Top 10% for Fall 2020

Let’s start off this new semester by congratulating our KIP faculty and graduate students who were honored by Provost Huntoon for being in the top 10% of all instructors University wide in the Fall 2020 teaching ratings based on student evaluations. Dr. William Cooke (KIP 5500), Dr. Kevin Trewartha (KIP 4300/5300), PhD candidate Jessica Bruning (BL 2011) and PhD student Isaac Wedig (KIP 3100); these 4 individuals especially excelled this term.

Cooke, Trewartha, Bruning and Wedig

This has been an incredibly challenging time to teach and the entire department has done a phenomenal job with instruction. Thank you all!!

Ford College Community Challenge Awardees

Kelly Kamm (KIP) and Chris Morgan (PHC-Enterprise) are CO-PI’s on a project that has been awarded funding through the Ford College Community Challenge to build sustainable communities from the Ford Motor Company Fund. The grant will help leverage connections with the Michigan Tech Enterprise Program and Western UP Health Department to build a public online Health Resource Hub.

The Hub will be a publicly available, online source that can connect individuals, health care practitioners, caregivers and social service organizations to community resources to improve health and wellbeing in the region. This project serves an unmet need for the five county region served by WUPHD, an exclusively rural population of approximately 67,700. The Hub will also include community resources that support social determinants of health, helping our more vulnerable populations find services to address factors that adversely affect health, such as non-emergent medical transportation services or domestic violence services. Given the remote, rural population this project serves, the mobile platform will increase the reach of the hub for those with limited access to high-speed internet or computers.

As the philanthropic arm of Ford Motor Company, Ford Fund’s mission is to strengthen communities and help make people’s lives better. Working with dealers and nonprofit partners in more than 50 countries, Ford Fund provides access to opportunities and resources that help people reach their full potential. Since 1949, Ford Fund has invested more than $2 billion in programs that support education, promote safe driving, enrich community life and encourage employee volunteering. For more information, visit www.fordfund.org or join us at @FordFund on Facebook and Twitter and Instagram.

Frost Elected to National AKA Board of Directors

Megan Frost, Professor and Chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Integrative Physiology, has been elected to the Board of Directors of the American Kinesiology Association (AKA). Her three-year term of office will begin in January 2021.

Alan Smith, president of AKA, said her selection “from a stellar pool of candidates, is a reflection of the confidence of Kinesiology leaders in [her] capacity to advance our unified field of study.”

New funding

Kelly Kamm (KIP) is the principal investigator on a project that has been awarded funding from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund  – Health Aging Grant for her project titled “In-Home Vision Screening in Underserved Seniors”. This project is in collaboration with the University of Michigan – Flint.

The Michigan Health Endowment Fund works to improve the health and wellness of Michigan
residents and reduce the cost of healthcare, with a special focus on children and seniors. You can find more information about the Health Fund at mihealthfund.org.

How to be a Nice Midwesterner in a Pandemic

Kelly Kamm (KIP) explains what you need to do before, during and after travel over break. Getting a test is not a substitute for safe behavior — remember, what you choose to do now and during break can affect your loved ones.

Nice Midwesterners

On the University research blog Unscripted, Kamm shares insights from her work as an epidemiologist and what that means for travel, awkward health conversations with friends and family, zombies and quarantine.