Tag: HK Newsletter Fall 2024

Study explores effects of racial discrimination on Black parents and children

Oct. 22, 2024 | Marianne Stein

Robyn Gobin (left) and Shardé Smith

Black Americans experience racial discrimination on a regular basis, and it is a cause of chronic and pervasive stress. It is known to contribute to elevated risk for poor mental health outcomes, but most research has focused on individuals. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at the interpersonal effects of discrimination on parents and their adolescent children.

“A person’s experiences with racial discrimination are not just their own but may spill over into the family and affect the mental health and perceived social support of other family members. We underestimate the impact of discrimination if we’re only looking at the individual level,” said lead author Shardé Smith, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, part of the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences at Illinois.

Smith and co-author Robyn Gobin, associate professor in the Department of Health and Kinesiology at Illinois, drew on a longitudinal Chicago neighborhood study examining the impact of social interactions and environments. Based on data from the study’s third wave, the researchers included 401 Black parent-adolescent dyads, with an average age of 15 for the children. Participants answered questions about their experiences of racial discrimination over the past year, as well as their psychological well-being and perceived family support.

Analyzing the data for patterns, Smith and Gobin identified four clusters of responses: One group in which both the parent and the adolescent reported exposure to discrimination, another group where only the parent had experienced discrimination, a third group where the adolescent but not the parent had experienced discrimination, and a fourth group where both parents and children had a low likelihood of exposure to discrimination in the past year.

Specifically, parents were likely to experience racial discrimination at work, and both adolescents and their parents were likely to experience discrimination outside of their neighborhood and when they were receiving services. Furthermore, adolescents were likely to experience racial discrimination from the police.

As expected, the researchers found interactive effects of exposure to racial discrimination, consistent with the concept of “linked lives” that indicate people’s life experiences impact their family members. Overall, parents and adolescents in the three risk groups reported more psychological distress and lower levels of family support.

However, adolescents indicated significantly less family support when their parents also experienced racial discrimination. For parents, the combined exposure to racial discrimination did not diminish their perceptions of social support any more than the other risk groups.

It’s possible that parents struggle to support their children when they are also experiencing racial discrimination themselves, or perhaps children are not reporting the experiences to their parents, the researchers noted.

“It’s important for adolescents to talk to their parents and be able to receive support in managing racial trauma. If they can’t talk about these things in their family of origin with people who really understand it, then they may be left on their own trying to manage it, which could further exacerbate the mental health challenges they might be experiencing,” Gobin stated.

The researchers did not find any differences based on demographic characteristics. This demonstrates these effects are not unique to one population, but affect people across gender identity, age, and socio-economic status, Smith said. 

These findings show the importance of developing interventions to address the psychological effects of discrimination in a family context, particularly focusing on how to help adolescents receive the support they need.

“I want to highlight that the goal in an ideal world is to dismantle the systems that create the discrimination. However, given how difficult that will be over time, we still need to engage in more malleable approaches to tackle these issues. We need to make sure healing frameworks are trauma-sensitive and culturally sound, helping to capitalize on the strengths within the Black community,” Smith concluded.

The paper, “The Dyadic Effects of Racial Discrimination: Using Latent Class Analysis to Explore Patterns of Racial Discrimination Among Black Parent–Adolescent Dyads,” is published in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology [DOI: 10.1037/cdp0000678].

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Message from the HK Department Head

Oct. 22, 2024 | Kim Graber, Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor

Kim Graber (Photo by Craig Pessman)

Hello, members of the Health and Kinesiology family,

As we welcome the fall semester, I am thrilled to share the latest edition of our newsletter. This issue marks the first edition of the Health and Kinesiology newsletter, reflecting our department’s official name change that took effect on Aug. 16. We have much to celebrate from the past year and exciting developments ahead.

Inside, you’ll meet our new faculty, find updates on a leadership change for our MS in Health Technology program, read highlights of the impressive accomplishments of our students and take a look at the research our faculty members are conducting. Their dedication to advancing knowledge and promoting healthier communities continues to inspire us all.

