Recognized by the Office of the Provost: Speech and Hearing Science Associate Professor Mary Flaherty and Health and Kinesiology Instructor Christy Bazan
SHS Associate Professor Mary Flaherty (left) and HK Adjunct Instructor Christy Bazan were recognized for excellence in instruction.
Every year, the University of Illinois Office of the Provost recognizes faculty members for excellence in instruction, who are nominated by committees of faculty, staff and students at each college.
This year, two Applied Health Sciences faculty members won campus awards for their teaching and mentorship in the classroom: Speech and Hearing Science Associate Professor Mary Flaherty won for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and Health and Kinesiology Adjunct Instructor Christy Bazan won for Excellence in Online Teaching.
Both instructors will be recognized at the university’s Celebration of Academic Excellence on Wednesday, March 25, at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
On top of mentoring student researchers through her Child Speech Research Lab, Flaherty teaches undergraduate- and graduate-level courses in Speech and Hearing Science, such as SHS 358: Understanding Research Methods in Communications Sciences and Disorders and SHS 352: Hearing Health and Society, along with advanced SHS 552: Pediatric Audiology and SHS 570: Evidence-Based Practice for SLPs and AuDs.
Bazan, a licensed environmental health practitioner, teaches several community health-oriented classes in the college and Department of Health and Kinesiology, including AHS 199: Applied Data Solutions in Health Sciences, HK 204: Drug Use and Misuse—a subject she co-authored a book on—HK 207: Introduction to Epidemiology and HK 408: Environmental Health.
The College of Applied Health Sciences asked them about what this recognition means to them, and what they’d like to say to students past and present.
What does this recognition mean to you?
Bazan: I am honored and grateful to receive this online teaching award. With support from AHS and my colleagues, many doors were opened to me that allowed me to grow in teaching in online environments. From course redesign, Open Education development, video recoding lectures and developing online content, I have placed emphasis in my courses that shows how important it is to ensure students learn and have experiences just like they might when taking an in-person course.
Flaherty: This recognition means a great deal to me because my undergraduate teaching is centered on helping students learn how to evaluate information responsibly and use evidence thoughtfully in real-world decisions. Many students encounter an overwhelming amount of health and science information online, and a core goal of my teaching is to help them distinguish credible evidence from oversimplified or misleading claims. I aim to make research feel accessible and relevant, while also supporting students as individuals through structure, feedback, and mentorship. Being recognized for this work affirms the importance of teaching students not just what to learn, but how to think, question and apply evidence with care.
Anything you’d like to say to past and current students?
Bazan: My goal as an educator is to cultivate learners who are critical thinkers, empathetic communicators and lifelong learners. I want students to leave my courses not only with knowledge of content but with the confidence and tools to apply that knowledge ethically and creatively in their own lives and in their own communities. Keep learning, learn things in new ways, connect with your professor and your peers in your online classes and engage thoughtfully in an increasingly interconnected world.
Flaherty: This award belongs to my students. I love teaching, and I care deeply about undergraduates and their growth, both inside and outside the classroom. My students show up with curiosity, honesty and a willingness to engage deeply, and they continually remind me why this work matters. Their questions, perspectives and trust shape how I teach, and their commitment to learning pushes me to be a better instructor every year. I am grateful to every student who has shared their time, effort and openness with me. This recognition reflects what we have built together.
A new essay from a Recreation, Sport and Tourism professor shows these runners “shaping their own destinies” on a premier stage of the sport.
Ted Corbitt (center) crosses the Boston Marathon finish line in 1956. Thanks in part to his stellar finishes in the Boston Marathon, Corbitt became the first Black American to run the Olympic Marathon in 1952. (Courtesy of Gary Corbitt)
The Boston Marathon’s first known Black finishers. The first Black American to run the marathon in the Olympics. A charismatic road race organizer who ran the Boston Marathon more than 15 times—without a single recorded time.
Jacob Fredericks, teaching assistant professor in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, researches the history of race and long-distance running. His newest written project covers many of the overlooked accomplishments of Black runners in one of the premiere stages of the sport: the Boston Marathon.
Fredericks’ essay, “The Colorful Boston Marathon: A History of Race and Long-Distance Running in Boston” will appear as a chapter in “Black Identity and Sport in Boston: New Essays on Racialized Space and Performance,” a book edited by Rob Cvornyek and Doug Stark and expected for release by the University of Tennessee Press later this year.
Fredericks ties together the accomplishments of a handful of Black long-distance runners who left their mark on the Boston Marathon, visibly and invisibly, alongside the modern-day efforts to organize a more inclusive long-distance competition in the city.
“Black Americans in this sport are really shaping their own destinies. They have a lot of agency in creating clubs, establishing their own races. And it’s not separate,” Fredericks said. “The things that they’re doing affect the Boston Marathon—they’re still running alongside white runners and international runners. It’s not as segregated as it seems on paper.”
To uncover the history, he leaned heavily on newspaper clippings from publications in Boston’s Black press, like the Boston Guardianand Boston Chronicle. In the early –to –mid 20th century, the marathon got scant coverage in the mainstream press like the Boston Globe, rarely going deeper than the winners or the size of the crowd. “[What] really comes through in the Black press: these runners having this agency at a time when most of America was heavily segregated—if not structurally, then informally. Even in Boston, those issues still remain.”
Early contenders
The first figures he uncovered—Aaron Morris and Clifton Mitchell—were club teammates from New York. In 1919, a full 22 years after the marathon’s founding, Morris became the first known Black American to cross the Boston Marathon finish line, with his sixth place finish of 2 hours and 37 minutes.
