Inside LIFE Home: Five years of innovation for independent living
Chancellor Isbell, center, with LIFE Home Director Wendy Rogers, second from left, Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, right and Karen and Jim McKechnie, lead benefactors of the McKechnie Family LIFE Home (Photo by Bridget Lee-Calfas)
The McKechnie Family LIFE Home at the University of Illinois celebrated its fifth anniversary Oct. 8, marking five years of bringing researchers, students, community members and industry partners together to develop technologies that help people live healthier, more independent lives.
The facility—where LIFE stands for Living in Interactive Future Environments—provides a real-world home environment where research is grounded in everyday experience. By bringing together engineering, health sciences, design and human-centered research, the LIFE Home helps researchers better understand the routines, challenges and aspirations of the people their innovations are intended to serve.
“It is a place where discovery is grounded in everyday experience—where researchers can better understand the routines, challenges and aspirations that shape people’s lives,” said College of Applied Health Sciences Dean Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell during the anniversary celebration.
Over the past five years, the LIFE Home has supported interdisciplinary research in healthy aging, disability, rehabilitation, assistive robotics, smart-home technology and virtual and extended realities. Students learn alongside faculty, community partners and the people whose perspectives help make that research stronger and more relevant.
The work reflects the university’s land-grant mission toward improving lives through research, education and engagement. It also gives students opportunities to see how innovations can address everyday needs and support greater independence, dignity and connection for people of all ages and abilities.
Hanley-Maxwell credited Jim and Karen McKechnie’s generosity and commitment with giving the work a home and creating a lasting foundation for discovery, education and public impact. She also recognized Dan Fisk; Larry Kanfer; other donors and supporters; and Wendy Rogers, Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor of Applied Health Sciences and director of the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, along with the facility’s faculty, staff, students, collaborators and community advisors.
Rogers recalled that the vision for a smart-home research facility began when then-Dean Tanya Gallagher hired her. Hanley-Maxwell later embraced the idea, and the McKechnies’ support enabled the team to expand the original plan.
“This is an amazing facility,” Rogers said. “And it is an amazing community that has contributed to its success.”
Rogers also recognized Fisk for sponsoring a named room and establishing a research fund, Larry and Alaina Kanfer for donating photographs that make the facility feel more like a home, and Walt and Sue Schneider for supporting research on in-home mobility for older adults.
She credited Harshal Mahajan with helping develop the LIFE Home from before the building existed and throughout its first five years. Mahajan prepared a video highlighting the facility’s activities during that period.
Rogers thanked postdoctoral associate Shafiqul Islam, who oversees the facility’s technology and supervises interns,; and operations coordinator Yvona Vlach, who works with clients, campus offices and the public. She also recognized building service worker Leonard Mcfarland for the daily care that keeps the facility ready for research and events.
The anniversary is an opportunity to build on that foundation. Continued philanthropic and institutional support—along with new partnerships—could advance research and strengthen collaboration across the university and broader community. Rogers said the LIFE Home’s mission aligns with the university’s priorities in people-first technological transformation, health and well-being, preparing future leaders and serving the public.
“As proud as we are of these first five years, today is not simply a look back,” Hanley-Maxwell said. “It is an invitation to imagine what comes next: smarter and more accessible homes; more inclusive technologies; stronger community partnerships; and new solutions that help people of all ages and abilities live with greater independence, dignity and connection.”
Rogers agreed, saying, “Together, we will lead the way in improving quality of life and independence for people of all ages and abilities through technology.”
Brasillinois spans the system’s universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. Its broad priorities include climate and sustainability, global health, and democracy and inclusion.
Photo by caption
For Pedro Hallal, the distance between Illinois and Brazil shrinks when he considers who gets the chance to live a long, healthy life.
In Brazil, he sees gaps in life expectancy between rich and poor. In Illinois, he sees similar disparities associated with ZIP codes. The settings differ, but the questions give researchers common ground: Who is being left behind, and what would help?
Those questions help explain why the Department of Health and Kinesiology has become a major contributor to Brasillinois, the initiative connecting the University of Illinois System with Brazilian research and educational institutions.
Hallal and fellow HK faculty members Andi Schwingel and Bruno Nunes hosted a delegation in Brazil in summer 2026, adding another personal connection to a partnership already supporting faculty research. For HK, those relationships offer opportunities to study shared health problems, involve students in international work and bring research closer to communities.
“I think health equity is a key issue here,” said Hallal, the Alvin M. and Ruth L. Sandall Professor in Health and Kinesiology at Illinois and president of the Federal University of Pelotas, Brazil, from 2017 to 2020.
Brasillinois spans the system’s universities in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago and Springfield. Its broad priorities include climate and sustainability, global health, and democracy and inclusion. Within that larger effort, HK brings expertise in physical activity, chronic disease prevention, aging and the conditions that shape people’s health.
Jerry Dávila, who holds the Jorge Paulo Lemann Chair in Brazilian History at the University of Illinois and serves as director of the Humanities Research Institute, said HK’s strength as a partner reflects both shared concerns and Brazilian expertise.
“The questions about life expectancy and healthy lives that researchers at Illinois and in institutions in Brazil are working on have the same relevance to both societies,” Dávila said. He also pointed to Brazil’s achievements in expanding public access to healthcare and the public health research that places its researchers at the forefront of many questions Illinois collaborators are studying.
You need to take research to the places where it’s needed the most.
Pedro Hallal
Alvin M. and Ruth L. Sandall Professor in Health and Kinesiology at Illinois
Schwingel, a professor in HK as well as director of the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies on Illinois’ flagship campus, sees that expertise reinforced by people who already know both countries.
“HK has a strong faculty and graduate student presence doing research on Brazil,” she said. “This translates into a greater understanding of Brazil and the U.S. and makes the partnerships established more feasible.”
That familiarity matters when researchers must identify collaborators, understand local institutions and develop studies that respond to the communities involved. Schwingel credits Hallal’s reputation in Brazil with helping Illinois build relationships across the country. His experience leading a Brazilian university also informs how he approaches international research.
