactivity of the New Zealand population leading to the report ‘The Cost of Doing Nothing.’

David is survived by his wife Ruth of 63 years, his children Neil and Susan, grandchild Lucy. We send them all our condolences. David is remembered fondly remembered by his many colleagues throughout the world. He has left an exceptional legacy of scholarship and friendship.

Congratulations to the winners of the UBCV/UBCO Collaborative Catalyst Grant in Kinesiology, Health, and Exercise Sciences.

Congratulations to the following teams for their successful application for the UBCV/UBCO Collaborative Catalyst Grant in Kinesiology, Health, and Exercise Sciences:

Drs. Stephen Wright, Neil Eves, and Bill Sheel, for their submission titled, ‘Lower-body Negative Pressure as a Novel Approach to Enhance Exercise Tolerance in Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction’.
Drs. Hashim Islam, Jonathan Little, and Robert Boushel, for their submission titled, ‘Linking immune cell and skeletal muscle mitochondrial structure and function across the healthspan: Impact of biological sex and obesity’.

A sincere thanks to the adjudication committee (Drs. Ali McManus and Dr. Chris McNeil from UBC-O, Dr. Tania Lam and Dr. Guy Faulkner from UBC-V).

Behaviour Interventionist

Position title

Behaviour Interventionist

Volunteer or Employment?

Employment

Employer name

Courtney Phillips

Employer email address

cpaigemapson@gmail.com

Number of positions available

Organization

Private Employer

Organization website

Job/volunteer posting URL

Job description

We are hiring bright, outgoing, and athletic individuals to work alongside a 27-year-old with autism in his home and community. This learner loves to go hiking, snowshoeing up at Grouse Mountain, ice skating and swimming. You must be able to commit to a minimum of 2 shifts per week. If you are interested in this position, please email a cover letter & resume to Courtney – cpaigemapson@gmail.com.

Hours/time commitment

Various shifts available – must be able to commit to a minimum of 2 shifts per week. Shifts available are:
Mondays 3:00-9:00pm, Tuesdays 3:00-9:00pm, Fridays 3:00-9:00pm, and Saturdays 5:00-9:30/10:00pm

How to apply

If you are interested in this position, please email a cover letter & resume to Courtney – cpaigemapson@gmail.com.

Posting expiration date

01/01/2022