“[Morris] is in the Black press, they’re celebrating him: ‘We have a breakthrough,’” Fredericks said. “And he disappears. Maybe he has an injury, and there’s this hope among sportswriters of ‘He’ll be back,’ but we never see him again in the results.”
Teaching Assistant Professor Jacob Fredericks.
The very next year, their hopes were renewed with Clifton Mitchell, a fellow member of the New York St. Christopher Club for runners. Mitchell finished eighth in the 1920 Boston Marathon. Almost immediately, writers in the Boston and New York Black press rallied around him as a candidate to represent the U.S. in the summer Olympic marathon.
Despite their fervent support, he wasn’t selected.
“In this chapter, I think of the Boston Marathon as a stage where you can display your athletic abilities—it’s very visible, and people are watching you, and it’s being recorded. There are Black people among white people in the 1920s, running together.”
Nearly 30 years later, another New Yorker—Louis “Lou” White—broke through in the race and the Boston press. He finished third in the 1949 Boston Marathon, seizing the highest placing for an African American runner in the first year the race was televised.
He soon became a Boston transplant, joining the Boston Athletic Association and putting up several great performances: “Lou White, a Black man—is Boston’s man in the marathon, a symbol of the city on the world stage,” Fredericks said.
White had a protege of sorts: Ted Corbitt, who in 1952 became the first African American to run the marathon in the Olympic Games. One of the most prolific marathoners in history, he finished the Boston Marathon 22 times.
“He is a big proponent of running for health, but also integration, and trying to challenge the status quo and build these new structures,” Fredericks said.
A fixture and “father figure” in the long-distance running community, and a committed member of the integrated track-and-field New York Pioneer Club, Corbitt later helped found the New York City Marathon.
An invisible organizer and the ‘true’ Boston Marathon
Perhaps the most unique figure in Fredericks’ chapter is O’Neil Shannon, a professional boxer and Bostonian. Shannon ran the Boston Marathon at least 16 times without ever receiving a runner’s bib.
“His name comes up again and again as this guy who’s training for the Boston Marathon and running the Boston Marathon. And I’m looking at the results, and I just never see his name,” Fredericks said. “I finally found from his own interview that officials told him the first time he stepped up to the line, ‘We know you. You’re that boxer who was at the Garden last night. You can’t run here officially.’”
So Shannon joined the Boston Marathon’s long tradition of race “bandits,” runners who participate in the 26.2-mile race without registering. At the time, race officials mostly tolerated these bandits, who ran alongside official runners on public roads.
Though he remained invisible in the record books, Shannon continued to build an athletic legacy in Boston. He founded the Blockbuster Athletic Club, where boxers came to both spar and train to run long-distance.
Reverend O’Neil Shannon (left) shakes the hand of Boston Mayor John F. Collins in August 1965. Though he never recorded an official time, boxer and road race organizer Shannon ran the Boston Marathon at least 16 times. (City of Boston).
Shannon began organizing his own road races, all weaving through Boston proper, and fielded serious competitors—including Ted Corbitt. In the mid-1950s, Carter Playground on the Northeastern University campus became a common site where he’d start and finish his own races.
It’s the same playground where, a decade later, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organized a march downtown to advocate for desegregation and equal access to schools and transportation.
“Shannon becomes this cornerstone of the Boston Black community, where he’s a leader of his own club,” Fredericks said. “He’s hidden in the marathon results. We never see him, but he’s present. You can feel his impact on the sport and the city.”
Over the decades, qualifying for the Boston Marathon has become increasingly competitive. Just this year, the time requirement to qualify was upped by 5 minutes.
The race path itself has begun in Hopkinton since 1924, a town 25 miles west of Boston. Local runners have responded by founding a new, unsanctioned marathon, called 26.TRUE, meant to highlight the city’s neighborhoods and celebrate its cultural and ethnic diversity.
“The Boston Marathon’s earned its prestige over one hundred years; it’s a great course. But the question is: is it really Boston?” Fredericks said. “What kind of Boston is this presenting? And so that’s the 26.TRUE: they organized a marathon, but held it entirely within the city limits, in front of Boston people and to inspire people who live in Boston.”
To Fredericks, the existence of 26.TRUE reminds him of the resolve Black American runners showed to compete and organize in the face of formal and informal barriers
“They’re choosing to run the Boston Marathon because they want to, and they’re part of these clubs, these networks, because they want to push themselves,” Fredericks said. “They find a lot of meaning. And they brought a lot of pride to the Black community through their participation.”
Editor’s note
Teaching Assistant Professor Jacob Fredericks teaches management and contemporary issues in Recreation, Sport and Tourism. To reach Fredericks, email jfred@illinois.edu
“Black Identity and Sport in Boston: New Essays on Racialized Space and Performance,” is expected for release by the University of Tennessee Press later this year.
From left, Wendy Rogers, Raksha Mudar, Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler, Lynne Barnes and Cathy Emanuel (Photo by Carrie Wennerdahl)
Researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign gathered Thursday to explore a strategic partnership with Advocates for Aging Care (AAC), a local grassroots organization working to bring an innovative skilled nursing facility to Champaign County.
The workshop brought together university faculty, clinicians and leaders to begin shaping how research, education and clinical practice could align to strengthen person-directed aging care.
The guest speaker was Susan Ryan, CEO of Maryland-based AgingIN, whose Green House model is a finalist for the project.
Building an Innovative Model for Skilled Nursing Care
The overarching goal is to establish The Cottages as a quality, person-directed skilled nursing setting inspired by the Green House model. Through collaboration with the university, project leaders aim to embed research into practice, pilot new technologies and create hands-on educational opportunities for students across disciplines.