Hallal said advances in communication make it easier to discuss shared problems with international colleagues and develop studies together while learning from the different conditions in each country.
Dávila said the delegation’s visit demonstrated the university’s support for those relationships. “Whether in Brazil or in Illinois, showing up is important,” he said. “The visit of the delegation shows vividly that these research collaborations are not solely the initiatives of the faculty, but that they have the support of the university.”
He credits Illinois’ reputation as a steady institutional partner with helping attract investment in joint research from state research foundations in Paraná, São Paulo and 10 other Brazilian states.
One measure of HK’s involvement comes from a Brasillinois funding competition linking Illinois researchers with colleagues in the Brazilian state of Paraná.
Pedro Hallal and Aline Lamas are part of HK’s Brazilian faculty contingent (Photo by Jerry Thompson)
According to Hallal, 12 eligible proposals competed for five awards. Four of the selected projects came from HK, a striking share of a competition open to researchers across all three Illinois universities. Hallal, Schwingel and Rafael Tassitano are among the faculty members leading those projects.
Each project received $100,000, Hallal said, with the funding provided entirely by Paraná’s state research foundation, Fundação Araucária. Together, the four HK awards represent $400,000 for collaborative research.
Dávila said Fundação Araucária selected the projects as part of its priority to engage leading international scholars in research collaboration and support graduate training in Brazil.
Hallal is more interested in what the projects can accomplish than in the department’s share of the awards. Much of the work, he said, addresses chronic diseases and their risk factors, areas in which HK’s research strengths match Brazilian priorities.
Cardiovascular disease, diabetes and high blood pressure are central concerns. So are physical inactivity, obesity, unhealthy diets and smoking. These subjects give researchers in both countries reasons to work together and opportunities to learn from different approaches.
A separate Brasillinois grant illustrates how those connections can become a specific research question. Nunes, an assistant professor in HK, and Alexandre Dias Porto Chiavegatto Filho of the University of São Paulo are developing machine learning models to identify underdiagnosed chronic diseases in Brazil.
Their project focuses on diabetes, hypertension and abnormal blood lipid levels, using national health data to improve detection and address disparities in access to screening. It was selected through the inaugural Brasillinois program with the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), with support from the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies at Illinois.
For Hallal, choosing where to conduct research requires looking beyond convenience. The communities with the greatest health challenges should help determine where researchers direct their attention.
“You need to take research to the places where it’s needed the most,” he said.
That principle also shapes how he describes the relationship between the two countries. Brazil and the University of Illinois can each contribute knowledge, and each can learn. Differences in health systems and lived experiences give collaborators more ways to examine a shared problem.
Schwingel sees opportunities for that exchange to reach the places where people receive care and children learn.
“Many projects include primary care, health clinics and schools that serve local communities, creating engagement with them,” she said.
Aging offers another strong connection. Hallal points to Brazil’s growing population of older adults and the increasing importance of managing chronic disease as reasons for collaboration. HK’s expertise in aging, including the work of Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor of Applied Health Sciences Wendy Rogers, gives the department another way to contribute.
The questions extend beyond how long people live. Researchers can also examine the conditions that support health as people grow older and the inequalities that shape those experiences. Hallal identifies aging, chronic disease and equity as especially close matches between departmental strengths and Brazilian needs.
Students stand to gain from these connections throughout their training. Hallal said the projects already involve students, exposing them to health questions that matter in more than one country. He would like that experience to have an even greater influence on the curriculum.
For Schwingel, externally funded collaborations can also create paid research assistant positions and introduce students to unfamiliar research settings. Working alongside colleagues in Brazil can help them develop relationships that continue beyond an individual project.
She expects more scholars, including graduate students, to visit Brazil. Student exchanges and more regularly offered undergraduate study abroad programs are possibilities, too. Those opportunities would give students additional ways to connect their classroom learning with the circumstances shaping health elsewhere.
Jerry Dávila holds the Jorge Paulo Lemann Chair in Brazilian History at the University of Illinois and serves as executive director of the Illinois Global Institute (Photo provided)
The Lemann Center, which Schwingel said has supported exchange between Brazil and the United States since 2009, is also partnering with Brasillinois. That connection adds an established resource for Brazilian studies to the initiative’s expanding collaborations.
Dávila credited the Lemann Center with pioneering institutional relationships. He said the creation of Brasillinois reflects the University of Illinois System’s commitment to continuing, strengthening and expanding them.
Schwingel sees the potential extending from stronger research to changes in programs and policy. International experience, she said, can also influence the next generation of scholars and the professional networks they build.
Dávila said a new collaborative research call with FAPESP, the São Paulo Research Foundation, is planned for 2026. “We hope our colleagues in (the College of Applied Health Sciences) will find opportunities through it to carry their research in new directions,” he said.
For HK, the delegation visit and research awards are part of that longer process. Faculty relationships make joint projects possible; those projects give students experience and bring new questions into the department’s teaching and research.
Hallal describes the exchange with a simple image: “It’s like a two-way avenue.”
The work ahead will give that idea practical meaning in studies of chronic disease, opportunities for students and partnerships with communities. Its direction follows the concern that draws Hallal back to the comparison between Illinois and Brazil: People’s chances of living healthier lives should guide where researchers look, whom they work with and what questions they ask.
After 35 years, Steve Petruzzello leaves the University of Illinois the same way he built his career: putting people first
Professor Steve Petruzzello, associate dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs, is retiring from the College of Applied Health Sciences after more than 30 years at the University of Illinois. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
There are easier ways to measure an academic career.
You can count publications. Research grants. Awards. Citations. National rankings. For Steve Petruzzello, those numbers are certainly impressive. For 35 years at the University of Illinois, the Health and Kinesiology professor helped shape the scientific understanding of how physical activity affects mental health, conducted influential research that improved firefighter safety, mentored generations of graduate students and earned a place on the University’s List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent more than 60 times.
But ask Petruzzello what mattered most, and he’ll answer with a single word.