As you explore the fall 2024 Health and Kinesiology newsletter, I hope you find motivation in our collective achievements and the shared commitment to enhancing well-being and community.

Wishing you a productive and energizing fall semester.

Warm regards,
Kim Graber
Professor and Head, Department of Health and Kinesiology

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Health Technology program undergoes leadership change from Rogers to Mejia

Sept. 10, 2024 | Vince Lara-Cinisomo

Wendy Rogers said she always planned to get the Health Tech program established and build a strong foundation before passing it on

Wendy Rogers, center, says Shannon Mejia, left, is ready to lead the Health Tech program (Photo provided)

Health and Kinesiology Professor Wendy Rogers, the founding director of the Health Technology Education Program in 2017, stepped aside in the summer of 2024 and Shannon Mejía, an associate professor in HK, was named her successor.

Rogers had already had an illustrious academic career, primarily at Georgia Tech, before coming to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2017. Together with her husband, Dan Fisk—also a Ph.D. in the field of experimental psychology, Rogers created the Human Factors & Aging Laboratory in 2003 at Georgia Tech. After Fisk retired in 2013, Rogers relocated the lab to Illinois—where Fisk got his doctorate—four years later.

Rogers’ arrival at Illinois coincided with an Investment for Growth proposal led by the College of Applied Health Sciences and The Grainger College of Engineering aimed at developing the Health Technology Education Program. Health and Kinesiology Professor Jeff Woods, who spearheaded the IFG with Kesh Kesavadas, a professor of Industrial and Enterprise Systems Engineering, knew who he wanted to lead the Health Tech program.

“Jeff asked me if I would be willing to lead the educational component and I agreed,” said Rogers, who is the Shahid & Ann Carlson Khan Professor of Applied Health Sciences. 

“We hired Nicole Holtzclaw-Stone in January 2018 and the four of us (Jeff, Kesh, Nicole, and I) spent a lot of time together developing the Health Technology Education Program,” Rogers said.  “We shepherded our Master of Science in Health Technology through department and college educational policy committees, the Graduate College, the Faculty Senate, the Board of Trustees, and finally the Illinois Board of Higher Education. In December 2019, Nicole and I drove to Chicago for the Illinois Board of Higher Education meeting in case there were any questions but there were none and we were officially approved. We welcomed our first cohort in August of 2020,” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rogers said she always planned to get the Health Tech program established and build a strong foundation before passing it on.

“The time was right to transition to a new director, but we want to continue to build on the trajectory we are on,” she said. “The mission is to advance health technology education for learners at all levels through our interdisciplinary undergraduate certificate and minor (joint with Industrial & Enterprise Systems Engineering), our Master of Science in Health Technology (in collaboration with Grainger College of Engineering), and our Health Technology Professional Education Program.”

Mejía praised her predecessor’s vision. 

“She led the development and implementation of an innovative education program that provides cross training in user needs, human factors and user experience methodologies, and engineering principles to develop leaders who can speak the language of both health care and engineering,” Mejía said of Rogers. “To address the critical challenges facing health care today, it is essential to understand user needs and technological capabilities in order to assure that technological solutions truly support the well-being of individuals, families, organizations, and communities. We train students to fulfill this essential role. This program is one of a kind in the nation. And it is my privilege to take the program to its next level.”

Rogers said the move was eased by knowing Mejía was ready to step in.

“Dr. Mejía has been an active member of the Health Technology Education Program since its inception,” Rogers said. “She is the right person at the right time to take the program to the next level. She has a lot of energy and creative ideas. Together, with Dr. Katelyn Talbott as the assistant director, I know the program will continue to be successful and to grow.”

For her part, Talbott said Mejía “has great ideas for growth and increased recognition in the field.”

“As with any change in leadership, new leaders are able to bring their perspectives to the challenges and goals in front of them,” Talbott said. “Shannon will be no different. I look forward to working with Shannon as we work to grow all aspects of the Health Technology program.”