The long-term vision is for The Cottages to serve as a flagship model for Illinois and the nation—distinguished not only by its design, but by its integration with a leading research university and its strengths in aging research, technology, design and education.
Turning Shared Interests into Action
The workshop was designed to generate potential models for collaboration based on the mutual needs of university researchers, clinicians, educators and students, as well as residents, families, caregivers and staff at The Cottages. Insights gathered during the session will inform the formation of working groups to advance the partnership.
“AAC is pleased to welcome researchers from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as we identify new ways to advance person-directed skilled nursing care,” said AAC Steering Committee Chair Cathy Emanuel. “This unique Green House model can be strengthened by applying the latest research in aging technology, safety, environmental design, and innovative care practices. By partnering with the university, we aim to create a truly distinctive, high-quality care environment grounded in leading-edge research.”
Broad University Engagement
Interest across campus has been strong.
“We have been impressed by the level of enthusiasm we have seen as we organized this event,” said Wendy Rogers and Elizabeth Hsiao-Wecksler of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “Nearly 100 have already expressed interest in being engaged with The Cottages. They represent a broad spectrum of areas, including The Grainger College of Engineering, the College of Applied Health Sciences, Carle Illinois College of Medicine, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the School of Social Work, the College of Media, the College of Fine and Applied Arts, the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Institute, the Beckman Institute, Illinois Extension and UIC Nursing. We expect a long and fruitful relationship with Advocates for Aging Care, AgingIN, and The Cottages.”
Project leaders hope the Champaign County location will become a destination site for organizations seeking to implement innovative skilled nursing models—recognized not only for its Green House–inspired design, but also for its deep integration with university research, education and community engagement.
Additional details about construction timelines and future collaborative initiatives will be shared as planning progresses.
Faculty, students and staff engaged in a spirited game of wheelchair football during Adaptive Rec Day (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
It wasn’t even 11 a.m. and Gym 2 at the Activities and Recreation Center on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign was already buzzing.
Illinois’ first annual Adaptive Rec Day had just begun, drawing students, faculty and staff. Inside the gym, sport wheelchairs gleamed beneath the lights. Basketballs and footballs echoed across hardwood. At center court, members of Illinois’ wheelchair athletics teams smiled, ready to welcome newcomers with open arms.
Illinois’ Campus Recreation held the inaugural Adaptive Rec Day as a way to celebrate the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association’s (NIRSA) Recreational Sports and Fitness Day.
Developed by Recreation, Sport and Tourism graduate student Noah Eckelberg, students got the opportunity to learn about adaptive sports and recreation while competing alongside Illinois’ wheelchair athletes. Students enrolled in RST courses Community Planning and Engagement and Inclusive by Design also participated in the day’s scrimmages.
Campus Recreation was awarded $16,168 as part of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation National Paralysis Resource Center (NPRC) 2025 Direct Effect 2nd Cycle. The funding was used to put on the event and purchase adaptive recreation equipment, including harnesses for the climbing wall, hand cycles that will be available at the Campus Bike Center and adaptive sleds for use at the Ice Arena, said Alex Williamson, associate director of marketing-programming at Campus Recreation, as well as body-weight straps and a boccia ball set that can be checked out during open recreation.
Martrell Stevens, a Recreation, Sport and Tourism major and captain of the Illini men’s wheelchair basketball team, spun lightly in his chair, greeting a student who had never seen a sport wheelchair up close.
“This is a really, cool experience and an opportunity to just teach other people about adaptive athletics, and not just wheelchair basketball, but all the different sport there is to know,” Stevens said, gesturing toward courts set up for wheelchair basketball, football and volleyball.
“Growing up playing wheelchair basketball has changed my life so much. It’s allowed me to meet the best friends of my life who are going to be in my life for a very long time. It’s allowed me to travel, see the world. It’s allowed me to go to college. If I can teach other people about the sport, and they can teach other people, we can spread awareness and get as many people as possible playing adaptive athletics so they can have the same similar opportunity as me growing up.”
Paralympic medalist Susannah Scaroni nodded vigorously. Scaroni, whose racing career has taken her from campus tracks to the world stage as the defending champ of the Boston, New York and Chicago Marathons, leaned into the question about what an Adaptive Rec Day could teach people.
“Man, I agree with that,” she said with a grin. “And I’d just say we want to change perceptions to be what is right. We just want people to know what recreation sport is, and sport is, and disabled sport—as oxymoronic as that sounds—people learn hands-on.”
And that was exactly what was happening.
Some faculty and staff climbed into a sport chair for the first time, wobbling before finding balance. Students experimented with the wheels, marveling at the speed. Laughter broke out as people discovered just how much upper-body strength the sports demanded.
Mak Nong, a former captain of the Illini wheelchair basketball team and now program manager for Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association (GLASA) in Lake Forest, Illinois, talked to a crowd gathered after the sport demonstrations were done. His tone carried both urgency and excitement.
Being physically active, moving, it’s what the College of Applied Health Sciences is all about: wellness across the lifespan.”
Jean Driscoll
Paralympic medalist and associate dean of advancement, College of Applied Health Sciences
“I think just for you guys, just really understanding that you’re at a point in time where adaptive sports is in a frying pan right now,” he said. “It can jump off at any second and you guys can trail blaze that. Please use the people that came before you to help you champion that and continue to grow these different opportunities.
“… there’s so many different things that you guys can grow adaptive sports, whether it’s (Name, Image and Likeness) deals for intercollegiate sports, the different equipment that the athletes will eventually use. The sky’s the limit for you guys. And I’m so excited to see what you guys do with this.”
In the gym, Paralympic multi-medalist Jean Driscoll watched as people navigated their chairs, some for the first time, in competition. A legend in wheelchair racing and a longtime advocate for adaptive athletics, Driscoll smiled at the sight of recreation in its purest form.