People. The students who walked into his classroom every semester. The graduate students whose ideas he encouraged—even when those ideas challenged conventional wisdom. The colleagues who opened laboratory doors for a young professor before they had any reason to trust him.
Those relationships, more than any publication or promotion, became the defining thread of a career that unfolded in ways he never expected.
“When I came here,” said Petruzzello—who came to what was then known as the Department of Kinesiology in 1991—“I knew I’d set up a lab, get my research started and begin teaching. I don’t think I could have ever predicted the twists and turns it would take over 35 years.”
Petruzzello, known to students as “Dr. P.” and to most others as “Steve P.,” never had a rigid vision of where his career was headed. Looking back, he believes that may have been one of his greatest strengths.
“I’ve always tried to remain open to possibilities,” he said.
Sometimes those possibilities appeared in remarkable acts of generosity.
Fresh off earning his Ph.D. from Arizona State University, Petruzzello arrived at Illinois with little more than ideas and ambition. Established faculty in the Psychology Department—many of them nationally recognized researchers—offered him access to their laboratories and equipment.
“They didn’t know me from Adam,” he said. “And they were willing to let me do anything I wanted.”
Other opportunities arrived by pure chance.
One afternoon, exercise physiology professor Jim Misner mentioned he was conducting research with firefighters. Petruzzello immediately recognized a connection to his own work studying body temperature and the psychological effects of exercise.
A hallway conversation became a decades-long research partnership that would eventually influence firefighter training across Illinois.
For Petruzzello, that became a lesson he carried throughout his career: some of the most important moments aren’t carefully planned. They’re recognized.
From Olympic Archers to Everyday People
His path into research was equally unexpected. Growing up in Wisconsin, Petruzzello was always active. Summers were spent outside, not in front of screens. Football games with his brothers continued through snowy winters. Later came competitive swimming.
The turning point arrived during college. A teammate developed a peculiar pre-race ritual. Before every race, he disappeared into a dark hallway, lay quietly beneath a towel for several minutes, then emerged to dominate his event. Petruzzello couldn’t stop wondering why.
That curiosity led him into sports psychology, graduate school at Arizona State and eventually research on elite athletes, including members of the U.S. Olympic archery program. His team measured brain activity and heart function while elite archers shot arrows, searching for the mental ingredients behind world-class performance.
The work fascinated him. But eventually another question seemed even more important.
Instead of asking how to help elite athletes improve by fractions of a percent, what if researchers could understand how exercise affected everyone?
That realization redirected his entire career toward studying the psychological benefits of physical activity—a field that has since become central to public health.
“It was like, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’” he said.
Science with Immediate Consequences
Many researchers hope their work eventually changes lives. Petruzzello got to watch it happen. Working alongside the Illinois Fire Service Institute, his laboratory studied how firefighters respond to extreme heat, dehydration and physical stress during training exercises.
Initially, researchers simply evaluated whether a structured physical training program improved fitness. It did. But the partnership quickly expanded into something much larger. Petruzzello’s team measured core body temperature, hydration, heart rate and cognitive performance during live-fire training scenarios. Their findings revealed how heat stress could influence decision-making, reaction time and safety.
The practical implications were immediate. Departments adjusted hydration practices. Training evolved. Better information led to better decisions for firefighters entering dangerous environments.
“We’re finding things we can give back to these folks,” Petruzzello said, “and they can use them to make changes in how they do things.”
For someone whose research centered on improving people’s lives, there was no greater reward than watching science move beyond journal pages.
I’ve always tried to remain open to possibilities.”
Steve Petruzzello
Outgoing associate dean for Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Despite an accomplished research career, Petruzzello never viewed teaching as secondary. Quite the opposite. Years ago, when asked to become director of graduate studies, he was offered the standard incentive: a reduced teaching load. He declined.
“If that’s what I have to do to take this job,” he told his department head, “I don’t want it.” He took on the role without giving up any of his teaching responsibilities.
Teaching wasn’t something to escape. It was the reason universities exist.
“We don’t have a job if we don’t have students,” he said. “Teaching has just been the best thing.”
Students sensed that commitment.
Every semester, Petruzzello updated his lectures rather than recycling decades-old material. He greeted students before class—eventually with fist bumps that became something of a tradition. He noticed who looked distracted, who hadn’t attended recently and who might simply need someone to ask whether everything was OK.
When students encountered illness or personal hardship, he tried to offer understanding before judgment. Sure, he admits, a few people probably took advantage of that kindness. He has no regrets.
“I don’t want to be the one that says, ‘I wish I would’ve given that student a little more leeway because they really needed it.’”
That philosophy explains why his teaching evaluations remained exceptional for decades. Students remembered not only what they learned, but how they were treated.
A Mentor Who Stepped Aside
Petruzzello’s impact extended far beyond the classroom. One of his proudest moments involved doing remarkably little.
Professor Steve Petruzzello says he’ll miss students and teaching. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
Early in his career, doctoral student Panteleimon “Paddy” Ekkekakis approached him with four ambitious manuscripts questioning accepted ideas within exercise psychology.
One of the manuscripts was critical of the questionnaire developed by a more-senior faculty member. The faculty member was livid, Petruzzello said.
“He said, ‘How dare you let a graduate student do that?’ And I just sat there. And I thought, how dare I not? If it’s garbage, then the peer review process will point that out.”
Instead, all four manuscripts were accepted.
The work fundamentally changed how researchers study emotional responses to exercise and launched Ekkekakis into one of the field’s most influential careers.
Ekkekakis, now a professor and chairperson of the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University, said he first learned of Petruzzello in 1991 when he was an undergraduate student, and Petruzzello published a meta-analysis on the effects of exercise on anxiety in a leading review journal.
