Topic: “Fitness, Exercise and Health”
Barbara Ainsworth, Ph.D., MPH, FACSM
Barbara E. Ainsworth is a Professor in the Exercise and Wellness Program and Associate Director for Health Promotion Faculties in School of Nutrition and Health Promotion at Arizona State University. Her research relates to physical activity and public health with focus on the assessment of physical activity in populations and physical activity in women. Dr. Ainsworth is best known as the lead author for the Compendium of Physical Activities, an exhaustive list of the energy cost of human physical activities. She is the Immediate-Past President of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and President-Elect of the National Academy of Kinesiology. Dr. Ainsworth is a recipient of the ACSM Citation Award, the AAHPERD McKenzie Award, and has served on the President’s Council and the California Governor’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport Scientific Committees.
Topic: “Increasing Physical Activity in the School Setting”
Dr. Elaine Belansky is an Assistant Professor at the Colorado School of Public Health and the Associate Director of the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center. Elaine has published in the areas of school-based physical activity, nutrition, school wellness policies, and adolescent health. She develops and studies methods for university and community partners to work together to address public health issues related to children and adolescents.Elaine uses a community-based participatory research framework to translate evidence-based practices into school settings and has developed a strategic planning process called “AIM” (Assess,Investigate,Make it Happen) for this purpose.Currently, she is working with rural, low income schools in the San Luis Valley and southeastern Colorado to implement school-based environment and policy changes that increase opportunities for physical activity, healthy eating, mental health, and school engagement/attachment and decrease opportunities for bullying, high risk sexual behavior, and drug use.
Nick Cutforthis Professor in the Research Methods and Statistics Program in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver and adjunct professor in the Colorado School of Public Health.His research focuses on physical activity interventions in low-income schools, community-based research, engaged scholarship and promotion and tenure, and ways in which universities can support junior faculty wanting to establish community-engaged careers.He has consulted on these issues with several universities in the US and UK.He has co-authored two books:Youth Development and Physical Activity: Linking Universities with Communities(Human Kinetics, 2000) andCommunity-Based Research and Higher Education: Principles and Practices(Jossey-Bass, 2003) andhas published over 30 articles in the community-based research, physical education, and public health fields.Nick’s current research is funded by the CDC and the Colorado Health Foundation and involvesschool-based intervention studies related to physical activity and healthy eating among K-12 students in the San Luis Valley in rural Colorado.
Topic: “Sport and Exercise Nutrition”
Dr Jackie Berning’s education includes a B.S. degree in Clinical Dietetics from Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ and an M.S. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO. She received her Ph.D. in Nutrition from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins, Colorado. She is a Professor at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, where she teaches nutrition and Chairs the Biology Department in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Dr. Berning has been the recipient of numerous teaching and service awards at the University including:
· The College of Letters Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher of the Year, 2000
· The University of Colorado-Colorado Springs Outstanding Teacher Award, 2004
· The Bethel College of Nursing and Health Science Outstanding Teacher of the Year, 2006
· Faculty Service Award, 2010
Her expertise is in sports nutrition and teaching students and athletes how to make wise food choices for increased performance. She has worked extensively with collegiate athletes at the University of Colorado (Boulder) where she consulted for more than 20 years. Additionally, she was the nutrition consultant for the Denver Broncos for over 25 years, where her role was to teach young football players the importance of nutrition. Currently, Jackie is the sports dietitian for the Cleveland Indians and the Colorado Rockies. Her responsibilities with the Indians and Rockies include teaching young baseball players about wise food choices and the development of a nutrition education programs for minor and major league baseball players. In past years, Dr. Berning has presented to the executive committee of the Professional Baseball Athletic Trainers Association, as well as the Cactus League and Grapefruit League Symposiums. Dr. Berning is also a member of the US Lacrosse Sports Science and Safety Committee.
Before coming to the University full time, Dr. Berning was the Nutrition Coordinator for United States Swimming (USA Swimming). While at USA Swimming she was responsible for planning the menus for the National and Olympic Teams as well as teaching nutrition to swimmers, coaches and their parents who attended local swim camps as well as Developmental Swim Camps held at the Olympic Training Center. In conjunction with the USA Swimming Sports Medicine staff, she developed sports nutrition materials geared directly for swimmers, their coaches and parents.
Dr. Berning’s research interests lies with nutritional requirements for sport and exercise. She has several publications including an edited book on sports nutrition called Nutrition for Sport and Exercise and co-authored another book entitled Training Nutrition and is co-author on a McGraw Hill Nutrition textbook entitled, “Wardlaw’s Perspectives In Nutrition.”
Dr. Berning is also active in SCAN a Dietetic Practice Group that specializes in Sports and Cardiovascular Nutrition and is a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD). She is a member of the American Dietetic Association and the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Berning was a volunteer National Media Spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association for over 6 years where she conducted numerous media interviews.
