College of Education

Christopher George Berger grew up in northeastern Ohio wanting to be a commercial pilot for the airlines.  Instead, he has become an exercise physiologist and student pilot who maintains an interest in healthy air travel even today. After earning a B.S. in Geography from Arizona State University, Dr. Berger finished an M.S. in Sports Medicine from the University of Oregon and a Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Kentucky. He has held faculty positions at the University of Pittsburgh, The George Washington University, and the University of Indianapolis.

Berger is certified by the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Strength and Conditioning Association. He also holds a certificate in Applied Statistical Analysis from the University of Kentucky Graduate School.

For quite some time now, Berger has been interested in the science of weight management and the ability of resistance training to influence body composition and metabolism.  If you ever wanted to increase muscle mass and reduce body fat, Berger's unique background in exercise physiology and nutrition. Recent work has focused on dietary thermogenesis, resistance training, and metabolic rate variances.

John Collins authored or co-authored numerous peer-reviewed publications, published abstracts, professional presentations, and technical reports. He has been involved in approximately $500,000.00 worth of collaborative research grants and served as a peer reviewer for several journals. His research interests include social-psychological dimensions related to resource and community based recreation planning and management; leisure services related administration, personnel, leadership, and work team studies.

Jeff Goodwin received his Ph.D. from Texas Woman's University. He has served as a department chair at two institutions before accepting the department chair position at UNT. In 2008, he stepped down as department chair to teach in the undergraduate and graduate programs in kinesiology. He is a research fellow with the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. His academic area of specialty is motor behavior and his research interests include practice scheduling and information feedback.

Barb is the Administrative Coordinator for the Kinesiology, Health Promotion and Recreation department, assistant to the Chair and handles payroll, budget and provides support to students.

Dr. Alexander Hutchison (CSCS) is a fitness and wellness expert who came to us from San Antonio, Texas. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Kinesiology with expertise in the fields of exercise physiology, nutrition, immunology, and statistical analysis. Dr. Hutchison is an active member of the National Strength and Conditioning Association, and will be a speaker at the 2021 National Conference in Orlando, Florida. His topic will be on the Ketogenic diet and ketone supplementation as strategies to improve athletic performance and recovery.

Dr. Hutchison reviews for several journals in exercise science, nutrition, and immunology, and is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. He first book, titled “Exercise Ain’t Enough: HIIT, Honey, and the Hadza” was published in 2020, and his second book, “The Swim Prescription”, will be published by Hatherleigh Press in the spring of 2022.  Alexander and his family are fitness enthusiasts, competing in numerous sports including Olympic weightlifting, swimming, water polo, triathlon, and rowing. He and his wife, Enjonli, and their 10-year-old daughter, Kaya, finished the 2020 Houston Half-Marathon together in 2:55:54, with Kaya being the youngest female athlete in the entire field.

Dr. Jerraco Leontae Johnson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Health Promotion, and Recreation. An overarching theme of his research is health disparities among young, underserved children. Johnson's primary research aims are to develop and improve childhood health behaviors (i.e., fundamental motor skill competence, physical activity promotion) in young children from under-represented backgrounds. These children are highly at-risk for poor health trajectories (e.g., obesity, cardiovascular disease) and motor developmental delays. He specializes in implementing mastery motivational climate movement and health interventions in Preschool and Head Start settings, primarily for low-income children of color. A major emphasis of his research is on addressing and combating ethnic/racial, gender, and socioeconomic related disparities for this population. Justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) is an integral component of his research.During his graduate studies he was the recipient of several awards from the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity (NASPSPA) including the Graduate Student Dissertation Research Grant, Outstanding Student Paper Award, and Graduate Student Award for International Conference Travel.

Dr. M. Jean Keller is a professor in the University of North Texas Department of Kinesiology and Health Promotion and chair of the North Texas Regional P-16 Council. She recently served as the UNT interim vice president for community engagement and equity and diversity. She supported UNT Dallas as provost and vice chancellor as the institution transitioned to an independently accredited university in the UNT System. She served as dean of the College of Education at UNT for 15 years. Prior to her career at UNT, she was a department chair at the University of Georgia and a member of the faculty at Indiana University.

She has written or edited 11 books and 18 refereed chapters, and authored more than 100 articles. Dr. Keller has given more than 300 presentations in the United States and several countries. She was awarded more than $6 million of funding by external agencies for research and innovative projects. Dr. Keller is a fellow in the Academy of Leisure Sciences and the Academy of Park and Recreation Administration. She has received recognition for extensive work related to health disparities, persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and the North Texas Region P-16 Council, a regional, data-driven collaborative focused on education access and success for all students leading to meaningful employment and quality of life.