“Needless to say, at the time, for an undergraduate student in faraway Athens, Greece, the furthest thing from my mind was the notion that I could, one day, study for my Ph.D. under the guidance of Dr Petruzzello,” Ekkekakis said. “As fate would have it, a couple of years later, I met Dr. Petruzzello, in the flesh, at a conference in the U.S. We kept in touch and a few years later, I found myself driving a U-Haul truck through a major winter storm toward Champaign-Urbana, to enroll in the Ph.D. program under his guidance. I came to Illinois after a traumatic period of studying for my master’s, having experienced numerous variants of negativity, from racism to condescension and everything in between. In stark contrast, every interaction with Steve was like a breath of fresh air. In an early experience I will never forget, I observed him interact very calmly with a belligerent student in the classroom. I thought to myself ‘I wish that, one day, I will be able to develop this level of professionalism and self-control.’ Outside the classroom, Steve exhibited the perfect balance between providing guidance and cultivating autonomy. That’s a rare skill that I have also tried to emulate, but probably unsuccessfully.
“It is hard to put in a nutshell what Steve means to me as a mentor and academic role model. I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for helping me build a research program that has taken me all over the world and a professional career that I still find fulfilling. I consider myself enormously lucky that our paths crossed, especially considering how extremely improbable this encounter seemed back in 1991.”
Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences and a colleague since 2016, said Petruzzello “distinguished himself as a scholar, teacher, mentor and leader whose influence has shaped generations of students, faculty and staff.
“Steve’s leadership within the college has left a lasting mark. He has guided academic programs, supported student success initiatives and helped shape the educational experiences of countless undergraduate and graduate students. His steady guidance, thoughtful perspective and unwavering commitment to this college have strengthened our mission in countless ways.
Saying Goodbye
After three and a half decades, Petruzzello says he won’t miss committee meetings. He laughs about that. What he’ll miss are the conversations before class. The questions students asked that made him think differently. Conversations with fellow faculty members and colleagues. The faculty and staff members who quietly kept the department running every day.
Mostly, though, he’ll miss the students. For years, he joked that standing in front of classrooms full of 18-to-22-year-olds was the closest thing academia had to the fountain of youth.
Now, as retirement begins, he hopes the next generation of faculty remembers why universities exist in the first place. Help students. Be the best teacher and mentor you can be. Build meaningful research. Speak up. Stay curious. Those ideas sound remarkably similar to the principles that quietly guided his own career.
When asked for one final message, Petruzzello borrowed words that have long inspired him.
First came Maya Angelou: Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.
Then, with a smile, he reached for Winnie the Pooh.
“How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard?”
For thousands of Illinois students, colleagues and alumni, the answer is easy. They were lucky to have Dr. P.
New research is testing effective ways to communicate with families about chemical exposures
The IKIDS research team at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the U. of I. studies maternal and child health outcomes and their relationship to environmental and nutritional exposures. Participant Margo Schiro, age 7, speaks to doctoral student Cai Zhang. (Photo by Fred Zwicky)
Among the last things a mother wants to hear is that chemical compounds found nearly everywhere in the modern environment—our clothing, packaging, plastics and drinking water—could have implications for their child’s development in the womb.
Sarah Geiger, assistant professor of health and kinesiology at the College of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, has studied the adverse impacts of environmental pollution and chemical exposures on human development for more than 15 years as a researcher.
Now she’s part of emerging research to hone those conversations: how do we communicate these findings without creating undue levels of fear or concern?
“You don’t want them to feel like, ‘Great, now I’ve somehow unknowingly put my developing child at risk,’” Geiger said. “The conversations we try to have with mothers is, ‘Here’s what we know so far and here’s what we’re trying to learn; here’s what could be the case, or not.
“We also equip them with knowledge to empower them to avoid chemical exposure in a way that is tailored to their individual chemical measures, as well as protective behaviors that could help to mitigate any effects of existing chemical exposure.’”
This process, known as ethical report-back of research results (“report-back”) is a science unto itself. With an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health, Geiger is collaborating with the Silent Spring Institute—a women’s and environmental health research organization—and colleagues at the University of California San Francisco to experiment with the report-back process.
Geiger has teamed up with Silent Spring and UCSF previously to make a tutorial for research participants to understand chemical exposure. In this new study, participants will be tracked on several biomarkers that have not typically been reported back to participants—like telomere length, oxidative stress and inflammation—then informed of the results in separate groups.
“We’re doing a randomized controlled trial, not with vaccines or pharmaceutical products, but with report-back,” Geiger said. “If one study group gets the report-back report, and the other received their results with a feature designed to facilitate them taking action around these results, are there differences in behavior change outcomes?
“The idea is that we want to learn what best helps research participants understand and act on their individual results in a way that has the potential to enhance health.”
The report-back process is important because our polluted environment isn’t going away. Even as larger studies, including a birth cohort study hosted at the University of Illinois, continue to reveal how common chemicals impact children’s development, the United States industrial ecosystem doesn’t seem to be improving, Geiger said.
“Most of the chemicals far and away that I’ve studied are endocrine-disrupting. And the situation is not getting better—it’s getting worse because we’re stripping away environmental regulations in this country,” Geiger said. “Whatever your political persuasion is, the reality is that we don’t abide by the precautionary principle for chemical exposures and chemicals in products to the extent that our counterparts in other developed nations do.”
Understanding ‘forever chemicals’
Among the many compounds Geiger studies as an environmental epidemiologist, so-called “forever chemicals” are recurring characters.
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are manmade compounds used in water-resistant clothing, stain-resistant food packaging, nonstick cookware materials and countless other consumer products. Also found in drinking water, PFAS earned the moniker of forever chemicals for their durability and tendency to accumulate in human and animal bodies.
PFAS were long considered chemically inert. But a crisis in middle America opened new investigations into their health effects, and Geiger had a front-row seat.
Sarah Geiger (Photo provided)
For decades, chemical producer DuPont knowingly dumped perfluorooctanoic acid, called PFOA or C8, in the Ohio River, which flowed into drinking water for the surrounding communities. DuPont used C8 to produce nonstick Teflon products.
In 1998, more than 70,000 residents of the mid-Ohio River Valley in West Virginia and Ohio reached a $671 million settlement with DuPont. The class action lawsuit also funded a massive cohort study to observe PFOA’s long-term effects on human health.
Geiger obtained her doctorate at West Virginia University School of Medicine, where many researchers were untangling the damage done.
