SUNY promotes physical education professor to ‘Distinguished’
5 min read
05/17/2022
SUNY Cortland professor Lynn Couturier MacDonald, previous chair of SUNY Cortland’s Actual physical Education and learning Division, a short while ago was appointed to the rank of Distinguished Service Professor by the SUNY Board of Trustees in recognition of a devoted profession that lifted the bar for bodily education instruction at the university and nicely past.
The Distinguished Company Professorship is conferred upon educational school who have reached a distinguished reputation for applying their intellectual capabilities and analysis to interests of community issue in their neighborhood, New York state or nationwide.
The appointment constitutes a advertising to the SUNY’s optimum academic rank.
“It is clear that Dr. MacDonald’s institutional, professional, community, state and countrywide assistance has been in depth, exceptional and impactful,” said SUNY Cortland President Erik J. Bitterbaum. “The common-location and evaluation perform Dr. MacDonald has completed around decades has concerned watchful, nuanced focus to detail, crystal clear and visionary leadership and coordination with other physical instruction scholars and practitioners.”
MacDonald was formally honored in the course of SUNY Cortland’s 2022 Graduation Ceremonies on May possibly 14 in the Park Middle Alumni Arena.
She gained a Health practitioner of Bodily Training from Springfield University in 1986. MacDonald has a B.S. in physical instruction from Springfield Faculty and obtained a Learn of Science in Biomechanics from College of Illinois and a Learn of Arts in American Research with honors from Trinity University. She has a graduate certification for highly developed feminist scientific studies from University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
MacDonald started her higher education instructing profession at Springfield College, continuing at the Massachusetts Institute of Know-how and the United States Coast Guard Academy prior to becoming a member of SUNY Cortland in 2008 at the rank of professor and chair of physical education and learning. She chaired the office for the future nine several years.
MacDonald, who was acknowledged in 2017 by the Condition College with a SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in College Provider, methods her do the job in a way that colleagues continuously describe as embodying the “servant-leader” ethos.
“In her operate with system and college or university-huge accreditation, Dr. MacDonald sets the system as well as conducts the essential analysis, knowledge selection and analysis that tell that vision,” one particular nominator mentioned. “She has a generative capacity as a leader, an individual who can marshal disparate teams toward a collective goal.”
Her management is obvious in her scholarly perform, strengthening the condition of P-12 bodily training in the U.S. as a result of requirements and assessment, and in her technique to instruction in SUNY Cortland’s actual physical instruction trainer planning courses. She has excelled at connecting provider, teaching and scholarship. Her file displays a hugely commendable clarity of vision and objective.
“[Dr. MacDonald] is a desire colleague for the reason that her get the job done is generally of the complete greatest excellent and grounded in equally investigate and realistic software,” reported Charlene Burgeson, the chief software officer of Action for Balanced Children and Govt Director of Lively Colleges. Burgeson collaborated with MacDonald on a countrywide P.E. specifications challenge.
“Lynn is a silent and assured chief who leads by example, and as these kinds of, she engenders motivation and loyalty. She is prepared to function on grueling tasks mainly because she appreciates they will be the bedrock for substantial quality expert observe. She is not motivated by consideration and recognition but somewhat by specialist contribution and a career well completed.”
MacDonald is a effectively-known scholar and prolific researcher who has revealed perfectly-cited operates in her field on evaluation, outcomes, actual physical literacy and physical instruction teacher preparation. At Cortland, she is the revealed creator of two textbooks, 8 peer-reviewed content articles, two research studies and conclusions that have appeared in intercontinental journals.
A past president of the National Association of Activity and Bodily Education and learning (NASPE) from 2009 to 2012, she has published invited pieces about her job in crafting the P-12 bodily instruction specifications and associated understanding outcomes in NASPE: Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.
MacDonald drew on her scholarly skills of physical education and learning standards in her nationwide company, together with her lengthy-standing involvement with NASPE and the Society of Wellness and Physical Educators (Form, formerly the American Alliance for Health and fitness, Bodily Instruction, Recreation and Dance or AAPHERD).
She was invited both of those in 2006 and yet again in 2015 to be a member of the NASPE undertaking force to revise the P-12 grade level bodily schooling requirements for U.S. universities.
From 2011 to 2013, she chaired the operate of creating a curriculum framework with quality-level benchmarks to accompany individuals requirements. Significantly from a a single-off appointment, membership on this task power bundled analysis into ideal tactics in physical schooling, deep analyze of the latest accreditation specifications via the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), and continuous involvement with involved stakeholders by way of data sharing and feedback classes.
She was also invited by Shape to edit and generate books aimed at assisting physical educators enact the requirements in their classrooms, conduct results-based evaluation and integrate engineering in their curriculum.
MacDonald’s provider to NASPE was so valued by CAEP and NASPE that she was requested to sign up for a countrywide team to conduct high-quality reviews of CAEP reports from physical education and learning trainer education systems throughout the U.S.
An lively participant in the New York State Affiliation for Health, Bodily Training, Recreation and Dance from 2008 to 2013 and 2015 to 2017 (NYS-AHPERD), MacDonald in 2013 was regarded by the group for her contributions with the Awesome Human being Award, Larger Instruction Part.
At Cortland, she has led quite a few accreditation initiatives that have a ripple outcome throughout the institution and applications in phrases of meeting criteria or strategic ambitions.
At present, she co-chairs the university’s Middle States Accreditation Committee. Her know-how on college student studying and practical experience with accreditation has been key to authentically evaluating and articulating the campus perform that led to a profitable reaccreditation.
MacDonald has crammed other “high-profile, large-impact” roles on campus, which include serving as College Senate chair, a position in which she shepherded a number of critical initiatives.
In addition to her popular service to her section and the School of Experienced Experiments, MacDonald has engaged in shaping curriculum, staff techniques and actual physical areas on the campus.
At the institutional level, MacDonald also tackled the concerns of growing diversity, fairness and inclusion using the services of in her office. She has served on the Middle for Intercultural and Gender Reports.