Scott Martin received his doctorate of philosophy degree in Physical Education with an emphasis in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He is a fellow of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology, fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, a member of the United States Olympic Committee's Sport Psychology Registry, and an invited member of the Texas Cardiovascular Disease and Stroke Partnership. His extensive knowledge in sport, physical fitness, and health psychology has provided him opportunities to interact with numerous coaches, athletes, musicians, military personnel, and business leaders about their performance. His research interests include examining attitudes toward and effectiveness of mental skills services, psychosocial factors associated with health-related fitness — cardiorespiratory fitness, muscular strength, muscular endurance, flexibility, and body composition — and effective coaching behaviors and leadership styles. He has authored or co-authored more than 80 refereed professional articles, 10 non-refereed articles, five book chapters, and 200 presentations at state, national, and international conferences. Dr. Martin has received more than $2 million in funding from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (Science Education Partnership Award), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Association for Sport and Physical Education, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, The Cooper Institute, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, and Girls in the Game.

Brian McFarlin earned his BS and MS degrees at Texas Christian University and his PhD at Purdue University. After graduation, he completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Nutrition at Purdue University before becoming an Assistant Professor at The University of Houston. Dr. McFarlin joined the UNT faculty in the Fall of 2012. He is a Professor with tenure at the University of North Texas.

Dr. McFarlin’s research focuses on the use of natural products and exercise to reduce disease risk and improve muscle recovery following injury and strenuous training sessions. Since 2004, he has published more than 115 peer-reviewed articles and obtained more than $3.5 million in externally funded research grants. His research methodology expertise includes flow cytometry and multiplex analysis among other common biological techniques.

Dr. McFarlin is co-director of the University of North Texas’s Applied Physiology Laboratory. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and an editor for the journal METHODS. Dr. McFarlin was recognized as the 2019 UNT Teacher-Scholar and regularly teaches courses in Healthy Lifestyles, Sport Nutrition, and Exercise Physiology. He is considered an expert in the design and implementation of high-quality online and blended courses.

Ryan Olson joined the University of North Texas as an Assistant Professor in fall 2016. He received his B.S. in Kinesiology and Health Promotion from the University of Wyoming prior to completing his Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences at Rutgers University. His research interests center on the fields of Sport and Exercise Psychology, with an emphasis on implementing psychophysiological techniques, including electrocardiography and electroencephalography, to identify neural biomarkers of disease. Specifically, Olson focuses on the effects of acute and chronic exercise for improving neurocognitive function and mental health and examining neurocognitive deficits and autonomic function in at-risk populations, especially in concussed and obese individuals.

Valerie Stevenson began her education at the University of Memphis, where she started to develop a passion for sports science, Kinesiology and sports medicine. She continued her Master’s education at the University of Arkansas and received a terminal clinical doctorate from the University of Idaho.

As a practicing athletic trainer for more than 10 years, she developed a clinical practice philosophy that involves collecting patient specific outcomes of each patient interaction and basing my clinical decision making on evidence and individual patient needs. As a result of her personal clinical philosophy, she utilized the same approach in teaching both athletic training and pre-occupational therapy students.

Scholarly dissemination of her patient care outcomes has been a priority in her career, as her evidenced-based action research peer-reviewed published manuscripts will show. Using that knowledge and proficiency in research and manuscript composition has also allowed for mentorship opportunities with athletic training doctoral candidates as well as serving as an expert committee member for masters level student research. Her experience using several advanced practice manual therapy techniques in her patient care and her strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) certification both contribute to her clinical expertise in therapeutic intervention, rehabilitation and differential diagnosis.

Dr. Jakob Vingren received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Kinesiology from the University of North Texas before pursuing a Ph.D. in Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut (currently ranked the #1 doctoral program in the country). During his undergraduate education he was a walk-on on the UNT football team as a tight end and took part in the Developing Scholars Mentor Program within the College of Education. Dr. Vingren’s research interests include resistance exercise and the effect of alcohol on hormones, muscle and athletic performance. One of the more out of the ordinary research projects he has worked on included resistance training of chronically intoxicated rats.

Kinesiology Undergraduate Program Coordinator PhD 1986 - Texas Woman's University - Humanistic Foundations of Physical Education Specialization in Elementary Physical Education, Sociology of Sport, and Women in Sport Former Chair of the Sport Sociology Academy Former Southern District Representative to the Council on Physical Education for Children Former Editorial Board of Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators Authored or Co-Authored 26 peer-reviewed papers, plus various other publications. Presented more than 50 papers at professional meetings. Research interests: Gender issues in sport across the lifespan, with a focus on media representation women in sport; Youth pedagogy