Tag Archives: Kinesiology Department

Join Us in Honoring Retiring KIN Professors Dr. Nancy Megginson & Dr. Greg Payne

With great joy and some melancholy, we honor our retiring professors, Dr. Greg Payne and Dr. Nancy Megginson. These longtime servants to the department, college, and university are shining examples of the quality faculty in the Department of Kinesiology.

Both professors have over 20 years of service to the SJSU community and beyond. Each has impacted the lives of thousands of students across their careers, mentored countless faculty, and served the larger community.

Professor
Motor Development
greg.payne@sjsu.edu

Dr. Greg Payne has been on the faculty of the Department of Kinesiology since 1983. Nearly half of his time there was in administration as an Associate Dean in the College of Applied Sciences and Arts at San Jose State University and department chair. His academic specialization is human motor with interests ranging from aging and physical activity to children’s health and fitness. He received a BS degree from Western Illinois University and was presented that institution’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He earned an MA from the University of Iowa and PED from Indiana University. Early in his career, Greg lived and worked in Venezuela for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer. He has since produced over 170 publications including eighteen editions of five books. Greg is an elected Fellow in the prestigious National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK), generally regarded to be the top tier of leaders/scholars in Kinesiology. He is a co-author of The Equation: A Proven Lifestyle and Fitness Plan by St. Martin’s Press and recently released Human Motor Development: A Lifespan Approach (2016, 9th edition), a leading selling textbook that has been used in hundreds of universities throughout the world.

He co-wrote and edited a text that was a joint effort of American and Chinese scholars – the first motordevelopment book in China. He was the first Distinguished Honorary Professor of the Shenyang Sport University in China and received the Distinguished Service Award from the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports, the Southwest District AAHPERD Scholar Award, the AAHPERD Honor Award, and the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport Research Writing Award.

Greg is a former President of the 22,000 member National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE); former Chair of the National Motor Development Academy of AAHPERD, and former President of the California Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (CAHPERD).

He was presented CAHPERD’s Verne Landreth Award, exemplifying the highest achievement in service, research, teaching, and administration, and was a SJSU Nominee for the California State University Wang Award for extraordinary commitment and dedication, distinction by exemplary contributions, and achievement in the academic discipline.

He is a Fellow of the Research Consortium of AAHPERD, has chaired two editorial boards and has reviewed for numerous refereed journals.​

Professor
Adapted Physical Activity
nancy.megginson@sjsu.edu

Since arriving at SJSU KIN in 1990, Dr. Megginson has sponsored or co-sponsored over 95 local, regional, national, and international disability sporting events, such as the USOC Paralympic Men’s National Wheelchair Basketball Team Tryouts held in 2011.

She has attended all but two Winter/Summer Paralympics since 1996 and writes about these games for the professional journal, Palaestra.  She serves/has served on numerous advisory boards for disability sport or physicaleducation/activity for individuals with disabilities.

Dr. Megginson (with Dr. Shirley Reekie) initiated the SJSU-Santa Clara County collaborative Timpany Center project that is operated by the Department of Kinesiology.

She has served as its Project Director since its inception in 2009.  The Timpany Center is an accessible physical activity and recreation center that offers a variety of aquatic therapy, swim lessons, and fitness programs for persons of all ages and abilities in the greater Santa Clara County community.  The center provides valuable service-learning opportunities to numerous SJSU students from a variety of colleges/departments within the university.

KIN Department Chair Corner: Physical Activity, Health, and Community

by Shirley Reekie, KIN Dept Chair

What if the price of an airline ticket were based on your weight? Or if your BMI determined the cost of your health insurance? Suppose your company paid you to participate in activity classes! These might sound far-fetched but each is already in existence to a limited extent somewhere. These and other examples lead me to think that many, perhaps most, of the KIN jobs in the future may be based somewhere in “the community,” meaning not in a specialized gym/sport setting but in some type of public locations for those who are probably not regularly exercising for a variety of reasons. If that is the case, then we need to educate our students on how to instruct large numbers about healthy physical activity, which in turn means combining aspects of several different emphasis areas.

With this in mind, KIN is actively working on both modifying the curriculum and on increasing the number of internships (and some paid positions!) in places such a city and county parks. Both the City of San Jose and Santa Clara County are trying to help all citizens become more active, but especially those who are in lower socioeconomic groups (who may not have easy access to a costly gym or be near to a safe open space) by working with Kinesiology to provide staffing for boot camps and to take folks hiking, all run through parks’ organizations. How about taking a group hiking some weekends, and along the way, talking about healthy eating or showing a variety of stretches? Or perhaps you see yourself inspiring a morning group to become more healthy through a boot camp run by you? Of course, we already work with the public at the Timpany Center, helping those who are older, are obese, or who have a disability, to be physically active. It is this program model that has inspired the city and county parks to ask about working with Kinesiology students on a wider basis. It’s also a very similar program to the CSU Northridge “100 Citizens” project, which was recently recognized at the White House for encouraging community physical activity.

Look for emails on both jobs and internships to come your way in the next few months with a variety of public agencies! And if you are not yet on the KIN student email distribution on list, please come to the office and sign up or call 408 924 3010 and leave a message with your email address clearly stated.

Finally but importantly, to those graduating, many congratulations! Please fill out our exit survey to be distributed soon and please stay in touch with your alma mater and let us know what you are doing. There’s no doubt that more people are aware of the need for physical activity and the many benefits to be gained, than ever before. Let’s capitalize on that awareness!!