Kudos & Announcements
Tucker Center Newsletter - 2008 Fall
Honors & Awards
Heather Maxwell and Jens Omli successfully defended their Ph.D. dissertations in May, and Chelsey Thul (née Rodd) completed her Masters degree in April.
Omli received a prestigious 2-year NIMH traineeship at the U of M’s Institute of Child Development to investigate the influence of angry parent behavior on psycho-physiological outcomes for youth sport participants. He will be mentored by internationally recognized scholars Dante Cicchetti and Nicki Crick.
Thul and Erin Becker each received a 2008-09 Eloise Jaeger Scholarship, an award which provides opportunities for students to meet their educational and career goals.
Diane Wiese-Bjornstal was elected to the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports Science Advisory Board for 2009-12. The board’s activities include input on the President’s Challenge Program, as well as other initiatives related to physical activity and health across the lifespan.
Jo Ann Buysse received a U of M International Travel Grant to attend the Social Impact of Sport Governance and Management Conference in November at the Universita’ L. Bocconi, Milan, Italy.
Scholarly Activities
Nicole LaVoi, Maureen Weiss, and Wiese-Bjornstal delivered a panel presentation titled “Physical Activity as a Context for Youth Development” last May. The presentation was part of The Applied Research Collaborative on Youth Development’s Inquiry to Impact Series.
Mary Jo Kane presented results from the Women’s Sport Foundation Media Project, “The Portrayal of Female Athletes in the Media: Does Sex Really Sell?” to AP sports editors in Minneapolis at their annual convention in June.
Kane will also deliver a distinguished lecture, “Media, Gender and Sport in the 21st Century,” as part of the School of Arts & Sciences Diversity Initiative at Central Connecticut State University, New Britain, CT, in October.
Weiss will deliver an invited presentation, the Jo Safrit Lectureship, at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in October.
Weiss, Jennifer Bhalla, Nicole Bolter, and Melissa Price presented two research papers at the annual conference of the North American Society for Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) in Niagara Falls last June. They presented data from their longitudinal study of positive youth development through participation in The First Tee program—“Life skills, youth development, and sport participation: Retention effects over a one-year period,” and “Lessons learned and core values adopted in a sports-based youth development program: A qualitative longitudinal analysis.” Price and Weiss also presented a paper at NASPSPA on their study of peer leadership among female adolescent athletes, “Peer leadership in sport: Characteristics, behaviors, and team outcomes.”
Buysse gave an invited presentation at the Minnesota Recreation & Park Association (MRPA) conference in Brainerd in September titled “Perceptions of Women as Leaders.”
For more information on what members of the Tucker Center are doing, visit our Tucker Center news blog ...