TC’s doctoral program in Movement Sciences & Education/Kinesiology, in the College’s Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, has tied for fourth in the rankings of 52 programs nationally by the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK) for the period 2010-2014.

The rankings, announced at the annual NAK business meeting in late September, are based on extensive data submitted early in 2015 covering that period. Faculty data reviewed included publications (journal articles and chapters), books, presentations, federal funding, non-federal funding, internal funding, editors, NAK Fellows and other national Fellows. The student data considered included GRE-verbal, GRE-quantitative, assistantships/student support, selectivity, doctoral publications by students and employment in the field. 

Areas in which TC’s program compared particularly favorably to other programs were publications, books, federal funding, National Fellows, GRE-verbal and selectivity.

NAK conducts this review in five year cycles and this is the third review in which TC’s program was ranked among the best kinesiology doctoral programs in the country.

“Our faculty indicators were quite high in comparison to other institutions, and since we were the smallest program faculty in the analysis it means all our faculty are producing,” said Stephen Silverman, Professor of Education, who served as Chair of the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences during this period. Carol Ewing Garber, Professor of Movement Sciences, is the current Chair.   

Also at the meeting, Garber was officially inducted as an NAK Active Fellow (the organization maintains a maximum of 165). All three full professors in TC’s program (Silverman, Garber and Andrew Gordon, Professor of Movement Sciences) are NAK Active Fellows, and Professor Emerita Ann Gentile is an Emeritus Fellow.  

In still another testament to the quality of TC’s program, alumnus Shirl Hoffman, Professor Emeritus of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. received the Heatherington Award, generally considered the highest recognition for career achievement in the field. 

“It was a very good weekend for our program and for TC!” Silverman said.

Published Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015