Rogers will continue in her roles as director of the McKechnie Family LIFE Home, program director of CHART: Collaborations in Health, Aging, Research, and Technology and director of Human Factors & Aging Laboratory.  “I have plenty to keep me busy and I look forward to having more time to devote to these activities,” she said.

As a recognition of their continued support of the MS-HT program, Rogers and Fisk have endowed the Wendy A. Rogers Health Technology Travel Award. The award will provide master’s students with the opportunity to travel to conferences to share their own work, to learn from other researchers, and to participate in networking opportunities. Additional donations to the fund are welcome and will help to provide travel support for more students.

Donation instructions for mail or online gifts are on uif.uillinois.edu/how-to-give. For online donations, in the dropdown menu under Gift Designation, click on the “Other” box and enter Fund #777754 or “Wendy A. Rogers Health Technology Travel Award” or write this information on the memo line of your check.

“In August of 2024 we welcome our fifth cohort into the program,” Rogers said of the Health Tech program. “Alumni from our program are already out in the working world making a difference in health technology to improve quality of life for all of us.”

Editor’s note:

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

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Canton grows program within public health

June 03, 2024 | Darina Lubenov

Black women mention social support as an important consideration for them to be physically active

With roots in Pennsylvania, an upbringing in Connecticut and newly planted ideas in Champaign, freshly minted Ph.D. recipient Imani Canton sees community gardening as a way to improve health equity.

Canton graduated with her doctorate in kinesiology in May, which involved successfully defending her dissertation, entitled “Tending to Our Roots to Increase Our Wellness (TRIOWell): A Community Gardening Intervention.” Canton’s dissertation revolves around a program designed to expand physical and mental health among Black women through community gardening programs, alongside researching health disparities among middle-aged Black women and how to combat them.

“Community gardening addresses multiple dimensions of health,” Canton said. “It is a type of physical activity, which we know can improve physical and mental health, and by working in a community garden, it provides opportunities to improve social health.”

Canton’s story begins at Spelman College, an all-women’s historically Black university in Georgia. But while applying to and completing her undergraduate degree, the college removed all NCAA sports due to the lack of student participation, due to disproportionate health disparities among Black women.

Instead of continuing NCAA sports, the college instead invested in a campus-wide health initiative, “Wellness Revolution,” that included a new gymnasium, as well as policy changes to the physical education curriculum. This eventually kickstarted Canton’s interest in investigating health trends among Black women. 

“That actually had been my first-time hearing that, and then it just kind of clicked to me when people say that racism is pervasive that it is in all types of systems,” Canton said. “Now I see how it’s within a health system, too. Fast forward to University of Illinois. I knew that I wanted to design physical activity programs specifically for African-American women.”

Canton began her stint at Illinois by enrolling in a B.S./Ph.D. in Kinesiology program in the College of Applied Health Sciences. Working with an advisor, Canton narrowed her research concentration to wellness in Black communities.

Her journey to a Ph.D. was not an easy one, though. Canton worked with multiple advisors, looking for the best fit within AHS. 

During her research, Canton found out that Black women prefer walking as their preferred method of exercise. The reasoning—access to equipment—or lack of it—in Black communities. 

“[The] lack of gym access due to racism and historical redlining leaving Black communities disproportionately in areas with less access to a built environment, which includes gyms and also green spaces, like gardens,” Canton said.

Gardening is a lower intensity physical activity compared to traditional forms of exercises such as running and weightlifting, and thus it may encourage those who have health concerns as a barrier to engage in physical activity to want to be physically active, she said.

And, according to Canton, research shows that Black women mention social support as an important consideration for them to be physically active and this is likely due to collectivism being a salient component of Black American culture. 

So, Canton combined the two activities—gardening and social support within the community—which is where the concept of community gardening programs came to life.

