Category: College of Applied Health Sciences

Wheelchair athletes lead Illinois’ first Adaptive Rec Day, inviting campus to play and pay it forward

Feb. 26, 2026 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo


Illinois hosts inaugural Adaptive Rec Day, expanding disability sports awareness

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.

Editor’s note:

To reach Vince Lara-Cinisomo, email vinlara@illinois.edu.
 

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News Bureau: Seven pain-related risk factors that magnify risk for postpartum depression

Feb. 16, 2026 | AHS Staff

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.

Read the full story on the News Bureau website.

Editor’s note:

To reach Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, email laracini@illinois.edu.
 

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WCIA: The link between healthy eating and brain outcomes for toddlers

Feb. 10, 2026 | AHS Staff

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.

Watch their full appearance on WCIA 3 News.

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What toddlers eat might shape how they think years later, study suggests

Feb. 02, 2026 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

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.

Editor’s note:

To reach To reach Thayna Flores, email trflores@illinois.edu. To reach Pedro Hallal, email phallal@illinois.edu. You can read the study here.
 

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A message to Speech and Hearing Science, from Department Head Georgia Malandraki

Feb 02, 2026 | AHS Staff

“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

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How social stress can worsen colitis, and what it reveals about the biology of IBD

Jan. 23, 2026 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo


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.

Editor’s note:

To reach Jacob Allen, email jmallen5@illinois.edu. To reach Elisa Caetano-Silva, email elisacsa@illinois.edu. You can read the study online.
 

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Happy Birthday, Huff!

Dec. 19, 2025 | Anna Flanagan

AHS celebrates the 100th anniversary of Huff Hall

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.”

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Insights from the 2025 Chittenden Symposium

Oct. 15, 2025 | Ashley Sims

Human-Centered Solutions, Systems-Level Impact

On October 8, faculty, students, and researchers from the Department of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering and Department of Health and Kinesiology gathered at the iHotel for the 2025 Chittenden Symposium: “Lifelong Health by Design – Human-Centered Innovations in Chronic Disease Prevention.” The event united experts across disciplines to explore how engineering precision and health science insight can combine to design systems that foster long-term, equitable health outcomes.

Read more at this link.

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Health study involves adults with Down syndrome ‘every step of the way’

Oct. 15, 2025 | Ethan Simmons

NIH-funded study will develop community resources to support well-being of adults with Down syndrome

Marie Moore Channell and Joey Kane at the National Down Syndrome Society Adult Summit. (Provided)

The transition to adulthood can be a challenging phase for people with Down syndrome, as resources built to support them in their youth and in school begin to dry up.

Marie Moore Channell, associate professor of Speech and Hearing Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is the lead investigator on a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health, which will collect the direct perspectives of young adults with Down syndrome and develop community resources to support their social, mental and physical well-being.

Unlike any previous study on the topic, this one has a steering committee of adults with Down syndrome who’ve helped develop the direction of the study “every step of the way.”

“We realized that the research as a whole is missing that perspective from individuals with Down syndrome themselves,” Channell said. “It’s really a humbling experience as a researcher to take a step back and not say, ‘these are the topics missing in the literature.’ This time, we said, ‘you tell us.’”

Channell and her co-investigators, University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Susan Loveall and Vanderbilt University’s Meghan Burke, have obtained a two-year, $446,096 grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for their study, titled “Developing and implementing community based participatory health research with young adults with Down syndrome.”

The research team will cast a wide net, conducting one-to-one Zoom interviews with adults with Down syndrome across the U.S. to better understand their health concerns, and how to best support them.

The study emerged from a separate survey the professors had sent out to caregivers of individuals with Down syndrome, which sought to identify the gaps in support that occur once they reached young adulthood. Adults with Down syndrome tend to live with a caregiver until age 50.

“Families tell us some version of the same thing, over and over: that the supports they were receiving when they were younger and in the schools, are taken away when they’re older,” Channell said.

They decided the topic warranted further investigation. But first, Channell and her team used their networks to form a steering committee with 12 young adults, all of whom have Down syndrome.

One of those steering committee members is Joey Kane, a 30-year-old from Seattle who met Channell at the National Down Syndrome Society Adult Summit a couple years ago. Channell described some of the participatory research she was interested in doing, and Joey was all ears.

“I like to help make a difference,” Kane said. “It’s giving my voice to be heard, and advocating not just for me, but for everyone else who has a disability.”

While the lead researchers have put the study in motion, the steering committee has met with them at least once a week over video calls, sometimes twice to accommodate members living in different time zones.

The health topics they’ve focused on, Channell said, have ranged from securing employment and community living, to improving physical health and self-advocacy skills.

All those priorities resonate with Kane. He lives in an apartment about a mile away from his parents’ house and has two jobs: he serves dinner at the cafeteria in a local nursing home and works the front desk at the Down Syndrome Center of Puget Sound, where he also helps teach in the center’s adult program.

Kane has enjoyed meeting the rest of the committee and learning about their perspectives on health topics. He credited Channell and the other study organizers for making sure everyone is represented.

“What’s really good about Marie and the people doing the study, is they can tell who hasn’t talked yet,” he said. “It makes me happy that everyone’s participating. If everyone participates, we’re going to have a good study.”

We realized that the research as a whole is missing that perspective from individuals with Down syndrome themselves.

Marie Moore Channell

Associate Professor, Speech and Hearing Science

Input from the steering committee has shaped the study in critical ways. For one, at the suggestion of the committee, the community resources will likely be geared for professionals who support individuals with Down syndrome, such as healthcare providers, case managers and job coaches.

