Tucker Center Newsletter - 2010 Spring
- Letter from the Director
- Feature Article: Women's Possible Selves and Physical Activity: A Healthy Pathway to Successful Aging
- Learning Our Legacy: Dorothy McNeill Tucker
- Did You Know? Over 12,000 Athletes Participated in the 2009 Senior Games
- Keep in Touch with the Tucker Center!
- Staff Updates: Alyssa Norris
- Kudos & Announcements
- Guest Column, with Mariah Burton Nelson: Are You Aging Successfully?
- Spring 2010 Distinguished Lecture:
Are Women Aging Successfully? New Thinking and Research about Gender & Physical Activity
Letter from the Director
Sunny, spring greetings from the Tucker Center! In this issue of our newsletter you’ll read about the impressive number of scholarly activities our faculty and affiliated scholars are engaged in, ranging from a major grant sponsored by the General Mills Foundation which examines physical activity and healthy eating among African American females, to keynote addresses and publications in prestigious academic journals. These are all key indicators of the important work we are doing and the kind of impact and recognition these efforts are having on a national and international scale.
Because much of the work we do focuses on youth and adolescence, we thought it was a good (and long overdue) time to focus on the other end of the age spectrum. Our spring Distinguished Lecture—featuring renowned speaker and author Mariah Burton Nelson—will explore the intersection of gender, physical activity, and aging (see Spring 2010 Distinguished Lecture for more details). As is her custom, Nelson will challenge how we typically think about aging in general, as well as our own aging process. She will focus in particular on how physical activity can improve one’s quality of life and help to ensure graceful and successful aging. The challenges and opportunities women face as they age across the lifespan are many. We hope to raise awareness and facilitate critical thinking about this highly relevant topic through our Distinguished Lecture and this issue of our newsletter.
Related to Nelson’s presentation is Co-Director Maureen Weiss’ feature story on aging and physical activity. Weiss provides insightful evidence about this important subject—injected with personal reflections on her own aging process—that I’m sure you will truly enjoy. Speaking of aging and physical activity, we all know that the Winter Olympics in Vancouver just concluded in February, but did you also know about the National Senior Games? Learn more about this inspiring yet under-the-radar event in our Did You Know column.
Finally, because of the numerous projects and initiatives happening in the Tucker Center, it is becoming increasingly difficult to fit all our news in the boundaries of this twice-yearly newsletter. We hope you’ll stay connected with us between newsletters by visiting our Web site and our other social media outlets that are summarized in Keep in Touch with the Tucker Center! What you will learn there is that the Tucker Center continues to be the leading “go to” authority that local and national news outlets rely on due to our evidence-based expertise regarding sport and gender. Seldom does a week go by where we are not asked to comment on such key issues as Title IX, the scarcity of female coaches, and how sportswomen are portrayed throughout mainstream media. You can find links to these stories and more by visiting the Tucker Center homepage at www.tuckercenter.org.
—Mary Jo Kane, Director