“Well, I know this is Rec Day,” she said when asked what the event meant to her. “And we all took sport beyond recreation, and we’re elite-level athletes. But I think to Susannah’s point, recreation is the name of the game. Being physically active, moving, it’s what the College of Applied Health Sciences is all about: wellness across the lifespan.”
She gestured toward the swirl of activity.
Women’s wheelchair basketball coach Stephanie Wheeler, left, and Paralympic medalists Jean Driscoll, center, and Susannah Scaroni took part in Adaptive Rec Day (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
“And so being active some way, you don’t have to be a superhero every day. Just do things for yourself, what makes you happy. For us, training makes us happy. But you can do it for fun too. And if you do it for fun, if you’re having fun, you’ll keep doing it. And that’s really what’s important.”
For Illinois women’s wheelchair basketball coach Stephanie Wheeler, the event was also an opportunity to quash some misconceptions about adaptive sports.
“I would say the biggest misconception that we have is it’s not physical or that it’s not real sport,” Wheeler said. “I think that’s what we try to do here at U. of I. is introduce wheelchair basketball, wheelchair racing, whatever sports it might be as a sport. I think that’s the biggest misconception is that it’s not a sport, that it’s not hard, it doesn’t require skill because we are disabled, that anybody can play, and that anybody can be good. I think what that aligns with is the way we think about disability in society.
“It’s not necessarily a positive representation. Whenever we’re encountered with that, we always say come to a game come to a practice because as soon as you see it, you’ll fully understand that skill is required. It’s physical. It’s fast. It’s fun. Just coming to watch it, I think, kind of washes that away pretty quickly.”
Near the end of the event, Nong—who played professional wheelchair basketball in Europe—addressed the crowd, mostly composed of students.
“What I love the most about today is that it has been led by quite a few of our student athletes. And so shout out to all of our student athletes who have played a huge role in making today happen,” he said. “And that’s really important to us because in our program, one of our biggest founding philosophies is that we pay it forward.”
As the final basketballs and footballs were rolled away and chairs lined neatly along the wall, the energy in the ARC felt less like an ending and more like a starting line.
Illinois’ first annual Adaptive Rec Day had been about t-shirts and snacks. But it had also been about perception, possibility and paying it forward.
And if the laughter, shouting and spinning wheels were any indication, this was only the beginning.
In the last decade in the U.S., the highest rates of postpartum depression were among racial and ethnic minority women.
Prof. Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, center, worked with fellow researchers Melany Romero, left, and Sudhamshi Beeram on a study investigating links between postpartum depression and pain during and after childbirth in racial/ethnic minority women.
(Photo by Fred Zwicky / University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
A woman’s risk of developing postpartum depression is influenced by several pain-related factors before and after childbirth, including poor pain management, their prenatal mental health and the quality of patient-provider communication, researchers at the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign say.
Health and Kinesiology Associate Professor Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo and her co-authors, graduate students Sudhamshi Beeram and Melany E. Romero, spoke to the Illinois News Bureau’s Sharita Forrest to share the findings of their analysis of postpartum literature: they identified seven interrelated risk factors of postpartum depression in racial and ethnic minority women.
Health and Kinesiology professors talked about early childhood nutrition with local news
Thaynã Flores and Pedro Hallal, professors of Health and Kinesiology, joined the University Updates segment of WCIA 3 News this week. (WCIA 3)
It’s no secret that the food you eat every day can impact your body or impact how you feel. Now, researchers at the University of Illinois are learning the link between what toddlers are eating, and how they think years later.
A team of professors from the College of Applied Health Sciences joined WCIA 3’s Amanda Brennan in the studio for Tuesday’s “University Update” to talk all about their new study, that found an association between unhealthy dietary patterns in early childhood and lowered cognitive test scores for kids years later.
“Our take home lesson today is that nutrition earlier in life really matters,” said Thaynã Flores, health and kinesiology assistant professor. “At age two, the brain is still developing fast and what the children eat during this period influences the brain’s outcomes later.”
Pedro Hallal, a professor with the Department of Health and Kinesiology added that it’s “no secret” that what you eat can influence your chronic disease risk or other physical impacts.
“What is new about this study is that what kids eat very early in life, at the age of two, will influence your brain, your cognition ability at age six. The more ultra-processed foods kids eat, the less developed their brains will be at age six. And that’s concerning,” Hallal said.
By the time children in Pelotas, Brazil, reached their first day of school, some had already been influenced by decisions made years earlier—at the family table
Study co-authors Thayna Flores, left, and Pedro Hallal. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
A new analysis from the 2015 Pelotas Birth Cohort suggests that dietary patterns at just two years of age are associated with cognitive performance at ages six and seven. The findings add to growing global evidence that early childhood nutrition—particularly exposure to ultraprocessed foods—may play a meaningful role in shaping brain development.
The Pelotas Birth Cohort is one of the most comprehensive long-running population studies in Latin America, following thousands of children from birth. Researchers from the University of Illinois and the Federal University of Pelotas collected detailed information on what children were eating at age two and later assessed their cognitive performance once they reached early school age.
Rather than focusing on individual foods or nutrients, the research team examined overall dietary patterns. Using principal component analysis, a statistical method that identifies common combinations of foods, they identified two dominant patterns among toddlers in the cohort. One, labeled “healthy,” included beans, fruits, vegetables, baby foods and natural fruit juices. The other, labeled “unhealthy,” was characterized by snacks, instant noodles, sweet biscuits, candies, soft drinks, sausages and processed meats.
