October 5, 2022
We are delighted to share that UBC Faculty of Education’s School of Kinesiology Assistant Professor Dr. Erica Bennett has received a 2022 President’s Award from the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity.
The North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) is one of the leading international organizations in kinesiology comprising scholars from across the globe in the areas of behavioral sciences and related professions.
The NASPSPA President’s Award recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and growth of the society.
In 2022, the award was presented to the members of the NASPSPA Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force.
We have learned a lot from the committee members’ perspectives and courage to speak to social justice issues that can be challenging to raise. Dr. Bennett is clearly a leader in the field in this area.
— President Jackie Goodway, Past President Meghan McDonough, & Executive Director Penny McCullagh
The task force designed ways to measure and learn about the diversity of the society’s membership, developed recommendations to improve policies and practices, and spearheaded collaborative efforts with other academic societies in the field to make NASPSPA’s conferences, journals, and other scholarly activities more equitable and inclusive.
I am honoured to receive this award alongside my peers who serve on the NASPSPA EDI Task Force. It is because of the work of those before us, of the support from the NASPSPA leadership, and of the time and energy of community members who have and continue to share with us their experiences and suggestions for change and advocacy that we are able to work together to build a more inclusive NASPSPA community.
— Dr. Erica Bennett
Dr. Bennett’s work—grounded in critical and community approaches to physical activity psychology—attends to the psychological, behavioural, and sociocultural factors shaping physical activity and health-related adaptational processes across the life course. Her work centers on the physical activity experiences of individuals living with chronic illness and disabilities, physical (in)activity and the aging body, and elite athlete stress, emotion, and coping.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Erica Bennett on this remarkable achievement!