“Those who have higher levels of social support, typically, are more likely to participate in physical activity,” Canton said. “And you know, it makes sense because if you see your friend working out or doing some kind of physical activity, or if you have someone to do it with, you might be more encouraged to do it yourself.”

As far as the garden, Canton’s choice was the Randolph Street Community Garden, which is planted, cultivated and loved within the Champaign community. The Randolph Street Community Garden was started by another Illinois Ph.D. student as a small, urban planning project, which evolved into a full-scale garden that now has around 65 beds. 

During her Ph.D. program, Canton applied for a community grant, Building Beyond the Barriers, alongside Dawn Blackman, the Randolph Street Community Garden stewardess, to bridge the gap between academic and community, and continue the programs at the garden. With that funding, the garden can continue to bloom.

After tending to her planted ideas for six years, Canton is ready to let them flourish and grow within Champaign, and now, she is ready to return home to Connecticut, where she will attend the Yale School of Public Health, pursuing an advanced professional Master of Public Health in Applied Biostatistics and Epidemiology. When she completes that program, she will begin her fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Maryland.

Canton made many discoveries about her research and herself during her doctoral studies. But one of the first ones had perhaps the biggest impact on her. She found out that in the late 1800s, Anita J. Turner was the first Black woman physical education instructor and later considered one of the pioneers of that field. That helped Canton find her path.

“You see black women doing this, then you think that OK, ‘I can do this myself, too,’ and just kind of build pride around that,” Canton said. “I wanted us to connect to our roots, roots in the garden and then our cultural roots.”

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Hot wheels: A stationary track for mice could lead to breakthrough

July 24, 2024 | Darina Lubenov

Diego Hernández-Saavedra is focused on studying exercise memory

From left to right, Hank Huang, Diego Hernández-Saavedra, and Clay Weidenhamer. (Photo provided)

The sight of mice scurrying across the kitchen floor is usually the stuff of our nightmares. But in the lab of Department of Health and Kinesiology Assistant Professor Diego Hernández-Saavedra, running mice indicates progress.

Hernández-Saavedra in 2024 received a $30,000 grant from the Center on Health, Aging and Disability, or CHAD, to study muscle memory. He and his team decided to focus on mice.

“Mice love running. They run like five to 10 kilometers [about 3-6 miles] per night, so a lot. What our studies are trying to do is trying to leverage the fact that mice love running and try to understand whether we can make them healthier,” Hernández-Saavedra said. 
     
The grant Hernández-Saavedra received was part of the CHAD Pilot Grant Program. That program was enabled to support innovative, groundbreaking interdisciplinary research aimed at advancing the understanding of health and wellness, aging disability and the maintenance of a high quality of life.  

According to Hernández-Saavedra, in the initial training phase, mice are trained for four weeks. With this group, researchers try to answer the question of how muscle memory is established. 

In the second phase, mice train, followed by a detraining period where all mice are sedentary. This group tackles the question of whether the muscle memory disappears after exercise cessation. 

In the final training phase, mice are trained, detrained, and once again trained. This cohort answers the question of how prior muscle memory is remembered and recalled by a second exercise training bout, Hernández-Saavedra said.

“We’re limited by doing mouse work, but I think it’s very interesting because we don’t really know how muscle memory works,” he said. “The grant that we received is to study how each cell within the muscle stores the memory and contributes to a better outcome.”

Hernández-Saavedra, born and raised in Mexico, came to the U.S. in 2013 to pursue a Ph.D. at Illinois after receiving his B.S. from the Autonomous University of Queretaro, Mexico. After his Ph.D., he went to The Ohio State University as a postdoctoral fellow in 2018 and returned to Illinois to become a faculty member in 2021.

Hernández-Saavedra’s research focuses on the beneficial effects of exercise to understand the adaptations in key metabolites and lipids in health and disease, the epigenetic mechanisms associated exercise that improve metabolism and bioenergetics, and the transgenerational effect of sedentarism and exercise on metabolism and cardiac function. 