Children who more closely adhered to the unhealthy dietary pattern at age two scored lower on IQ tests at ages six to seven. The association remained even after accounting for a wide range of social, economic, and family factors that could influence cognitive development.
“The covariates were identified as potential confounding factors based on a literature review and the construction of a directed acyclic graph,” said Thayna Flores, an assistant professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology in the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois and one of the study’s authors. “The analyses were adjusted for child’s sex, maternal age, maternal schooling, maternal work, maternal depression, family structure, parental relationship, socioeconomic status, number of people in the household, number of older siblings, preschool, score of stimulation, duration of exclusive breastfeeding and food introduction before 6 months.”
Some factors often raised in debates about child cognition—such as parental IQ—were not included, largely because they were not measured in the cohort. However, Flores noted that the study did incorporate proxies for the home learning environment. “We didn’t measure the parental IQ, but home stimulation and early childhood education were both used in our adjustments,” she said.
Despite established guidelines, consumption of ultraprocessed foods is already common at this age.
Thayna Flores
Assistant Professor, Department of Health and Kinesiology
One of the study’s more surprising findings was what it did not show. The healthy dietary pattern was not associated with higher IQ scores. Rather than undermining the importance of fruits and vegetables, Flores said the result reflects how common these foods already were in the sample.
“The lack of association observed for the healthy dietary pattern can be largely explained by its lower variability,” she said. “Approximately 92% of children habitually consumed four or more of the foods that characterize the healthy pattern.” When nearly everyone is eating similarly, statistical differences become harder to detect, she said.
Where the results became especially concerning was among children who were already biologically vulnerable. The negative association between unhealthy diets and cognitive performance was stronger in children who had early-life deficits in weight, height, or head circumference.
“According to the literature, children with a deficit in height and head circumference from birth to the first year of life were more likely to be classified as having a low IQ,” Flores said. “Other studies suggest that insufficient growth before age two is related to impaired cognitive development.”
This pattern points to what researchers call cumulative disadvantage: when biological vulnerability and environmental exposures—like poor diet quality—interact to produce worse outcomes than either would alone.
The study did not directly test biological mechanisms, but Flores said existing research offers plausible explanations. “Diets of poor nutritional quality, particularly those high in ultraprocessed foods, may interfere with neurodevelopmental processes through mechanisms involving systemic inflammation, oxidative stress and alterations in the gut–brain axis,” she said.
‘We need to consider the rise in ultraprocessed foods,’ said Thayna Flores. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
The researchers, who also included study co-author HK Professor Pedro Hallal—who came to the University of Illinois after a long stint at Pelotas—also examined whether breastfeeding and the timing of complementary feeding influenced the results. Both were included as confounders, and exploratory analyses looked for interactions.
“We identified that the association between adherence to unhealthy dietary patterns and IQ scores was significantly modified by the presence of early-life deficits,” Flores said. “No evidence of effect modification by sex, birth weight, gestational age, or duration of exclusive breastfeeding was found.”
Although the study is based in southern Brazil, its implications may extend far beyond Pelotas. Ultraprocessed foods are now common in early childhood diets worldwide, including in high-income countries.
“The longitudinal design, high follow-up rates and the large sample size strengthen the study,” Flores said. “While direct comparison should be made with caution, our findings are informative and can generate hypotheses for studies conducted in high-income countries,” such as the United States.
Whether similar effects would be seen in countries with greater food fortification or different health systems remains an open question. Still, Flores believes the core message is broadly relevant. “Considering the worldwide dissemination and higher prevalence of ultraprocessed foods, I think so,” she said when asked whether similar patterns might emerge elsewhere.
For policymakers, the findings carry clear implications. In Brazil, infant and young child feeding guidance is already part of primary health care, but Flores said the study highlights a gap between recommendations and reality.
“Our results reinforce the importance of strengthening counseling during routine child health visits, emphasizing the need to limit the habitual offer of ultraprocessed and unhealthy foods,” she said. “Despite established guidelines, consumption of ultraprocessed foods is already common at this age.”
Flores said public health efforts should focus on promoting healthy foods and reducing the emphasis on unhealth ones, but timing matters. “We need to consider the rise in ultraprocessed foods,” she said. “Stronger actions now can help prevent these foods, especially in early childhood.”
The Pelotas study is not the final word on diet and cognition. Researchers are now collecting more detailed dietary data as cohort members reach adolescence, opening the door to stronger causal analyses and a better understanding of long-term effects. Still, the takeaway is difficult to ignore. Long before report cards and standardized tests, children may already be accumulating advantages—or disadvantages—based on what is offered to them at the age of two. In a world where ultraprocessed foods are cheap, convenient and heavily marketed, the study suggests that early dietary choices may quietly shape how children learn, think and thrive years later.
“I welcome perspectives from everyone (…) because the future we create together will be stronger for it.“
Georgia Malandraki, professor and department head of Speech and Hearing Science, has begun her second month as department head. (Ethan Simmons/College of AHS)
Dear Speech and Hearing Science community,
It is with pride and a deep sense of responsibility that I begin my role as Head of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science. Returning to Illinois, where I completed my Ph.D. and where many of our distinguished faculty shaped my early career, feels like coming home. It is both humbling and exciting to now have the opportunity to give back to the community that supported me from the start.
Over the past several months, I have begun to learn the many stories, strengths, and aspirations that make SHS such a vibrant community. Every conversation with faculty, staff, and students has reminded me of something I have known since I was a student here: SHS is a community where excellence and compassion go hand in hand, and where people genuinely care about making an impact. I am grateful to join you as we continue building on that foundation together.
