Faculty member selected to head institutional effectiveness

KALAMAZOO--The Western Michigan University Board of Trustees has named a 20-year veteran faculty member to be associate provost for institutional effectiveness, effective April 1.

Trustees appointed Dr. Jody Brylinsky, professor of human performance and health education, during their Feb. 29 meeting to replace Dr. Eileen B. Evans, who has retired.

As vice provost, Brylinsky will head the Office of Institutional Effectiveness, which provides leadership to develop, integrate and improve WMU's academic program planning, institutional and program assessments, and accreditation review programs.

Brylinsky has been serving as coordinator and faculty advisor for WMU's Master of Arts in Coaching Sport Performance. She also has been serving on assessment- and accreditation-related bodies at the University, such as the Writing Team for Institutional Self-Study Higher Learning Commission Reaccreditation and the Department of Human Performance and Health Education Assessment Committee.

A faculty member since 1991, Brylinsky is nationally known as an expert on coaching young people. She led the National Coaching Report Task Force in 2008 that produced the last National Coaching Report, the results of which she unveiled before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. That report is the country's only comprehensive examination of coaching education and coaching requirements in both interscholastic and youth sport.

Brylinsky is a past president of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, has chaired the writing team for the second revision of the National Standards for Sports Coaches, and participated as an accreditation reader for the National Council for Accreditation of Coaching Education.

Her research interests include all aspects of coach education and coach development, social and cultural issues in sport, and sport psychology. She has presented her scholarship nationally and internationally and is the author or co-author of nearly a dozen books and monographs as well as many book chapters and journal articles.

Brylinsky also has been an advocate for Special Olympics, gender equity in sport and sportsmanship. She has been a leader in the National Association of Girls and Women in Sport and is a U.S. Olympic Committee Project Gold participant and a longstanding volunteer coach for Special Olympics.

She has received numerous University, state and national awards for her teaching and professional and volunteer activities, including being inducted into the National Association for Sport and Physical Education's Hall of Fame.

Brylinsky earned a bachelor's degree in physical education and health education as well as a master's degree in education, physical education and sports studies from Slippery Rock State College, and a doctoral degree in physical education, sports psychology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.