Two Penn State Department of Kinesiology faculty members, Lacy Alexander, professor of kinesiology, and Danielle Symons Downs, professor of kinesiology and obstetrics and gynecology, were recently named fellows of the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK).
Alexander and Downs were two of 12 national and international scholars inducted during the academy’s 94th annual meeting held in Pittsburgh last month. Their induction into the academy recognizes long-standing scholarly excellence, leadership, and contributions to the field of kinesiology. With the induction of Alexander and Downs, the Department of Kinesiology now has 12 faculty members who are fellows in the NAK.
Both Alexander and Downs have also made significant contributions to the specialized areas in the sub-disciplines of women’s health, physiology and behavioral medicine.
Lacy Alexander
Alexander, who also holds a courtesy appointment in the Penn State College of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and is an affiliate of the Center for Healthy Aging, said she was grateful to have her research recognized and to be inducted as a fellow in the academy.
“To have my accomplishments recognized among those whom I myself look up to in the field humbles me and makes me proud of the work I have done throughout my career,” Alexander said. “Some of these are individuals are Nobel Laureates and deans of colleges and universities, people who are very successful and well known in kinesiology. To be nominated to stand beside these respected members in our field, that others see my work and contributions to be as important as theirs, is truly an honor.”
Her research career began in human thermoregulatory physiology and has since evolved into studying the relationship between endometriosis and cardiovascular disease in women. Endometriosis is a chronic condition where tissue similar to the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus, and little is understood about how it impacts other bodily systems and women’s overall health.
Alexander’s work in this novel area has resulted in a recent study where she and her research team revealed that endometriosis impacts the autonomic nervous system. She plans to continue her work in understanding how endometriosis affects different aspects of the autonomic nervous system and investigating whether various lifestyle interventions impact this chronic condition.
In addition to continuing research on endometriosis, Alexander said her research team plans to transition their focus to investigate the effects of menopause on cardiovascular disease in middle-aged women.
Her passion and rigor in research have also led to her appointment as the research professor in charge in the Department of Kinesiology and her role as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Applied Physiology. As the research professor in charge, Alexander helps guide the department’s research efforts to align with key goals and initiatives, while also offering guidance to new research faculty.
“Lacy’s election as an NAK Fellow reflects the broad impact that she has had on our understanding of the risk for cardiovascular disease,” said John Bartholomew, professor of kinesiology and head of the department. “Her use of blood vessels in the skin as models of microvascular dysfunction is a very creative approach that allows her to study clinical issues outside of a medical school. We are excited for her to apply this creativity to her role as research professor in charge, where she is working to enhance the research impact for the Department of Kinesiology."
Despite her notable contributions in the areas of kinesiology and endometriosis, Alexander said she has a different opinion about what her legacy will be.
“My most significant contribution to the field isn’t my research, but rather my trainees and students,” Alexander said. “My work helps us better understand endometriosis and how it affects other systems in the body today, but I can only take our understanding so far. It is my trainees who are going to pick up the torch and carry it on to discover more and further improve our understanding of these areas and more once they emerge as professionals in their own right.”
Danielle Symons Downs
Downs, who also has a co-appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Penn State College of Medicine, is an associate director of the Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) and director of the Exercise Psychology Laboratory, said she was honored to be recognized in a field that encompasses a wide breadth of sub-disciplines.
“The field of kinesiology itself spans from benchtop discovery to behavioral intervention to policy work that impacts society,” Downs said. “To be recognized by the academy as a leader and expert in our discipline, not just my area of specialty, is a tremendous honor. This recognition affirms the value of the contributions I have made across research, mentorship, and leadership and underscores the importance of advancing knowledge that connects science to real-world and impactful health outcomes.”
Downs’ multidisciplinary research expertise crosses multiple domains, including exercise and sport psychology, women’s health, behavioral medicine and weight regulation, with a special emphasis on women as they transition across the different phases during childbearing years. Her work encompasses an understanding of the theoretical determinants of physical activity and healthy eating behaviors for weight regulation, and applying this evidence-based knowledge to inform the development of interventions to promote health outcomes. Downs’ research also integrates principles of systems science, model-based predictive control, and technology to effectively and efficiently regulate weight gain as demonstrated in Healthy Mom Zone.
