SUNY Cortland Professor Jeffrey Walkuski Receives SUNY Chancellor's Award

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Jeffrey Walkuski

CORTLAND, NY (05/16/2012)(readMedia)-- Jeffrey J. Walkuski, an associate professor of physical education at SUNY Cortland, was presented a prestigious State University of New York Chancellor's Award for Excellence during the 2012 Undergraduate Commencement on Saturday, May 12, in the Park Center.

Walkuski received a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service.

The Chancellor's Awards are conferred to provide system-wide recognition for consistently superior professional achievement and to encourage the pursuit of excellence at all 64 SUNY campuses. Each campus president submits nominations, which are reviewed by the SUNY Committee on Awards.

Walkuski becomes the ninth SUNY Cortland recipient of the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Faculty Service. It recognizes his extensive College service and leadership, as well as his specific efforts to help both individual students and his community as well as his profession, which he represented at an international level.

Walkuski joined the College as an assistant professor in 1999 and was promoted to associate professor in 2006.

He has delivered presentations on teacher preparation and on childhood motor learning and fitness in Singapore, Bangkok and Shanghai. On the international level, he was a member of the Scientific Committee of the Association Internationale des Ecoles Superieures d'Education Physique World Congress, an organization which he chaired in 1997.

He has spoken at more than 69 regional, state and national conferences. In addition, Walkuski has served as a grant reviewer for the United States Department of Education on the "Head Start Body Smart" Play Space Grant Program for the National Center for Physical Development and Outdoor Play. He also was a 2012 proposal reviewer for the American Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance national convention, in his role as a member of the Higher Education Committee.

Walkuski is the author of 21 published articles in the areas of teacher preparation and methodology; implementation of technology and systematic observation in teaching and learning; curriculum development; and motor learning in children. These writings have appeared in prestigious publications including Journal of Sport Sciences; Journal of Human Movement Studies; Teaching and Learning; and Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. In addition, he has been a frequent presenter at the international, national, state and regional levels.

"Being involved in the education of students is not only about the intellectual side, but also the affective side," Walkuski stated. "This perhaps can and will have the most lasting impact on one's life and profession."

He has served as the advisor to the men's ice hockey and rugby clubs and the Alliance for Physical Education Majors.

His work in the Dryden community, on the outskirts of Cortland, has focused on youth sports and youths at risk. He has served as a volunteer head coach for community youth soccer, basketball and swimming, the latter with the Dryden Aquatic Racing Team.

Walkuski has served the Faculty Senate for 11 years in many leadership roles, including as chair and in other executive roles and on key committees.

Walkuski holds a Bachelor of Arts in Physical Education from California State University, Sacramento; a Master of Science in Motor Learning and Control from Kansas State University; and a Ph.D. in motor development and physical education teacher education with secondary emphasis in research methodology and statistics, developmental psychology, from Ohio State University.

Three other SUNY Cortland faculty and administrators received Chancellor's Awards at the graduation exercises. Melony Warwick, secretary II in the Division of Institutional Advancement, received a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Classified Service. Julian H. Wright, director of recreational sports, was honored with a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Professional Service. Tiantian Zheng, a professor of sociology/anthropology, was presented a Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities.

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