Paluch Named 2023 Public Engagement Faculty Fellow
As a PEP fellow, she will share her research and connect with organizations to to encourage active lifestyles.
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Amanda Paluch, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, has been named a 2023 Public Engagement Faculty Fellow by the Public Engagement Project (PEP) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is among the six UMass faculty members who will draw on their substantial research records to impact policy, the work of practitioners and public debates.
The PEP Fellows Program, of which this group constitutes the ninth cohort, facilitates connections between fellows and lawmakers in the U.S. Congress and Massachusetts State House, journalists, practitioners and others to share their research beyond the walls of academia. The faculty fellows will receive a stipend and technical training in communicating with non-academic audiences.
Paluch studies the health benefits of physical activity. Her research applies and advances technology to monitor and promote active living for disease prevention. As a PEP fellow, she will share her research through media interviews and connect with clinicians and organizations to encourage active lifestyles.
“The expanding network of PEP Faculty Fellows is impacting society,” says Lisa M. Troy, director of the Public Engagement Project and associate professor of nutrition in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and the Commonwealth Honors College. “By training UMass faculty to translate their scholarship to an audience beyond academia, UMass faculty are having broader impacts locally, nationally and internationally. PEP Fellows are invited to governor task forces, onto the National Academy of Sciences committees and for congressional testimony, as well as informing the general public through various media outlets. In this way, PEP Fellows are facilitating the mission of UMass Amherst as a land grant university, to advance knowledge and improve the lives of the people of the Commonwealth, the nation and the world.”
The Public Engagement Project is a faculty-driven initiative building on a collaboration of the Institute for Social Science Research (ISSR), the Center for Research on Families (CRF) and the Transportation Center (UMTC). The PEP Faculty Fellowship has been made possible by funding from the College of Education, College of Engineering, College of Humanities and Fine Arts, College of Natural Sciences, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Office of the Provost and University Relations.