A Message from Dean Mattacola
Please join me in sending well wishes to Dr. Paige Hall Smith, as she steps down from her role as Director of our Center for Women’s Health and Wellness.
Please also join me in welcoming Dr. Sandy Shultz, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, who has agreed to serve as Director of the Center, and Dr. Donna Duffy, AP Associate Professor in Kinesiology, who has agreed to serve as Associate Director.
Sandy has extensive experience leading administrative units, as a former chair and someone who has developed interdisciplinary research teams with a record of extramural funding. Her research has focused on the study of underlying factors that increase a female’s susceptibility to ACL injury.
As the Director of the Program for the Advancement of Girls and Women in Sport and Physical Activity, Donna has promoted safety and equity in sport and physical activity. Her research has focused on behavior and recovery following head impact and concussion in women’s contact sports and the longitudinal impact of concussion experienced by pre-school aged girls.
Thank you, Sandy and Donna, for assuming these new leadership roles.
Paige has served as Director of the Center for Women’s Health and Wellness since 2004, and has taken what was once an idea and created an exceptional program that has helped advance the health, wellness, and quality of life of girls, women, and LGBTQ+ individuals for 16 years.
Under her direction, the Center has been a focal point of the Breastfeeding and Feminism International Program and Conference and UNCG’s Program to End Gender-Based Violence – a program that advanced the campus and community’s capacity to prevent and respond to gender-based violence, in collaboration with Dr. Stacy Sechrist (UNCG Office of Research and Economic Engagement).
During her tenure, Paige also created LEARN (LGBTQ+ Education and Research Network) with Dr. Brad Johnson, Clinical Assistant Professor in the UNCG School of Education and Dr. Jay Poole, Professor in the UNCG Department of Social Work.
Paige was instrumental in supporting the Program for the Advancement of Girls and Women in Sport and Physical Activity.
Thank you to Paige, for her work and leadership. We are so grateful that she will continue to be an engaged member of the Center and share her expertise as a faculty member in the Department of Public Health Education.