Karen DePauw honored by health education alliance
Karen P. DePauw, vice president and dean for graduate education at Virginia Tech, has been honored with the R. Tait McKenzie Award by the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD).
The award is given to members who have made “significant contributions outside the framework of the alliance, but which reflect prestige, honor, and dignity on the organization.”
DePauw is known nationally and internationally for her impact on graduate education. She has made more than 50 presentations in the United States, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Germany, and Canada and has served in leadership roles in regional and national professional organizations. Her scholarship includes numerous articles about kinesiology, disability sport, and disability studies. DePauw is past editor of “Quest” and served on the editorial board of “Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly.”
In addition, DePauw serves as the principal investigator, with her Virginia graduate dean colleagues, for a National Science Foundation grant to develop a model for diversifying the pool of future graduate professionals.
Among her accomplishments at the university, DePauw developed the Transformative Graduate Education Initiative, the Global Perspectives Program, and the award-winning Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown.
DePauw earned a bachelor’s degree from Whittier College, a master’s degree from California State University Long Beach, and a doctorate from Texas Woman’s College.
AAHPERD is an organization of regional and national associations and a research consortium that provides its 20,000 members with a comprehensive array of resources, support, and programs to help practitioners improve their skills to promote the health and well-being of the American public.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
