UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Kathleen A. Martin Ginis, professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Health and Exercise Sciences will present the 2023 Dorothy V. Harris Memorial Lecture, “Motivating Change: Intervention Techniques to Increase Physical Activity Among People Living with Disabilities,” on Sept. 14, from 3:05 to 4:20 p.m. in 110 Henderson Building at Penn State University Park. 

Martin Ginis’ talk is part of the Dorothy V. Harris Memorial Lecture Series in Sport Psychology hosted by the Department of Kinesiology in the Penn State College of Health and Human Development. It is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be served. 

Martin Ginis will provide an overview of research on physical activity for people with disabilities and evidence-based best practices to support them to become more physically active. Her presentation aims to inspire researchers to advance high-quality research in the area and provide practitioners with techniques for promoting physical activity.

Martin Ginis is a distinguished university scholar and a professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and in the School of Health and Exercise Sciences at The University of British Columbia.

She holds the Reichwald Family Chair in Preventive Medicine and is an international fellow of the National Academy of Kinesiology and a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

The Dorothy V. Harris Lecture Series in Sport Psychology honors the memory of Dorothy Harris, a Penn State alumna, past faculty member and pioneer in the fields of sport psychology and women in sport. Harris died in 1991.

While at Penn State, Harris developed one of the first graduate programs in sport psychology in the country. Later, she became the first woman president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. She received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Penn State in 1982, and in 2004, the Board of Trustees named a residence hall on the University Park campus in her honor.

The first year of the Harris lecture was 1995-96, and since then, the series has hosted 29 distinguished speakers considered to be among the leading figures in sport and exercise psychology worldwide. 

For more information, visit the College of Health and Human Development's website.