I am thankful to be joining the department at a time of remarkable momentum, built under the leadership of former Head and Professor Pamela Hadley and Dean Cheryl Hanley Maxwell. The shared governance model, the selfless and dedicated service of faculty, the collective passion for impactful research and clinical training, and the strong commitment to inclusion that I have witnessed during this transition are outstanding.
Equally impressive is the work ethic and dedication of our faculty, staff, and students, clear indicators of the remarkable potential ahead. Importantly, the support and enriching environment provided by the College of Applied Health Sciences and the University as a whole foster collaboration, innovation, and sustained excellence, creating the conditions for SHS to grow and continue its legacy as one of the leading departments in the state and the country.
As we look toward the future, I see a department that not only sustains this legacy but continues to grow its reach locally, nationally, and globally. Together, we will focus on our shared goals:
Strengthening our position as a global leader in research and clinical training in communication sciences and disorders
Empowering students through exceptional and forward-thinking education
Expanding our engagement with communities and partners who rely on our expertise
Growing the resources and support needed to enhance discovery, education, and service
These are meaningful goals, and I am confident we can achieve them. The talent, commitment, and heart I see within SHS are truly remarkable.
In the coming months, I look forward to hearing your ideas, learning from your experiences, and working with you to shape the next chapter of SHS. I welcome perspectives from everyone—students, alumni, faculty, staff and friends—because the future we create together will be stronger for it.
Thank you for the very warm welcome. I am inspired by this department, energized by its potential, and honored to walk forward with you.
With warmest regards, Georgia A. Malandraki, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, BCS-S, ASHA Fellow Professor and Head
Study from AHS researchers links stress to gut inflammation via adrenergic oxidative pathways
Jacob Allen, left, with study co-author Elisa Caetano-Silva, said data suggest that stress makes the gut environment more fragile. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
For decades, patients with inflammatory bowel disease have reported a familiar and frustrating pattern: periods of intense stress are often followed by worsening symptoms or full-blown disease flares. Clinicians have observed the same phenomenon, yet the biological explanation has remained elusive—leaving stress dismissed by some as subjective, anecdotal or “all in the head.”
A new study is helping to change that narrative. Researchers from the University of Illinois have identified a biological pathway by which social stress can worsen colitis, linking psychological experience to measurable damage in the gut itself. Their findings show that stress activates β-adrenergic signaling in the intestine, triggering oxidative stress that weakens the gut lining and intensifies inflammation.
“Clinicians have long noticed that highly stressful events—death in the family, major life events, chronic life stress—often precede worsening symptoms and flares in patients with inflammatory bowel disease,” said one of the study’s authors, Jacob Allen, an associate professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology in the College of Applied Health Sciences. “Our findings uncover potential physiological mechanisms for how stress can translate into changes in the gut that make IBD worse.”
Stress is known to activate the sympathetic nervous system—the body’s “fight-or-flight” response—leading to the release of catecholamines such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones prepare the heart, lungs and muscles for rapid action. What has been less clear is how they affect the gastrointestinal tract.
The researchers found that during social stress, these stress hormones rise not just in the bloodstream but locally within gut tissue itself. “What we found is that in response to social stress, these hormones are increased locally in the gut,” Allen said. “These stress signals can directly affect the gut lining … leading to increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), also known as free radicals.”
Reactive oxygen species are chemically reactive molecules that can damage cells if not tightly regulated. In this case, the study identified a specific ROS-producing pathway involving a protein called DUOX2. Excessive ROS weakened the intestinal epithelial barrier—the protective lining that keeps bacteria and toxins from leaking into underlying tissue—making the gut more inflamed and fragile.
“Overall, our data suggest that stress makes the gut environment more inflammatory and more fragile,” Allen said, adding that ROS signaling may be a “proximal trigger for why stress increases IBD flare risk.”
Importantly, the study suggests that stress does more than worsen existing inflammation. It may also prepare—or “prime”—the gut for future disease activity.
“Yes, stress clearly worsens ongoing inflammation,” said Elisa Caetano-Silva, a co-author of the study and a senior research scientist in Allen’s Integrative Microbiota & Physiology lab. “But interestingly, we also found evidence that stress-induced changes in the gut can precede active disease, priming the tissue to respond more strongly to later insults.”
Stress can ‘set the stage’ for a flare by making the gut more vulnerable, even before symptoms appear.
Elisa Caetano-Silva
Senior research scientist
This insight may help explain why patients sometimes experience flares weeks or months after stressful events, even if symptoms were initially absent. Stress, the researchers argue, can quietly reshape epithelial biology and redox signaling, increasing vulnerability long before inflammation becomes clinically obvious.
“In other words,” Caetano-Silva said, “stress can ‘set the stage’ for a flare by making the gut more vulnerable, even before symptoms appear.”
Rather than using physical stressors such as pain or restraint, the researchers focused on social stress—an experimental model that mimics psychological stressors relevant to human experience.
“We chose social stress because it strongly activates adrenergic signaling … which is very relevant to certain types of human psychological stress,” Allen said, including conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Stress is often framed primarily as a cortisol problem, linked to the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, or HPA, axis. But in this study, blocking cortisol signaling did not prevent stress-induced worsening of colitis. Blocking β-adrenergic signaling, however, did.
“In this model and in this context, adrenergic signaling appears to be the dominant driver of stress-induced worsening of gut inflammation,” Allen said, while emphasizing that cortisol is not irrelevant in all settings.
One of the most striking findings was that inhibiting oxidative stress itself could blunt the harmful effects of stress. A compound called apocynin, which limits ROS production, significantly reduced stress-related disease severity in mice.
“We were especially excited by how well a ROS-targeting compound worked in limiting stress-induced worsening of IBD,” Allen said. “Whether this translates to humans is a critical next question … but it’s promising.”
