Paul Wright is the new chair of the Research Council for SHAPE America.
Wright, the EC Lane and MN Zimmerman Endowed Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education, will lead the organization’s efforts during the next year to encourage and promote research activity.
He also promises to find avenues for partnership with SHAPE America’s other councils focused on health education, physical activity, physical education and professional preparation.
“All of us faculty members have a service obligation, and this certainly fits in with that,” says Wright, who is also an NIU Presidential Engagement and Partnership Professor. “I’ve always looked for service opportunities where I can make my best contribution – where it involves a strength I have and where I feel like I do have something to share.”
The appointment comes at a good time, he adds.
“Being a full professor, a bit more seasoned now and farther along at this stage of my career, this is a nice way for me to continue to push my leadership skills. I’ve had plenty of leadership opportunities within NIU and within professional organizations, but this is on another scale,” Wright says.
“I’m learning a lot,” he adds. “Any time you do something like this, you’ll learn a lot more about how an organization works. There’s so much work and politics and decision-making that goes on behind the curtain.”
SHAPE America (Society of Health and Physical Educators) serves as the voice for more than 200,000 professionals in those disciplines across the United States.
Founded in 1885, the organization has defined excellence in physical education: Its National Standards for K-12 Physical Education has served for decades as the foundation for well-designed physical education programs; the organization also helped develop (and owns) the National Health Education Standards.
Research in physical activity and health disseminated and advanced through the council that Wright now chairs provides a direct link to the effective instructional practices, curriculum and assessment tools necessary to build evidence-based programs.
Discipline areas include biomechanics; dance; exercise physiology and fitness; health; leisure and recreation; measurement and evaluation; motor behavior; pedagogy (Wright’s specialty); physical activity epidemiology; psychology; sociocultural aspects of physical activity; special populations; sport management; and sports medicine.
Chairing the council will require Wright to lead monthly meetings and to review research being conducted, applications for fellowships and decisions for awards that recognize excellent scholarship. He also expects to launch a newsletter, and will help to plan and coordinate the research components of the 2023 national conference such as its poster sessions, research presentations and distinguished scholar lecture series.
Moreover, Wright hopes to serve as a sounding board for SHAPE America leadership as they ponder and choose research priorities and organizational initiatives.
“It’s a high-profile position and comes with a lot of national exposure,” Wright says, “and that’s always something I’m looking for in terms of ways to promote the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education to have us showing up in the national conversation more often by sitting on councils and committees and chairing them. Things like this continue to build on our reputation.”
That “national exposure” extends to NIU as well as to Wright, personally and professionally, as he serves for a year as chair and then passes the figurative baton to the next chair, who he will mentor.
“I believe I’m in sync with, and aware of, where the field is going and what it needs. This allows me to be a spokesperson, a person who’s around the table and influencing the conversation with some credibility,” Wright says.
For example, he is a leading advocate for promoting social and emotional learning through physical education – and, he says, “it doesn’t hurt to have chair of the Research Council being a champion for one of those initiatives. It’s good for the work I’m trying to promote, and it’s good for NIU.”