“I was really interested in environment and human health—and pediatrics, too,” Geiger said. “I had a couple kids at that time: I was interested, partially just from being a mom, in child development.”
What they learned: PFAS disrupts human endocrine systems. PFAS chemical structures are similar to the sex hormones estrogen and testosterone. Significant adult exposure is associated with kidney and testicular cancer risk, lowered fertility, and damage to the immune system.
Other common endocrine disruptors include bisphenol A, a chemical used in plastic manufacturing which coats the insides of metallic products like food and beverage cans, and parabens, preservatives commonly found in cosmetic products like shampoos and moisturizers.
Exposure to endocrine disruptors in utero can disrupt and complicate children’s pre-birth sexual development and affect their developmental trajectory years down the line—leading to lower birth rate, decreased bone density and accelerated puberty.
“How can a chemical exposure for a developing fetus in the womb change child behavior at age 5? Physically, chemically, how in the world does that happen? That’s what we’re trying to get to the bottom of,” Geiger said.
Prospective human cohort studies are the gold standard in epidemiology. They enroll participants and follow up with them for years or even decades, collecting relevant health data to find patterns in their development and life outcomes.
In IKIDS, pregnant women are enrolled early in their pregnancy and continue to check in from their child’s birth up to age 8 in many cases. More than 600 mothers, fathers and their children have been enrolled so far, and they’ve secured funding from the National Institutes of Health to continue the study through 2030.
Most of the chemicals far and away that I’ve studied are endocrine-disrupting. And the situation is not getting better—it’s getting worse because we’re stripping away environmental regulations in this country.
Sarah Geiger
HK Assistant Professor
Some participating mothers have been tested on a variety of chemical exposures in their blood during pregnancy. Their kids’ development is tracked for any significant associated outcomes, particularly around neurodevelopment, or the growth of the brain and nervous system.
“We don’t always know exactly what the causal factors are biologically for an outcome we see, but cohort studies allow us to drill down into it in a way that most studies don’t allow you to do,” Geiger said.
Communicating risks
In the large research group at IKIDS, Geiger has led the report-back process for participating families. With grant funding, she helped pilot an app made for the task.
Collaborators at the Silent Spring Institute and UCSF created a smartphone-based tutorial for mothers who participated in two cohort studies, including IKIDS, that walked participants through their chemical exposure results and offered personalized recommendations for reducing contaminants in the future.
According to their study published this February, the tutorial helped study participants understand graphs that detailed their own chemical exposures, aimed at accessibility to participants of all education levels and backgrounds.
The digital interface showed participants how their own chemical exposure levels compared against other mothers collectively in both the study and nationally, then offered pointers to reduce exposure to endocrine-disrupting contaminants.
Some practical recommendations shared in the study: eating more fresh and frozen food, opting for drinks in glass bottles instead of cans, moisturizing with natural oils like shea butter or avoiding household products that are advertised as “antimicrobial.”
The tutorial proved effective at “creating intentions to adopt health-protective behaviors,” the study’s authors wrote, while providing a report-back tool that scaled for participants across different socioeconomic and educational backgrounds.
The tricky part, Geiger said, is framing risks in the proper dose. Since many of these chemicals are still being researched, investigators must give participants their best guidance off of incomplete or evolving information.
“We have to think really hard about how to report these levels back—it’s a little bit of a double-edged sword because we’re getting grants to study these chemicals simultaneously,” Geiger said. “It’s still emerging research with many of these chemicals, so we don’t always have that hard and fast guidance to give back.
“We’re continuing to do this work and hoping that, at the policy level, we become more aware that we may be doing damage to children at these crucial developmental stages, by dosing them with chemicals that are not tested or understood commensurate with the value that our children hold for the future.”
AI could revolutionize disease prevention—but flawed data could deepen health inequalities
Bruno Nunes is trained as an epidemiologist. Now he studies how machine learning can lead to better health outcomes at the population level. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
In the view of University of Illinois public health researcher Bruno Nunes, artificial intelligence shapes up as a potent tool to predict and prevent public health problems, such as chronic diseases.
But before AI-powered models are deployed in public health settings, they must be trained on richer data sets so they don’t amplify inequalities that exist in our healthcare system and society.
“To reach this future, we need to have better data to develop these models,” said Nunes, associate professor at the Department of Health and Kinesiology at the College of Applied Health Sciences. “Machine learning is a data learning process. It’s not just about using the fanciest algorithm—the problem is if you don’t have good data, you won’t have a good model.”
Trained as an epidemiologist, Nunes is focused on public health strategies: how to prevent chronic disease and promote positive health outcomes at the population level, in some cases before people visit the doctor’s office.
Artificial intelligence is already widely deployed in healthcare settings to better diagnose patients, especially reading medical imagery like X-rays, MRIs and CT scans.
With machine learning’s superior ability to detect patterns using huge tranches of data, Nunes envisions a future where models can accurately predict the risks of developing chronic diseases and allow populations to intervene earlier than before.
Part of this, Nunes argues, is AI may help us untangle “multimorbidity.” Many healthcare patients show up to the doctor’s office with two or more diseases, such as hypertension combined with diabetes or high cholesterol, which complicates management and quality of life.
“Our health system and services are tailored to one disease. But in most cases, especially when talking about populational aging, most people are presenting different diseases at the same time,” Nunes said. “And the worst part of that is when we aren’t able to manage this patient well because they have such complex conditions and interactions.”
His recent research has tested machine learning models on their ability to predict real-world outcomes. One recent study showed that machine learning models can predict a population’s dental service usage with solid accuracy but show poorer results with certain demographic subgroups.
Machine learning is a data learning process. It’s not just about using the fanciest algorithm—the problem is if you don’t have good data, you won’t have a good model.
Bruno Nunes
HK Associate Professor
Nunes collaborated on a study that used an AI model to predict dental service use for adults in Southern Brazil. The model used 47 different characteristics—sociodemographic data, behavioral traits and oral and general health markers—to predict whether participants went to the dentist in the past year from a cohort study in Pelotas.
