Recreation, Sport & Tourism

Danielle Sumler is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She works under the directive of Dr. Shinew and Dr. Payne. Her research interests include investigating marginalized communities and the circumstances that may restrict their leisure activities. Her study focuses mainly on the leisure behavior of racial and ethnic minorities, namely African American youth. More specifically, she hopes to clarify the complicated connections between race/ethnicity and leisure behavior to address social risk as a public health concern. Her research is centered on leisure behavior, leadership, social justice, cultural studies, and critical leisure. Danielle's overarching goal is to change the trajectories of marginalized and resilient populations being affected by social risk factors by returning to the community with which she identifies, ethnicity, and socioeconomically.