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An online master’s student is building her business knowledge through networking and faculty expertise, all while developing her career as an assistant women’s soccer coach.

Sarah Ghaffoor states that the Sport Management Online Master’s Program supports her career pathway by connecting coursework to functional situations. “CPASS has helped me develop in my current position while looking to my future goals,” said Ghaffoor, who has combined an emphasis on comprehensive sports industry management with her major (she’s projected to graduate December 2021).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many faculty members of the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences were asked to teach more often and in different ways. Despite these increased obligations to our students, faculty maintained a high level of productivity in research.

This report describes research productivity in 2020-21 and major initiatives from the last year in research and grant-writing.

The College welcomed three new faculty members to campus this fall: Patrick Hairston, sport management teaching assistant professor; Peter McGahey, coaching and performance science teaching assistant professor; and Brent Oja, sport management assistant professor. They will provide a clear vision, specialized expertise and strong industry connections.

These new faculty will focus on challenging students to enhance their critical thinking skills, develop best practices, engage in research and discover their passion as they prepare for successful careers.

The WVU Alumni Association hosted a webinar entitled WVU Check-In on April 21, featuring an insightful conversation with Ware Distinguished Professor Eloise Elliott and Dr. Pat Fehl Endowed Professor Sam Zizzi. Meridith Balas, director of engagement, WVU Alumni Association, hosted the event.

Elliott and Zizzi updated viewers about their important work with the Center for ActiveWV. They discussed their ongoing efforts to successfully impact the physical activity levels of adults and children through collaboration, research, policy and practice.

Hello CPASS Alumni,

I hope that you all are doing well and enjoying the fall season. I have met some of you, but for those who do not know me, my name is Will Bradley and I am the CPASS director of development. I am here to provide you up-to-date information from the development side of our college.

The 2021 WVU Day of Giving was an important effort for CPASS, raising $40,288 for the College, while West Virginia University generated more than $11.9 million — a new Day of Giving Record. The fourth annual event, held March 3, encouraged students, faculty, staff and friends of WVU to provide critical funding to ensure the continuation of numerous opportunities for growth.

Excitement grew with every minute, tracking the donations as they rolled in, knowing that contributions support student success initiatives such as the development of the CPASS Student Services Center that provides tutoring, career services and mentoring.

Despite barriers and delays caused by COVID-19, partners around the state have found imaginative solutions to empower communities striving to overcome West Virginia’s health-related challenges.

A year ago, the College’s Center for ActiveWV set out to empower communities through a statewide initiative to create opportunities for physical activity. Access to outdoor recreation is a valuable tool to boost immune systems and manage stress.

Dana Voelker, CPASS associate professor and director of undergraduate online education, received the 2020 Diane Gill Paper of the Year Award from the Women in Sport and Physical Activity Journal, recognizing her research on body image and weight and appearance pressures in competitive sport.

Voelker was honored for her publication, “It’s Just a Lot Different Being Male Than Female in the Sport: An Exploration of the Gendered Culture Around Body Pressures in Competitive Figure Skating,” with Dr. Justine Reel at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

What do sport and exercise sciences have in common with chemical engineering? Probably not much. But the distant relationship between these two academic fields was not an obstacle for faculty and students from West Virginia University’s College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and the Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering in the Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources. The groups joined forces with their counterpart programs at Universidade Federal do Parana in Brazil to create a one-day virtual workshop in April 2021 that gathered more than 140 participants.

The partnership originated in fall 2017 when WVU signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Universidade Federal do Parana. It was championed by CPASS in collaboration with the School of Physical Education at UFPR and was the result of several years of research and faculty exchanges. The MOU looks to act at the university level, not just the departmental level, so the collaboration was expanded in 2018 to include the Department of Chemical Engineering in the Statler College, which also partnered with its equivalent department at UFPR.

After 25 years of steadfast service to the College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences and West Virginia University, Barbara Dalton, director of the International Center for Performance Excellence and Fitness Information Technology Publishing, has retired.

“Barb Dalton deserves a great deal of thanks for her dedicated service to FiT Publishing and CPASS. During her 13 years working with FiT, her performance was so strong that she kept moving up the ladder until she was named the director in December 2015,” Jack Watson, CPASS dean said.