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University awards recognize excellence in faculty research, service
April 29, 2010
Sara Wilcox and President Pastides
Russ Pate and President Pastides
Two of the University of South Carolina’s top awards were presented Wednesday (April 28) to Arnold School of Public Health faculty in the Department of Exercise Science.
Dr. Sara Wilcox, who joined the Arnold School faculty in 1999, is the recipient of the USC Educational Foundation Research Award for Health Sciences.
Veteran researcher, professor and administrator, Dr. Russ Pate is the recipient of the Outstanding Service Award from the USC Educational Foundation.
The awards came during the University’s annual awards ceremony for faculty achievement.
Dr. Tom Chandler, dean of the Arnold School, said the awards to Wilcox and Pate are well-deserved and are a tribute to the dedication of all of the school’s faculty.
“Since she arrived at the Arnold School as a young member of our faculty, Sara Wilcox quickly earned a reputation as a dedicated teacher and researcher. Her research program has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the CDC, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and she is a leading researcher at Carolina,” he said.
Wilcox is an associate professor in the Department of Exercise Science and a faculty affiliate with the Women’s Studies Program at USC. She also is an adjunct faculty member in USC’s Department of Psychology.
Her research focuses on factors associated with physical activity in women, older adults, and African Americans; interventions to increase physical activity and healthy eating in women, older adults and African Americans; women’s health; and stress associated with family caregiving.
Pate’s commitment to service activities at the University and to state and national organizations – as well as his research on the link between physical activity and health – are recognized through the Outstanding Service Award.
“This award to Russ Pate honors a distinguished career in education, scholarship and service,” Chandler said. “His leadership at the University and with national organizations is exemplary.”
A past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, Pate has been the Arnold School’s chair of the Department of Exercise Science and associate dean of research. He also has been vice provost for health sciences at USC.
Pate is an exercise physiologist with interests in physical activity and physical fitness in children and the health implications of physical activity. He has published more than 230 scholarly papers and has authored or edited three books. His research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association, and several private foundations and corporations. He heads a research team that currently is supported by three grants from the National Institutes of Health.
In his service to the nation, Pate coordinated the effort that led to the development of the recommendation on Physical Activity and Public Health of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American College of Sports Medicine (1995). He served on the U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (2003-04), the U.S. Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee (2007-08), and an Institute of Medicine panel that developed guidelines on prevention of childhood obesity. He currently chairs the coordinating committee for the National Physical Activity Plan.