Topic: “Bioenergetic Response to Chronic Hypoxia: Role of Muscle Mitochondria”
Adam Chicco received his PhD in Exercise/Cardiovascular Physiology from the University of Northern Colorado in 2004 where he studied the effects of exercise training on doxorubicin cardiotoxicity. He then went on to complete a 3 year postdoc in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado at Boulder investigating aspects of lipid metabolism and mitochondrial dysfunction in the development of hypertensive heart disease. He is presently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Exercise Science at Colorado State University, and holds adjunct faculty positions in the departments of Biomedical Sciences, Food Science and Human Nutrition, and the Cell and Molecular Biology Graduate Program. Current research projects in his laboratory seek to understand the roles of membrane phospholipid remodeling and mitochondrial dysfunction in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic diseases, and how skeletal muscle mitochondria respond to exercise training and high-altitude hypoxia.
Topic: “HIV-1 and Vascular Dysfunction: Benefits of Vascular Exercise”
Dr ChrisDeSouzais a professor in the Department of Integrative Physiology at the University of Colorado (UC), Boulder. He is the Co-Director of the Clinical Translational Research Center at UC-Boulder. Dr.DeSouza's research focuses on vascular endothelial cell biology and the effects of cardiometabolic risk factors and HIV-1 as well as lifestyle and pharmacological interventions on endothelial health. His laboratory is support by awards from the National Institutes of Health, American Heart Association and Forest Research Laboratories. Dr.DeSouzacompleted his undergraduate work at the University of Toronto and graduate degrees at George Washington University and the University of Maryland
Topic: “The Role of Physical Activity Level and B-Vitamin Status on Blood Homocysteine Levels”
Lanae Joubert, PhD, RD, CSCS is employed as Term Faculty at Northern Michigan University and as a Nutrition Consultant; Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist at Advantedge Training/Ringside Fitness. She also serves as Program Advisor for Cherry Creek Elementary School’s (Marquette, MI) Fuel Up To Play 60!
Current Situation: Butterfly House, Mackinac Island summer 2012
Dr Joubert’s research interests include: Eating behavior and physical activity in healthy and diseased populations; bioenergenics related to sport – sports nutrition; and cardiovascular disease markers for risk and their impact by exercise and nutrition.
Education:
Northern Colorado University – Registered Dietitian Internship 2009
Oregon State University – PhD Nutrition and Food Management 2007
Northern Michigan University - post-BS Clinical & Administrative Dietetics 2001
Northern Michigan University – MS Exercise Science 1998
California State University, Hayward – BS Kinesiology 1989
Topic: “Promoting Antenatal Physical Activity Counseling Among Healthcare Providers”
Jenn Leiferman, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Colorado School of Public Health, Department of Behavioral and Community Health. She received a BS in Psychology; a MS in Kinesiology; a Ph.D. in Health Education and Health Promotion. She also completed NIH NRSA postdoctoral training in epidemiology. Her research interests lie in the area of maternal and child health. Over the past decade her research has primarily focused on improving maternal and child outcomes in the perinatal period with a particular interest in physical activity and mood. She recently completed a randomized clinical trial to test the effects of a antenatal physical activity intervention on preterm birth and postpartum depression. Currently she is the PI of two grants aimed to develop and test patient-centered educational modules to improve healthcare providers’ ability to have difficult conversations regarding behavioral change with pregnant patients.
Title:“Exercise IS medicine for individuals with arthritis…so why is nonadherence an issue?”
Nancy Gyurcsik is an Associate Professor in the College of Kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Her research program is focused on understanding factors that contribute to physical activity adherence at the recommended dose for health promotion and disease management among individuals with arthritis. Nancy focuses on two primary and complementary areas of investigation. The first area includes study of the self-regulation of physical activity, incorporating a focus on theory-based social cognitions that revolve around being active (e.g., barriers; confidence to schedule and plan physical activity). The second area includes investigation of disease-specific social cognitions (e.g., arthritis-related pain acceptance and pain anxiety) that impact on activity. Her research program has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF).
Title: “Calcium Homeostasis and Exercise: Are We Sweating Our Bones Away?”
Dr. Vanessa Sherk is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus working with Dr. Wendy Kohrt and the IMAGE Research Group. She earned her Doctorate in Exercise Physiology from the University of Oklahoma and her BS in Biomedical/Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California. Her research interests are the balance of mechanical and metabolic influences of skeletal adaptations to exercise.
Title: “Up the Walls – Climbing and Children”
Phillip B. (Phil ) Watts, PhD FACS is Professor and exercise physiologist at Northern Michigan University where he serves as the Coordinator for the graduate program in Exercise Science. He has directed numerous research projects on the physiology of rock climbing and mountaineering and delivered the opening keynote address at the 1st (1999) and 2nd (2002) International Conferences on Science and Technology in Climbing and Mountaineering, Leeds, England. He is an avid climber and the author of Rock Climbing (Human Kinetics Publishers; out of print) which sold over 11,000 copies worldwide.