In his post-doctorate work at Ohio State, Hernández-Saavedra studied how maternal obesity can affect the health of babies. Now at Illinois, Hernández-Saavedra is more focused on studying exercise memory, which is understanding whether the body remembers it ever exercised. 

“What our lab is trying to understand is whether our bodies remember prior exercise. For example, if you worked out, in the past, you’ve gone to the gym, but then you don’t go anymore. Four months later, you go back to the gym,” Hernández-Saavedra said. “Do we start from scratch? Do we start from a middle point? Or do they just remember all that and recover really fast to make it stronger, faster and better.”

Hernández-Saavedra explained that his lab studies how the tissue, the muscle, or the liver or the heart, remember prior exercise and how they store information in an epigenetic memory.

“Our research aims to reveal how exercise shapes muscle memory, providing strategies to combat age-related muscle decline, enhance metabolic health and maintain health and mobility as we age,” Hernández-Saavedra said.

For their studies, various groups of mice undergo different exercise training cycles. Some constantly work out, other groups do, but then stop and others workout, stop, and resume again. 

“We use a very interesting strategy,” said Hernández-Saavedra, who credited his students Hank Huang and Clay Weidenhamer for their “tireless” work on the project. “The mice love to work out so we train them. Then we have another group where we train those mice, and then we remove the wheel. And then we see whether the mice, their tissues, specifically the muscle, whether they forget that they ever ran in a wheel.

“They love getting on the wheel,” Hernandez-Saavedra said about the mice. “They love their exercise. And so maybe we should try to be like them a little bit.”

 

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Even in retirement, Synthia Sydnor stays connected to kinesiology

July 03, 2024 | Ethan Simmons

With her unique scholarly background, Synthia Sydnor has provided a humanities-trained perspective within the department for three decades

Retired Health and Kinesiology Associate Professor Synthia Sydnor smiles outside of the Siebel Center for Design. (Photo by Ethan Simmons)

As a wandering graduate student, Synthia Sydnor used to take cross-country road trips while she worked on her Ph.D. at Penn State University. 
 
In 1986, an opportunity came calling from the College of Applied Life Sciences at the University of Illinois: an opening for a faculty position to study and interpret sport and play. 
 
The role seemed a perfect match for Sydnor—a budding scholar in the cultural-historical analysis of sport—but this Midwestern setting seemed unappealing.
 
Driving through the “barren” winter landscape of Illinois, “we always said, ‘this is the last place on earth we will ever live,’” Sydnor said. 
 
Two years later, the job was still open, so Sydnor applied to at least get some interview experience. To her surprise, Illinois hired her. Sydnor came to adore the university as well as Illinois’ prairies and skies, and she would retire from the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health in spring 2024, 36 years later. 
 
Sydnor has witnessed profound changes in her discipline and in the University of Illinois, from researching and writing in a basically pre-digital academic environment to teaching a 750-student online class before COVID-19 had even arrived. (Leading KIN 142: “Contemporary Issues in Sport” virtually felt like “running a corporation,” she said.) 
 
With her unique scholarly background—she held appointments in the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory and Illinois Global Institute—Sydnor has provided a humanities-trained perspective within the department for three decades. 
 
“What is sport? Why do we attach all these invented things to it, like ‘masculinity’, ‘teamwork,’ and lately, ‘peace’ and ‘development?’” Sydnor said. “I’ve tried with students and the research I’ve contributed to think of sport as a serious object of knowledge, not just frills and fun.”
 
In retirement, Sydnor is spending time with family while staying connected to her academic home, collaborating with several younger faculty across the department and mining her own discipline for new insights. Her humor, friendliness and mentorship of graduate students leave a distinct legacy. 
 
“She was always willing to take on a student in need of help—she had a soft spot in her heart for graduate students,” said Kim Graber, head of the renamed Department of Health and Kinesiology. “If they were experiencing challenges or difficulties, if they were not sure what they wanted to study, she’d always lend a helping hand, and be the person to listen to their concerns, and take them under her wing.” 

