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Third Khan Professor Named

Khan investiture
(L-R) Ilesanmi Adesida, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost; Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan; AHS Dean Tanya Gallagher; Dr. Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, Head of the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health and third Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor in Applied Health Sciences; Phyllis Wise, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Wojtek Chodzko-Zajko, Head of the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, has been named the third Shahid and Ann Carlson Khan Professor in Applied Health Sciences. The professorship was endowed by University of Illinois alumna Shahid Khan and Ann Carlson Khan to support teaching, research, and public engagement in the areas of health, aging, and disability. The ceremony took place on February 15.

Dr. Chodzko-Zajko has been one of the most influential scholars in exercise science and health policy related to physical activity and aging for more than 25 years. In the Aging and Diversity Laboratory, he explores culture’s impact on the lives of individuals and communities and applies his research to develop policies that promote health across diverse populations. His many leadership roles include Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded National Blueprint on Aging, member of the World Health Organization’s Scientific Advisory Panel on aging and health, contributor to WHO’s Global Report on Falls Prevention, and member of the Strategic Health Initiative on Physical Activity and Aging of the American College of Sports Medicine. The founding editor of the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, Dr. Chodzko-Zajko is the current President of the American Kinesiology Association.

In his remarks, Dr. Chodzko-Zajko recalled his remarkable journey from first setting foot on American soil in 1976 as a sports camp junior counselor through a State Department exchange program to being admitted to Purdue University as an international graduate assistant four years later. In 1995, he traveled to Heidelberg for the World Health Organization to develop the very first guidelines for physical activity for older persons. “I love working with interdisciplinary teams of diverse individuals charged with developing consensus around complex and difficulty issues,” he said. “I’ve had the opportunity to do that at the University of Illinois, which is what we shine at doing.”

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