Kinesiology Chair Search Talk: Panteleimon Ekkekakis

Good to Healthy: Maintaining Excellence, Job Satisfaction and Work-Life Balance in a Changing Academic Environment

Academia is changing. There have been shifts in the reward system, attendant changes in how faculty allocate their time and effort and a redefinition of scholarship. Alongside a push for open access, transparency and replicability, we have seen an explosion of predatory publishers and journals with questionable standards of peer review. At the same time, we are witnessing an increasing number of retractions and widely publicized cases of scientific misconduct that erode public trust. As priorities shift, there are signs of a downgrading of the importance assigned to teaching, service and outreach. Meanwhile, academics are reporting mental-health problems and job dissatisfaction, largely due to mounting pressure and the inability to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Amidst these changes, faculty and staff make decisions that shape their work environment. What priorities should they set? What evaluation criteria should they adopt? Ekkekakis will share thoughts on these issues and will challenge the departmental community to consider the academic culture they wish to create for themselves and the students.

Panteleimon (“Paddy”) Ekkekakis is a professor of exercise psychology at Iowa State University and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Academy of Kinesiology.