Spirduso, Jensen and Todd Honored By National Academy of Kinesiology - October 7, 2011

Two University of Texas at Austin College of Education faculty members were elected Fellows of the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK) and a third was given the organization’s highest honor at a special banquet and ceremony during the annual conference.

Jody Jensen and Jan Todd, the newly elected Fellows, are professors in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education.

Jensen, who joined the College of Education in 1997, specializes in children’s neuromotor development and is co-founder and Director of Research for the Autism Project, where she studies the interactions between exercise and the symptoms of autism.

An expert on children’s motor skill development and children and exercise, Jensen primarily researches the acquisition of skill and changes in movement competence from infancy through older adulthood. Her current research emphasizes the role of sensorimotor integration and movement experience in modifying cognition in special populations. Her work on age-related changes in neuromotor control has been funded by the National Science Foundation and in 2008, she was honored with the Ruth B. Glassow Biomechanics Honor Award from the North American Association of Sport and Physical Education. The award is given to a member of the Biomechanics Academy for significant contributions to applied biomechanical research and transmission of knowledge to practitioners.

Todd, who began teaching at The University of Texas at Austin in 1985 and is the Roy J. McLean Fellow in Sport History, is an expert in the history of sport and exercise. She is co-founder and co-director of the H.J. Lutcher Stark Center for Physical Culture and Sports.

Todd’s interest in the academic study of sport and exercise grew from her personal involvement in the sport of powerlifting. In the 1970’s and early ‘80’s, Todd was considered by Sports Illustrated and the “Guinness Book of Records” to be the “strongest woman in the world.” Todd set world records in five bodyweight classes during her 12-year powerlifting career and was the first woman inducted into the International Powerlifting Hall of Fame. She also was inducted in the first class of the Women’s Powerlifting Hall of Fame and into the National Fitness Hall of Fame for her work as a pioneering athlete and educator. Additionally, Todd received the 2008 Oscar Heidenstam Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (Great Britain) for her contributions in the field of physical fitness.

The induction of Todd and Jensen brings the total number of University of Texas at Austin Fellows in the honorary organization to six.

Professor Emeritus Waneen Spirduso was honored at the conference with the H. Clarke Hetherington Award, the NAK’s highest accolade.

Spirduso, who is a former chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education and was interim dean of the College of Education, founded the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute of Gerontology. She is a former president of the NAK and has served in numerous leadership roles since her own induction as a Fellow in 1983. She was honored in 2009 by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness for her decades of significant work in the area of physical activity and aging, and she was the first woman to receive the university’s Civitatis Award for her outstanding service to the university community.

“It’s very rare for one department to have this many faculty in the Academy,” said John Ivy, chair of the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education, “and it makes me extremely proud to be the head of such a distinguished group. I’m particularly delighted that Dr. Spirduso received the Hetherington Award.

“Hetherington founded the Academy and the list of award recipients represents a ‘Who’s Who’ of our profession. Dr. Spirduso’s research has been seminal to the establishment of the field of exercise gerontology, and no one whom I know has done more to advance knowledge on that subject. I’m so proud of her, as well as Dr. Jensen and Dr. Todd.”

—Kay Randall, University Communications, 512-232-3910