The work also raises—but does not answer—questions about existing drugs. Because β-adrenergic signaling was central to disease worsening, could medications like β-blockers play a role in IBD care?
“Potentially … but we need to be careful,” Allen cautioned. “It’s too early to recommend β-blockers for IBD management” without controlled human studies examining safety, timing, and patient subgroups.
Allen and Caetano-Silva were equally clear about what patients should not take away. “I would caution patients not to interpret this as: ‘Just take a beta-blocker and your IBD will improve,’” Allen said. “IBD is complex, and it’s unlikely that one intervention will solve everything.”
Elisa Caetano-Silva is a senior research scientist in Jacob Allen’s Integrative Microbiota & Physiology lab. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
The study also challenges how medicine talks about stress itself. Too often, stress is framed as a personal failing or a psychological weakness. This research pushes back against that framing.
“It supports the idea that stress isn’t ‘just in your head,’” Allen said. “It can create measurable biological changes that affect gut physiology and immune responses.”
By identifying specific pathways—adrenergic signaling, epithelial oxidative stress and barrier dysfunction—the work reframes stress as a biological factor that can be studied, measured, and potentially treated.
Looking ahead, the researchers envision a more integrated future for IBD care. “I don’t think IBD will ever be treated by one drug,” Allen said. “But the future is more holistic and personalized care—combining immune-targeting therapies, strategies to strengthen gut barrier function, microbiome-targeted interventions and approaches that reduce stress-driven inflammation.”
If that future arrives, patients’ long-standing intuition—that stress matters—may finally be matched by equally strong biological evidence.
Huff Hall today, left, and the building in 1924. (Photo illustration by Michelle Hassell).
By Anna Flanagan
Many people still think of the home of the College of Applied Health Sciences as Huff Gym. The building opened in 1925 as the New Gymnasium, giving the University of Illinois men’s basketball team what was then state-of-the-art facilities for home games. Renamed for longtime athletic director and coach George Huff in 1936 after his death, Huff Gym later became Huff Hall to better reflect its significant role in the academic life of the university.
The four hallways on the first floor of the building surround the gym, which is still used for volleyball, wrestling and gymnastics events. But faculty associated with Huff have cemented its scholarly reputation as the site of pioneering research and groundbreaking advancements in health and leisure studies.
The Father of Physical Fitness
The early academics residing in Huff Gym were the faculty of the School of Physical Education. They included Seward Staley, who served as director and dean from 1936 to 1960. Staley was a strong advocate of building physical education programs around a sport-based curriculum and conducted extensive research on physical education and sport throughout his career. He guided the School of Physical Education to prominence as a leader in health-related research.
Staley’s own commitment to research-based practice influenced his faculty recruitment. In 1941, Thomas “T.K.” Cureton, known as the “father of physical fitness,” joined the School of Physical Education. He established the Physical Fitness Research Laboratory in Huff Hall, one of the first of its kind in the nation. He conducted cutting-edge research on what he called the six primary components of physical fitness—endurance, flexibility, agility, strength, power and balance—and revolutionized existing knowledge about weight and fitness, oxygen’s role in athletic performance and the role of exercise in cardiovascular health, among other things.
As Jack Berryman, then the official historian of the American College of Sports Medicine, observed in a 1996 article in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, Cureton was the only fitness enthusiast of the 1950s (a group that included Charles Atlas and Jack LaLanne) “who produced the research to substantiate his beliefs regarding the positive influence of physical activity on health.” Cureton’s work helped to elevate the reputation of physical education and led to the establishment of research labs in departments across the country.
In addition to the hundreds of journal articles, books and research monographs published during his career, Cureton shared his beliefs widely through numerous lectures around the world, called Cureton Clinics, and frequent appearances in magazine and newspaper articles and on television programs focused on health and fitness. His son, Kirk Cureton, who himself had a long and distinguished career in kinesiology at the University of Georgia, said he wasn’t aware of his father’s reputation in the field of physical fitness science as a child. He participated in the Sports Fitness Experimental School that his father established in 1950 to improve the physical fitness of youth, still running today as the Sports Fitness Program, and recalls going to his father’s lab where Cureton and his graduate students assessed such things as cardiovascular health and muscle endurance.
Kirk Cureton’s knowledge of his father’s stature grew as he did, and he feels it played a positive role as he established his own career.
“My father was known, and it helped me with networking,” he said, adding that TK was “a good model.”
“What I learned from him was persistence and the value of hard work,” Cureton said. “He was devoted to his field. He loved what he did. He thought working at a university was the best thing you could do.”
Poised for the future
Many outstanding scholars walked the halls of Huff as the School of Physical Education evolved into the College of Applied Health Sciences. They established the first driver education teacher training program in the Midwest, created the first K-12 sex education curriculum that was adopted throughout the country, conducted a groundbreaking study on driving and alcohol consumption that resulted in the lowering of the DUI threshold from .15 to .10, conducted a comprehensive anti-smoking education study of youth that resulted in the first academic contribution to the annual Surgeon General’s Report on smoking and health, and put sport psychology on the map as a legitimate academic discipline, among many other contributions.
T.K. Cureton was ‘devoted to his field,’ his son Kirk said. (University of Illinois Archives)
“Our current faculty engages in research that, in a lot of ways, wouldn’t have been possible without Cureton and the other pioneers,” she said. “We still focus on issues related to physical fitness and health, cardiovascular health, for example, which was so important in Cureton’s work. But we have developed a more discipline-focused approach, looking at biomechanics, exercise physiology, brain health or exercise psychology, and so much more.”
