Inclusive Excellence

The mission of the Department of Kinesiology at UNCG is to enhance health, performance, and well-being through physical activity across the lifespan. The department’s faculty and staff also recognize that its goals are entwined with broader social and environmental factors and addressing historical barriers to access. Through our work as teachers, researchers, and community members, we aim to renounce all forms of unjust discrimination.

Our department and community have long histories of challenging injustice through sports, physical activity, and health practices. Today’s UNCG Kinesiology Department owes much of its renown as a national leader to the turn-of-the-twentieth-century Physical Education Department that preceded it. UNCG began as a women’s college which undercut misguided ideas about women’s roles in work, government, politics, and sports. In 1915, students participated in a suffrage march on campus to advocate for women’s rights to vote. Later, in the 1960s, the city of Greensboro became homebase for nationwide sit-ins to dismantle Jim Crow laws and was a pivotal site for the desegregation of hospitals and public golf courses.

The UNCG campus now serves as the most diverse in the UNC system. UNCG is a minority-serving institution, an emerging Hispanic-serving institution, and ranked first in the state for advancing social mobility. UNCG Kinesiology Department faculty and staff continually reflect on our actions, policies, and roles as teachers, researchers, and community members to ensure inclusion, access, and equality of opportunity for all. We similarly communicate with students and alumni to identify shortcomings and develop solutions. Our faculty and staff strive to improve as professionals and create spaces of support in which all our students can learn and thrive.

Academic research demonstrates that implicit and systemic prejudices continue to affect all aspects of our society, including our healthcare system, sporting institutions, and exercise options. Disproportionate health disparities and inequitable physical activity opportunities have for too long plagued the United States and North Carolina. As kinesiologists, we are responsible for engaging in credible and independent scholarship that can be used to address and rectify these realities.

The faculty and staff of UNCG Kinesiology are committed to ensuring inclusion, access, and equality of opportunity for those of all backgrounds, advancing a sense of belonging in our communities through organized physical activity, and building a welcoming environment at the G