Though the machine learning model’s predictions were largely accurate, it performed significantly worse across the board for mixed-race individuals in the study compared to Black and white participants, making the model unsuitable for real-world implementation in its current form.
“None of the models are perfect: they present an error rate, and we need to deal with it,” Nunes said. “But if this error rate is higher for a subgroup of the population, the subgroup may be under- or over-diagnosed.
“If the model is not so good for people who already present with historical inequalities in the health system, the model can amplify these inequalities instead of decrease them.”
Nunes tries to teach his students to frame the right questions in his new class, Artificial Intelligence in Public Health, which debuted in fall 2026 in HK.
Through critical discussions, he hopes to get students to think more about how “AI can fit into the big picture of public health,” and construct their own models around the right questions.
“In most cases we tend to develop models for disease-related consequences or for problems which we already have an effective public health strategy, for example—but what if we could create equitable models to predict the problems in advance or issues without scalable solutions?” Nunes said.
“You can’t just press a button to develop a machine learning model. You must have prior knowledge of the topic, skills and abilities to interpret the model considering public health principles. How can it be useful to solve the disease burden at the population level?”
As we move through another dynamic semester in the Department of Health and Kinesiology, I am continually struck by the breadth and impact of the work happening across our department. This spring, our faculty, students and alumni have advanced important conversations at the intersections of health, behavior and society—work that not only contributes to scholarship, but also to real-world understanding and change.
Among our recent highlights, Jacob Allen and Elisa Caetano-Silva’s work on inflammatory bowel disease and stress-related colitis is helping to deepen our understanding of how physiological and psychological factors interact in complex ways. Similarly, Thayna Flores and Pedro Hallal’s research on toddler diets is offering fascinating insight into how early nutrition may shape not just physical development, but cognitive and behavioral patterns as well.
We are also excited to share an upcoming story on iPALS, which underscores the power of alumni engagement and support in sustaining meaningful programming. This story reflects the strong community that continues to define our department.
Our faculty are also pushing into emerging and interdisciplinary areas. Bruno Nunes’ work exploring the relationship between artificial intelligence and mortality raises compelling questions about the future of health analytics and prediction. Sarah Geiger’s early childhood investigations continue to illuminate foundational stages of development, adding depth to our understanding of lifelong health trajectories.
Additional articles highlight the impactful work from Laura Rice (research on fall prevention and management) and Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo (postpartum depression and pain during and after childbirth in racial/ethnic minority women), as well as Soyoung Choi’s interdisciplinary collaborations and Robyn Gobin’s work in areas of Veterans’ health and mental health research.
Thank you for being part of a community that values curiosity, collaboration and meaningful impact. I look forward to all that the remainder of the semester will bring.
Now that fall 2025 is underway, I’m excited to share some of the exciting stories from the Department of Health and Kinesiology. Each newsletter reminds me of how fortunate I am to work alongside such passionate faculty, students and alumni who are making a real difference in people’s lives.
In this issue, you’ll find a fascinating look at how our researchers are using fMRI technology to see how a new mother’s brain responds to pain. We’re also tackling an issue you may have seen in the news related to the growing misuse of nitrous oxide. Our faculty are at the forefront of this devastating issue. In the past decade, U.S. annual deaths from nitrous oxide poisoning are up by nearly 600 percent.
Another feature dives into how machine learning is helping us better understand cognitive function. The study offers insight into the health and lifestyle indicators—including diet, physical activity and weight—that align most closely with healthy brain function. And for those interested in nutrition, you won’t want to miss our story on potato-protein diet combinations. This research is showing creative, practical approaches to fueling both wellness and performance.
What ties all these stories together is the spirit of curiosity and care that defines our department. And, as always, none of this work would be possible without the encouragement of alumni like you. Your support inspires our students and drives our mission forward.
Thank you for staying connected with us—I hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.
Pedro Hallal has built an international reputation for his research on physical inactivity
Pedro Hallal accepts the King James McCristal Distinguished Scholar Award on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2025.
Like many young researchers, Pedro Hallal thought his first study would be groundbreaking and potentially change the paradigm of the study of physical activity. Ultimately, he said, it didn’t, but now, with the value of experience at hand, he understands that was OK.
“We are trained to think of things that no one has ever studied. But science is much more about consistency of results nowadays, than about brand-new findings,” said Hallal, the Alvin M. and Ruth L. Sandall Professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. “We do research because of the questions; we don’t start with the answers.”
Thanks to that curiosity and because of the breadth of his research, Hallal on Sept. 24 was awarded the King James McCristal Distinguished Scholar Award, one of the most prestigious recognitions in the College of Applied Health Sciences. The award honors faculty whose scholarly contributions have significantly advanced their disciplines while elevating the reputation of the university.
For Hallal—whose research has transformed global understanding of physical activity and health—the honor represents both a recognition of past achievements and an encouragement to push forward in addressing one of the world’s most pressing public health challenges: physical inactivity.
“Professor Hallal’s scholarly work has substantially elevated the profile of his department, our college and the university by advancing public health knowledge and global health equity,” said Cheryl Hanley-Maxwell, dean of the College of Applied Health Sciences.
A Global Lens on Physical Activity
Hallal, who is also director of AHS’ Master of Public Health program, has built an international reputation for his research on physical inactivity, a phenomenon he argues must be understood in the context of modern life.
“Today, we have fewer people being active,” Hallal said. “Most of them are indoors, looking at a screen. We have to think about what physical activity is today, not decades ago. The notion that physical activity is good for health has been known for centuries. Only since the 1950s and ‘60s have we really been studying it.”
His scholarship began in Brazil, where his master’s thesis—“Physical Inactivity: Prevalence and Associated Variables in Brazilian Adults”—found that 41.1 percent of the surveyed population did not meet recommended activity levels of 150 minutes per week. This early work set the stage for his career-long focus on understanding inactivity as both a personal and societal issue.
