Esther Larson McGinnis Scholar Lecture – “How Can Youth Sports Youth Meet Physical Activities Guidelines – and How Will We Know?”
Lecture Topic: How Can Youth Sports Help Youth Meet Physical Activity Guidelines – and How Will We Know?
Lecture Date and Time: Wednesday, October 30th; Reception at 6:30pm; Lecture at 7pm
Lecture Location: Brown Ballroom III in the Bone Student Center on ISU’s Campus
Lecture Abstract: Only about half of U.S. youth are meeting physical activity guidelines with respect to moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). Sports participation can be a means to assisting youth with meeting guidelines, but there are issues with surveillance that may mask our ability to assess this. This talk will also address the current status of youth sports in the U.S. and provide suggestions for increasing MVPA through youth sports.
Speaker Biographical Information: Dr. Pfeiffer is a Red Cedar Distinguished Professor in the Department of Kinesiology at Michigan State University (MSU) and a fellow of both ACSM and the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK). In August of 2022 she became the Director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. She earned her PhD from Michigan State University in 2001 and was a postdoctoral researcher and Research Assistant Professor in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina from 2001-2006. She joined MSU as Assistant Professor in 2006.
Dr. Pfeiffer has been studying physical activity and health-related fitness in children and youth for the past 25 years. Her main areas of expertise are in measurement of physical activity and interventions to increase physical activity in children and adolescents. She has over 250 research publications and has worked on several NIH- and foundation-funded research projects. She completed her term as Vice President of the American College of Sports Medicine in June of 2022 and currently serves as President-Elect for the International Society for the Measurement of Physical Behaviour. She also serves on the Leadership Board of the National Youth Sports Health and Safety Institute and is Chair-Elect of the National Physical Activity Plan. She is a Past-President of the North American Society for Pediatric Exercise Medicine and the Midwest regional chapter of ACSM and was a Trustee of national ACSM. She also served twice on