Freedson Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

The University of Michigan School of Kinesiology has bestowed its 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award on Patty Freedson, UMass Amherst professor emerita of kinesiology. Her achievements were celebrated during the school's homecoming and alumni awards on Sept. 24.

Image

Each year, Michigan's Kinesiology Alumni Society Board of Governors selects a small group of recipients to receive their Alumni Achievement Awards. They are given to alumni and friends who have made a significant impact in their careers, service and philanthropy.

“I was very surprised to receive this honor from my alma mater,” says Freedson. “The University of Michigan holds a very special place in my heart. My education there gave me the opportunity to pursue my dreams as a researcher and educator at UMass for which I will be forever grateful.”

Freedson retired at the end of December 2016 after serving as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for 35 years, including nine years in which she served as chair of the department. She earned a national reputation as a top researcher in the field of physical activity, its measurement and its relationship to health. The recipient of multi-million dollar grant funding through the NIH, she has over 160 published papers to her credit and has lectured countless times in the United States and abroad.

Freedson founded the Physical Activity and Health Laboratory at UMass Amherst and played a fundamental role in the formation of the Center for Personalized Health Monitoring, one of three centers in the university’s new Institute for Applied Life Sciences. She also has worked tirelessly as an officer with numerous professional organizations including the National Academy of Kinesiology and the American College of Sports Medicine and its New England Chapter. She is a fellow of the Research Consortium, the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Academy of Kinesiology.