Hallal’s impact expanded dramatically with his contributions to a series in The Lancet, one of the most influential medical journals in the world. His research revealed that one-third of adults worldwide—approximately 1.5 billion people—failed to achieve the minimum recommended level of physical activity. Equally concerning, four-fifths of children ages 13 to 15 fell short of the one-hour daily activity guideline. The findings underscored physical inactivity as a global pandemic, drawing international attention to a public health crisis with profound implications for chronic disease and health equity.
Hallal has often said that this work in The Lancet is the “research I am most proud of.”
Redefining Scientific Inquiry
Throughout his career, Hallal has emphasized the importance of scientific rigor and humility.
That philosophy has guided him to produce a body of work that does not merely identify problems but interrogates the systems that perpetuate them. His studies consistently highlight how socioeconomic and geographic inequalities shape access to safe and purposeful physical activity.
“Access to safe, purposeful physical activity must be a societal priority,” Hallal said. By framing physical inactivity not only as an individual choice but also as an issue of structural inequities, he has pushed the field toward broader, more inclusive approaches to solutions.
Access to safe, purposeful physical activity must be a societal priority
Pedro Hallal
Professor of Health and Kinesiology
A Legacy of Impact
The King James McCristal Distinguished Scholar Award cements Hallal’s place among the most influential scholars at Illinois. The recognition highlights not only his academic achievements but also his role in shaping the conversation around health equity worldwide.
From uncovering high rates of inactivity in Brazil to leading global efforts to quantify physical inactivity, Hallal has consistently produced research that informs public policy, inspires further scientific exploration, and elevates the role of physical activity in public health discourse.
Looking Ahead: Challenging Assumptions
As Hallal reflects on the future of his field, he sees opportunities to question prevailing assumptions and generate new lines of inquiry.
He is particularly interested in challenging the idea that “every movement counts.” While small bursts of activity are beneficial, Hallal believes that the global challenge lies in ensuring people have the opportunity for meaningful, sustained physical activity. He also underscores the importance of recognizing how time scarcity and resource inequality reinforce global disparities in health behaviors.
“I think this place, this campus and college, are in a great position to tackle these things,” Hallal said. “We are already one of the country’s leaders in the field, and we are one of the most productive groups in the world on this topic.”
In addition to their professional experience, Gabrielle Dillon and Jack Senefeld share research interests
Gabrielle Dillon, left, and Jack Senefeld share common backgrounds and research interests (Photo by Ethan Simmons)
When Gabrielle Dillon joined the Department of Health and Kinesiology in the College of Applied Health Sciences last fall, she was greeted by a familiar face. She and Jack Senefeld, who had joined HK in fall 2023, had briefly overlapped in professional positions at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
Senefeld, who’d completed his Ph.D. at Marquette University, ended his five-year stint with Mayo in 2023 as a member of the College of Medicine faculty and an associate consultant in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine and the Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering. Dillon joined the Human Integrative Physiology Lab in Mayo’s Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine as a postdoctoral fellow in 2022 after completing her Ph.D. at The Pennsylvania State University. They were in different labs in the same department, but the labs collaborated closely.
Senefeld was happy to join the faculty at Illinois because of its outstanding reputation as a research university.
“There are a lot of great tools here to be a successful scientist, and both the university and the College of Applied Health Sciences are highly regarded,” he said.
When another faculty position opened just a year after his arrival, Senefeld forwarded the announcement to “big names and rising stars” in the field, among them his Mayo colleague Dillon.
“I knew both her Ph.D. mentor and her postdoctoral mentor, and her academic credentials are impeccable,” he said. “So we felt really fortunate when we saw her application in the pile.”
In addition to their professional experience, Dillon and Senefeld share research interests. They were members of a working group at Mayo that examined sex differences and physiology, and each makes a point of addressing women’s health in their work.
Dillon’s research focuses on vascular and cardiovascular physiology.
“I’m currently examining vascular testing across a woman’s lifespan and looking at whether physical activity can combat adverse cardiovascular aging and adverse menopause effects,” she said. She hopes not only to advance knowledge related to women’s cardiovascular health, but also to identify effective physical activity-based interventions to improve cardiovascular health. A secondary line of research examines the relationship between birth control and cardiovascular health in women.
Senefeld’s research seeks to understand and to mitigate the detrimental effects of metabolic disease and aging.
I think we’re both very fortunate to have landed jobs here, and we’re very pleased to be here.
Jack Senefeld
HK assistant professor
“My research focuses primarily on advancing understanding of non-pharmacological interventions—particularly exercise—for aging and metabolic disease,” he said. “I’m investigating how people with prediabetes perform during exercise, specifically how their skeletal muscle performs.”
Through his research, Senefeld hopes to shed light on why people have difficulty complying with exercise guidelines that are known to slow down the progression of diabetes, particularly in older adults. His research will examine how muscles combat fatigue in that population in hopes of increasing their ability to exercise, and he intends to investigate sex differences in muscle performance.
Senefeld and Dillon agree that Illinois is a great place to do human subjects research.
“The standard barriers to human subjects research have really been eliminated here,” Senefeld said. “We have health centers in the area, wonderful laboratory resources for science and multiple units on campus that can analyze samples. And from a practical standpoint, we have parking right outside the building.”
Dillon adds that the departmental culture fosters a supportive research environment.
“Everyone is excited, motivated and eager to collaborate,” she said. “As a new faculty member, I have found everyone to be extremely helpful. We also have a great dean and department head, both of whom are very encouraging.”
Dillon and Senefeld are equally passionate about their teaching. They’ve attended workshops through the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Learning on campus as well as faculty seminars developed by Amy Woods, associate dean for faculty affairs in AHS, and have applied what they’ve learned to co-developing undergraduate and graduate classes. They also are working with the AHS Office of Online Education and Learning Design to develop more effective ways of reaching digitally oriented students.
The heavy demands on young tenure-track scholars have not dampened their enthusiasm for service to their profession. Senefeld co-directs the Lifetime Fitness Program, an exercise program that offers older individuals in the Urbana-Champaign community exercise classes taught by undergraduate and graduate students in health and kinesiology. Dillon is active in the American Physiological Society, of which both she and Senefeld are members. She has developed webinars and career panels for APS, as well as serving on its awards committee. Both are also members of the American College of Sports Medicine, in which Senefeld was recently named a fellow.