Healthy Mom Zone is a behavioral intervention with dosages that adapt to the needs and responsiveness of an individual to regulate gestational weight gain.
“Given that one in two pregnant women will have excessive gestational weight gain, and this increases the risks for adverse pregnancy outcomes, there is a critical need to find solutions that help women to manage weight gain,” Downs said.
Healthy Mom Zone is delivered through a digital platform developed by Downs’ team, featuring a semi-automated computational data pipeline, model-based predictive control system, and a novel digital user interface. This makes it possible to monitor and predict weight over time, as well as the delivery of intervention dosages to effectively regulate weight gain. The platform tracks users’ weight gain, physical activity, energy intake, sleep, mood and other factors, and delivers intervention components in response to their inputs.
“We have advanced from a generalized approach in delivering one-size fits all interventions to a personalized approach that adapts the intensity of the intervention dosage based on each woman’s needs, responsiveness and self-regulatory capabilities,” Downs said. “Utilizing technology, model-based predictive control decisions and principles similar to machine learning and AI, our Healthy Moms Zone intervention is not only capable of predicting future weight gain and implementing dosages to regulate weight in real time, but we are simultaneously building a system that is scalable for future widespread use.”
Although Downs and her team are currently focused on high-risk pregnant women with overweight and obesity, Downs said their goal is to refine and expand the Healthy Mom Zone digital platform so that it can be used in the future as an aid to clinical care to reach as many pregnant women as possible. Through this tool, she added, their work will support both pregnant women’s health and their babies during a pivotal time in their lives and help reduce the heavy burden of prenatal care delivery on healthcare providers.
Since 2016, Downs has served as the SSRI’s associate director, utilizing her leadership and research experience to manage the institute’s faculty seed grant program. This program has resulted in shaping numerous social and behavioral research projects over the years through the mentorship and support that SSRI faculty members receive to develop successful research proposals.
“It has been a humbling and rewarding opportunity to apply my own experiences as a researcher and offer feedback that may help our SSRI faculty to strengthen their seed grant proposals in a way that produces a clearer line of sight to a more competitive future external grant proposal,” Downs said. “I am passionate about mentoring and empowering others so that their research can have the greatest possible impact. By helping my own students as well as colleagues to develop proposals with a compelling storyline that has a clear impact, I am supporting innovative work that advances scientific knowledge across many areas and will ultimately benefit the communities we serve.”
Downs was also selected this year as one of three administrative fellows in the highly competitive Administrative Fellows Program offered as part of Penn State’s Center for Faculty Development and Advancement. Downs’ mentor for this program is Andrew Read, senior vice president for research.
Bartholomew noted that Downs is a leading figure in integrating technology and AI into digital platforms to deliver theory-driven interventions to support increased physical activity and healthy eating in pregnant women.
“Danielle’s induction as an NAK fellow reflects her success in developing tools that can be applied to many clinical and community-based populations,” Bartholomew said. “Her induction also reflects her long service as the assistant director of the SSRI, where she supports their mission of creating novel interventions to address significant social challenges.”
Demonstrating excellence in kinesiology
The inductions of Alexander and Downs in the same year demonstrate Penn State Kinesiology faculty’s influence and dedication to research, leadership and service in the field and at large, Bartholomew said.
“Fellows in the National Academy of Kinesiology are elected by the membership on the basis of the quality of their research and leadership in the field,” Bartholomew said. “Any time one of our faculty members is elected as a fellow, it is a great achievement, and I am extremely proud to have two elected in the same year. It is not only a testament to their individual excellence but to the strength of our department.”
The NAK is a distinguished honorary society whose membership represents many of the most prestigious scholars in human movement, physical activity and related domains. New fellows are nominated by established members, evaluated by the membership committee, and are voted into membership.
Visit the academy’s website for more information about the 2025 Class of New Fellows and to see past fellows' classes.