Graber noted that while the department has expanded far beyond its early focus on training school health educators, teacher training is still an important part of its mission as evidenced by its Physical Education Teaching Licensure program. Huff Hall is still an important hub for the department, she said, serving as the home of its three professional degree programs—Master of Public Health (MPH), Master of Health Administration (MHA) and Master of Science in Health Technology (MS-HT). Many health and kinesiology faculty have their offices and laboratories in Huff, where they are addressing current and emerging health challenges such as the role of technology in successful aging, gut health and chronic disease in underrepresented populations.
“Our research is cutting edge,” Graber said. “It’s innovative. It’s futuristic. We’re in a good position to tackle the problems of the next generation.”
Giants of recreation and leisure
Huff Hall also is the home of the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, which had its beginnings in the Department of Physical Education for Women. That department, which included recreation in its curriculum, joined the Department of Physical Education for Men to form the School of Physical Education. The School began offering a bachelor of science degree in recreation in 1948, thanks to the efforts of Allen Sapora. The curriculum he developed became a model for programs around the country. Sapora believed strongly in the importance of applied research and was one of the first scholars to integrate research into recreation education and professional practice.
Charles Brightbill joined the Illinois faculty as a professor of recreation in 1951 and, working together with Sapora, built the program into one of the leading park and recreation education programs in the world. Brightbill had a well-established national reputation in the field of recreation by the time he joined the Illinois faculty, having served as the executive secretary of President Harry Truman’s Committee on Religion and Welfare in the Armed Forces, among other positions. In 1957, he became the inaugural head of the Department of Recreation, which was created when the School of Physical Education was reorganized and renamed the College of Physical Education. His advocacy of cooperation between citizens and professionals in the parks and recreation field played a significant role in the formation of the National Recreation and Park Association.
After Brightbill’s death, Sapora served as department head and created the Office of Recreation and Park Resources in partnership with University of Illinois Extension. He hired Joseph Bannon, who had completed his master’s degree in recreation at Illinois, to lead the new initiative. Like Sapora, Bannon firmly believed that practice in the parks and recreation field needed to be informed by scientific research, and that research needed to address real world issues. His own research focused on the development of recreation organizations. Laura Payne, professor of recreation, sport and tourism and Joseph J. Bannon Director of the Office of Recreation and Park Resources, said Bannon’s contributions are still relevant today.
Charles Brightbill, left, and Allen Sapora, right front, were pivotal to the establishment of what is now known as the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism. (University of Illinois Archives)
“He was the expert nationally and internationally in public parks and recreation organizational development, leadership, management and administration,” she said. “His work addressed policy and practice, and how organizations relate to one another.”
Bannon, who became head of what was then the Department of Leisure Studies in 1973, was instrumental in strengthening the interdisciplinary nature of the department’s research, hiring faculty with backgrounds in such fields as psychology and sociology. He was a co-founding editor of the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration and, along with Allen Sapora, a founding Fellow of The Academy of Leisure Sciences, or TALS. Fellowship in TALS is a prestigious honor, one that many RST faculty and PhD graduates have earned since the organization’s founding in 1980. Among them are John “Jack” Kelly and Lynn Barnett, also giants in the field of leisure studies.
Kelly, in fact, played an instrumental role in establishing the field of leisure studies. He believed that knowledge of leisure theory would help practitioners make informed decisions and design more relevant and effective programs. He wrote the first textbook in the field of leisure studies, appropriately entitled Leisure, and encouraged scholars to address the sociological and psychological aspects of leisure.
“Jack Kelly is a legend in our field,” Payne said. “He was ahead of the curve on many societal issues and trends in the 1970s and early ‘80s, anticipating and working on healthy aging, work and leisure, socialization and leisure and family leisure. He really catapulted us forward by making our research more relevant and increasing our visibility to people outside of parks, recreation, sports, tourism and leisure studies.”
Barnett studied the role of play and playfulness in the lives of children and adults for more than 40 years. As a doctoral student in educational psychology, she became convinced that children learned as much or more outside of the classroom as they did within it. Over the years, she found that playfulness is a fairly stable construct that is related to cognitive and socioemotional functioning. Her research showed that playfulness was linked to flexibility in thinking, enjoyment, positivity, and social skill, and that it was often used to cope with anxiety.
“Lynn brought education, human development and play together in a way that hadn’t been done before,” said Monika Stodolska, Brightbill/Sapora Professor and associate head of recreation, sport and tourism. “She inspired generations of scholars, students and practitioners to look at play as being integral to learning, and socioemotional, physical, and cognitive development.”
The commitment remains
Scholars in the Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism continue to believe in practice-based research and research-based practice. RST faculty still examine leisure’s role in the healthy development of individuals, families and communities, focusing on such contemporary issues as the role of sport in human and community development, equity in access to parks and green spaces and how social, cultural, environmental and political factors affect tourists and host communities. As RST professor and department head Carla Santos put it, “We keep our ears to the ground, listening and observing and staying connected to what’s going on in recreation, sport and tourism in order to be responsive to needs and priorities. That has been true of this department throughout the nearly 70 years we’ve been in Huff Hall.”
The College of Applied Health Sciences has grown beyond the walls of Huff, now also occupying Freer Hall and the Speech and Hearing Science Building. But one hundred years after its opening, Huff Hall remains the nerve center of AHS, and that’s just fine by Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, dean of AHS.
“With the addition of the Khan Annex and modernization of instructional spaces, Huff wears its age well and is a comfortable academic home,” she said. “It’s a campus landmark and I’m proud that it’s the heart of AHS. But in the end, what really makes a building special are the people who work within it, our students, faculty and staff. We are blessed in AHS to have exceptional students, creative and dedicated faculty and skilled and supportive staff. I’m proud of all of them.”