The virtual interviews will be one-one-one video calls, rather than online surveys. Participants will be able to see questions ahead of time and bring pictures to illustrate their ideas.

“It is a technique we learned about in looking at the research, and that’s one the [steering committee] gravitated toward. It’s called ‘photovoice,’ and it’s been used in similar kinds of community participatory research methods,” Channell said.

The resources could take several forms, but what Channell knows for sure is she’ll be “working with this group every step of the way.” 

“I’ve never done this kind of work before, and it’s been a big learning curve, but really refreshing. Because it feels like we can make an impact a lot faster,” Channell said. “I still highly value the other kinds of research I’ve done, but this is something where it’s built into the project to implement into the community by the end.” 

The investigators will put together a “researcher’s toolkit,” compiling the successful practices and challenges of this participatory research. The team is currently hiring some of the steering committee members as co-researchers, who will be trained to help conduct the one-on-one interviews and take part in day-to-day research tasks.

“I’ve learned so much, and I see the value of connecting with the community, building a relationship and working with them before their research study is designed—not imposing your research questions on the community, we’re so used to doing that,” she said.

“It’s really challenging to change that, but I think it’s what we all should be doing more and more of as researchers.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Marie Channell, email channell@illinois.edu
Channell runs the Intellectual DisAbilities Communication Lab at Illinois. Visit their website.
 

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AHS Faculty Q&A: Mariana Mendes Bahia on swallowing disorders and her research agenda

Oct. 14, 2025 | Ethan Simmons

Speech and Hearing Science Assistant Professor Mariana Mendes Bahia, Ph.D. and CCC-SLP, is an expert on swallowing physiology, respiratory-swallowing coordination, and therapeutic strategies to alleviate swallowing disorders, called dysphagia. She joined the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in fall of 2024, and leads the Neuro + Swallowing Research Lab.

Mariana Mendes Bahia. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
How was your first year at the Department of Speech and Hearing Science here at AHS?

Mariana: My first year was a period of growth and adaptation as I became familiar with the university and the Department of SHS. I have been fortunate to receive consistent support from colleagues and departmental staff, which greatly eased this transitional period and helped me navigate new academic and administrative environments.

This year was also dedicated to establishing my laboratory, the Neuro+Swallowing Research Lab, and laying the foundation for my future research program. Setting up the lab allowed me to plan my next steps, define research priorities, and begin shaping a trajectory that aligns with my long-term academic goals, while learning to adapt to the challenges and opportunities of a new institutional setting.

When did you first become interested in studying swallowing physiology and disorders, and why have you stuck with that topic in your research?

My initial interest in swallowing developed during my specialization in speech-language pathology in neurology, when I had the opportunity to conduct swallowing assessments and provide treatment for individuals with swallowing disorders, known as dysphagia, related to neurological diseases.

I was fascinated by the complexity of the swallowing process—something we do countless times a day without even thinking about it. What intrigued me most was how such an automatic act relies on the intricate coordination of more than 30 muscles (and many other structures), several nerves, and brain structures. The interaction among all the swallowing structures, along with the brain and breathing, felt like solving puzzles, and this challenge sparked my curiosity and passion for learning more about the mechanisms behind swallowing and how to best support patients with these difficulties.

As a clinically trained speech-language pathologist, I have observed the devastating impact of swallowing disorders on individuals and their families. This experience has motivated me to integrate my clinical expertise and research background in the investigation of swallowing physiology, particularly the interaction between brain-swallowing and breathing-swallowing, to advance rehabilitation approaches that enhance swallowing ability, improve patient care and enhance the quality of life for individuals with dysphagia and their families.

Bahia in her office at the Speech and Hearing Science building.
You’ve described dysphagia as an “invisible” disorder. For the folks you’ve worked with, how does dysphagia impact their quality of life?

Swallowing is a critical process for life. We need to eat and drink for adequate nutrition and hydration. However, we also eat and drink for pleasure and comfort. Eating is a highly social activity. Therefore, the impacts of swallowing disorders or dysphagia are not restricted to the physical health domain, such as inadequate food or liquid intake, resulting in malnutrition, dehydration, or unintended weight loss.

Individuals with dysphagia face psychological, emotional, and social impacts, including fear of eating, embarrassment, loss of enjoyment when they cannot eat or drink certain foods, and reduced social participation in cultural events or family gatherings where eating is central. The limited ability to share a meal may weaken family and community bonds.

Which therapeutic interventions can work for those living with dysphagia?

Therapeutic interventions for dysphagia aim to improve swallowing safety—preventing food or liquid from entering the airway—and efficiency: ensuring adequate passage of food from the mouth to the stomach. Importantly, interventions are tailored to individual needs and target specific impairments evident in each person. Interventions may include compensatory strategies, such as head adjustments and dietary modifications, to reduce the risk of airway invasion, as well as rehabilitative exercises to strengthen the swallowing muscles, improve the movement of swallowing structures, and enhance the coordination of the swallowing process. Additionally, rehabilitative exercises can be paired with other therapeutic modalities, such as neuromuscular electrical stimulation and brain stimulation.

Editor’s note:

To reach Mariana Mendes Bahia, email mmbahia@illinois.edu.
 

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College of Applied Health Sciences
110 Huff Hall
1206 South 4th Street
Champaign, IL 61820
(217) 333-2131