A changing field 

Sydnor left her mark on her department in more ways than one. The large triptych painting by Illinois alumna Brett Eaton and posters that line the first floor of Louise Freer Hall, celebrating the female pioneers of the field, are based on Eaton and 50 other undergraduates’ archival research in Sydnor’s course “Sport in Modern Society.”

The exhibit, “An Untold Story: U of I Female Faculty in the History of American Athletics and Sports Scholarship at the University of Illinois,” was funded by the Illinois Ethnography of the University Initiative and Illinois Gender Equity Council after Sydnor applied for them. 

“So many alums will walk up and down the halls during visits and really appreciate the art because they bring memories back for them,” said Graber, who joined Illinois six years after Sydnor.
 
Sydnor always took pride in teaching popular classes, which were often highly rated in student reviews. It’s especially rewarding when former students reach back out to discuss a class concept that clicked for them years later, she said. 
 
She also taught experimental courses, like one focused on extreme sport, to lead students into important topics of culture and theory. The class used a book she co-edited with Robert Rinehart, “To the Extreme: Alternative Sports, Inside and Out,” as a basis for study.
 
“What I do doesn’t predict or control, it doesn’t necessarily ‘solve’ something,” she said.  “Instead, you converse. ‘What does it mean to be human in different times and places? In different bodies?’ I’ve tried to contribute that to my classes, my teaching, my research.” 
 
As a physical education undergraduate at the University of Delaware, Sydnor was interested in cultural studies as well as sport, having played both lacrosse and field hockey. Sydnor continued her academic track at the University of Washington, where she obtained her master’s degree, and Pennsylvania State University for her doctorate in Interdisciplinary Humanities.  

With her rare combination of research interests, Sydnor had accepted the idea of becoming an independent scholar. 

I’ve loved being part of Illinois because of those leaders who had forethought and courage to pioneer new ideas.

Synthia Sydnor

Retired HK faculty member

“I thought that what I was doing contributed to knowledge, but I didn’t know if any university would ever hire me. And that was OK.” Her experience in ancient Greek language and cultural studies laid a framework for a scholarly niche missing in kinesiology. When she arrived at Illinois in 1988, the field of kinesiology was widening its umbrella. 
 
At the time, Illinois’ Kinesiology department head Karl Newell had begun hiring an “amalgamation” of exciting, cross-discipline scholars, Sydnor said. The department had changed its name from “physical education” to “kinesiology” the year before, and Newell was pushing for other departments across the world to follow suit. 
 
Sydnor even wrote an article with Newell about the historical development of the word “kinesiology,” rooted in the Greek term “kinesis.” They argued that the term was broad enough to hold multiple disciplines of movement and would have plenty of staying power. 
 
She admires the developments of each of the three department heads she’s worked with—such as Wojtek Chodzko’s push to focus on healthy aging, and Graber’s empowerment of younger faculty. 
 
“I’ve loved being part of Illinois because of those leaders who had forethought and courage to pioneer new ideas, and we’re on the cusp of that now with changing to ‘Health and Kinesiology,’” Sydnor said. “I love our department and how much it’s grown, and how much Kim Graber has let the new young professors lead us in research initiatives.”
 
In retirement, she’ll continue working with Health and Kinesiology Teaching Assistant Professors Caitlin Clarke and Jesse Couture to develop a student textbook, essentially a second edition of her 2021 book “Social Theory for Sport Lovers.”
 
She’s hoping to finish up her two books of her own: One that explicates new aspects of sport and its futures, and another in reception studies, focusing on how ancient motifs and symbols live on in physical culture in new ways that past civilizations would not comprehend. 
 
“I feel so fortunate, I’ve just loved it here,” Sydnor said. “It enabled my creativity, it enabled collaboration with great thinkers across campus and hopefully helped students approach sport in a learned way in their professional and personal lives.”

Editor’s note:

To reach Ethan Simmons, email ecsimmon@illinois.edu.
 

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