The future is bright for Dillon and Senefeld, who are looking forward to long and productive careers at Illinois. As Senefeld put it, “I think we’re both very fortunate to have landed jobs here, and we’re very pleased to be here.”
Mobility disabilities, defined as a “serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs,” affect approximately 21 percent of adults 65 years of age and older
Saul Morse credits assistive technology for helping save his wife’s life (Photo provided)
Saul Morse believes his wife might not have survived a recent health episode without assistive technology.
“Had it not been for our voice-activated digital home assistant, we would not have been able to get my wife the urgent care she needed when she was having a stroke,” said Morse, a College of Applied Health Sciences alumnus and wheelchair user who has post-polio syndrome and is among the growing population of older adults who are aging in place with mobility disabilities.
At the time of his wife’s stroke, Morse—the 2023 Harold Scharper Award recipient—was a participant in a study led by Health and Kinesiology Professor Wendy Rogers, whose research team equipped Morse with the smart home devices that became life-saving tools for him and his wife. Rogers’ study is but one pillar of her storied research career, during which she has worked closely with older adults aging in place to understand their unique challenges and accelerate innovations to improve their quality of life.
Mobility disabilities, defined as a “serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs,” affect approximately 21 percent of adults 65 years of age and older, and this population of older adults only continues to increase, according to a paper from Rogers and her colleagues published in the Gerontechnology journal. Despite the challenges of mobility impairments, a majority of older adults choose to age in place to maintain autonomy and connection to their community. More than 75 percent of Americans 50 years of age and older choose this path.
With the rise in the availability of smart home technology, Rogers identified the potential role of this technology to provide a significant boon to the growing population of older adults with mobility disabilities. Rogers initiated an investigation into smart home technology for older adults in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic’s stay-at-home orders only further highlighted the critical role that smart home technology can play to boost independence and reduce isolation for many older adults aging in place.
“It is important to offer older adults with long-term mobility disabilities suitable strategies to maintain and postpone significant declines in functional independence,” said Rogers, who, along with Kim Graber, is one of two Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professors of Applied Health Sciences.
In this strategic research project, Rogers’ preliminary study, funded in part by the Illinois Department of Aging, investigated ways of reducing feelings of isolation and loneliness and increasing support for older adults. Since then, Rogers has developed a robust portfolio documenting her lab’s study of the role of smart home technology for older adults aging in place.
In January 2020, Rogers and her team published the first paper of this study detailing perceptions of digital assistant devices by early technology adopting older adults. From there, they introduced a group of older adults to two different Amazon digital home assistants, the Echo Show and Echo Speaker, to investigate how older adults interact with those devices and what activities the devices supported. A 2023 paper reported Rogers’ study of specific technology-training needs shared by older adults who do not have experience with such devices.
Those findings informed the next stage of Rogers’ multi-year research project funded by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research: the creation of a technology suite to equip and empower older adults with all the tools necessary to overcome the obstacles to technology adoption and proper usage. To that end, Rogers’ team developed the Digital Assistance in a Box, or DAB, for the study’s 24 participants, who used the at-home technologies for five weeks.
The DAB included an Amazon Echo Show 8, Philips Hue Smart Lightbulb, an Amazon Smart Plug and a custom-designed instructional manual.
It is important to offer older adults with long-term mobility disabilities suitable strategies to maintain and postpone significant declines in functional independence.
Wendy Rogers
HK Professor
“I never intended to use this kind of technology, because I was concerned about what would be recorded on the manufacturer’s servers,” Morse said. “But as a participant in the study, we installed a digital voice assistant and smart bulbs and plugs in my office and in our living room and bedroom. Being in a wheelchair, I saw the utility of these technologies right away. What most impressed me, though, were the custom user manuals—even a technophobe could use and appreciate them.”
Where previous studies looked at the viability of smart home technology for older adults, considering the range of activities they can support and how they might remedy loneliness, Rogers’ latest investigation zeroed in on a deeper exploration of older adults’ attitudes specifically regarding DHAs. Rogers’ team identified a few primary threats that might prevent older adults from adopting DHAs. In addition to the common barrier of learning to use a new technology, only a few older adults reported a lack of trust for manufacturers and a concern for their privacy.
Overall, study participants reported using DHAs for a wide variety of everyday activities and shared that the benefits of DHAs outweigh the risks. Participants reported using DHAs for leisure, hobby, entertainment, and health monitoring and maintenance endeavors. In fact, the results emphasize that DHAs specifically are particularly useful for older adults with mobility disabilities because of the voice-activated nature of such technologies.
“There’s a misperception that older adults don’t want to use technology,” Rogers said. “I’m an advocate for providing them with the support they need to use technology innovations. The benefits of reduced loneliness and isolation are a significant incentive. This latest study suggests that with increased education and training about privacy risks and protective strategies, older adults can experience the benefits of this assistant technology.”
In addition to this study, Rogers is working on multiple projects to benefit older adults aging in place. In partnership with researchers at TechSAge, she is investigating solutions for older adults with long-term vision or hearing impairments. Laura Rice, an associate professor in HK, and director of TechSAge, is leading a project to develop a fall-detection device for those in wheelchairs. At the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, Rogers is working with Girish Krishan, associate professor Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering, and Ian Rice, associate professor in HK, to develop a fall-prevention robotic shower. And there’s also a project with Katie Driggs-Campbell in Electrical and Computer Engineering to develop a wayfinding robot for adults with vision disabilities.
“We are studying the actual needs for aging in place for older adults and then coming back to our lab to work with engineers on how we can implement creative solutions that will improve the quality of life for older adults who are aging in place,” Rogers said. “Our study of DHAs, specifically, is a premier example of what makes Applied Health Sciences a special place, as we are doing the systematic interdisciplinary research necessary to produce responsive and supportive innovations to support people in our community.”
