After extensive and careful consideration, the  NIRSA Foundation and the NIRSA Research and Assessment Committee are excited to announce that Austin Anderson, PhD., Associate Professor of Kinesiology and Sport at the University of Southern Indiana has been awarded one of NIRSA’s 2018 research grants!

This year, many exceptional proposals were received and identifying the most deserving recipients was a challenging task. The NIRSA Foundation and the NIRSA Research and Assessment Committee are grateful for all the applicants and their continued support of our mission and passion for research on the impact of campus recreation.

See related: NIRSA to support research on “campus recreation participation and psychological wellbeing;” “the impact of health and wellbeing education on retention rates;” and “on recreation professionals’ engagement with social justice”

Austin Anderson’s project seeks to explore the effects of an LGTBQ diversity training program on professional and student recreation staff. Given the inconsistencies of LGTBQ diversity training in the profession, a critical need exists to identify comprehensive, evidence-based LGTBQ diversity training models whose impact on the attitudes and competencies of recreation staff have been substantiated.

This project is supported by the NIRSA Foundation

The NIRSA Foundation continues to support research that broadens the knowledge base in the field of campus recreation. The NIRSA Research Grant Program funds original, scholarly research projects that advance the knowledge base and practices of our profession. Previously funded research projects and the recipients can be found on the NIRSA Research Grant webpage and many of their contributions to the literature can be found in the Recreational Sports Journal, the scholarly publication from the NIRSA Foundation dedicated to publishing empirical, theoretical, and applied research in the field. NIRSA members have free access to current and archive issues of the RSJ.

The results of this project will be shared at an upcoming NIRSA Annual Conference and may also be featured in an future issue of the RSJ.

  • For more information about the NIRSA research grant program, contact Ruben Guzman, Research Coordinator at NIRSA Headquarters.
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Adrienne Ansel is currently the Student Supervisor of Fitness at Bowling Green State University and a member of NIRSA's Research and Assessment Committee; she can be reached at aansel@bgsu.edu.