The University will be closed December 19, 2024 to January 5, 2025. If you need assistance during that time, please call 1-855-OWU-1842 and leave a detailed voicemail along with your contact information. One of our colleagues will respond to your call as soon as possible.
If you would like to make a 2024 gift, please make your gift before midnight on December 31.
The Health and Human Kinetics Department has created innovative courses for each major and minor, helping you prepare to move on to diverse work environments. You will have good options for graduate school or starting a career immediately after graduation.
OWU's Department of Health & Human Kinetics is on Facebook! We post a variety of departmental updates and news related to health, wellness, and sport.
The nutrition major prepares you to pursue careers in nutrition, dietetics, community health, health education, food justice and advocacy, food industry work, and related graduate programs.
If you are interested in sports and movement this is the major for you. The faculty have designed this major so you can focus broadly on topics, and therefore be able to enter a work field of your choice.
If you choose this track, you will be prepared to enter a career in sport management, marketing, retail, and corporate fitness.
If you choose to major in exercise science you will take coursework that prepares you for advanced schooling in the fields of physical therapy, exercise physiology, biomechanics, and sport and exercise psychology.
Coaching
Exercise Science
Food Studies (mentored)
Nutrition
Pursuing a minor while at OWU will expand your knowledge, add depth to your major, enhance your résumé, and allow you to explore academic areas of interest.
Dr. Jay Martin focuses his teaching on his passions of coaching and leadership. Jay teaches many of our Sports Management classes. As well as teaching Jay is the winningest coach in NCAA history with a total of 738 wins.
Professor Starns, D.Ed., ATC, CSCS, has a background working in numerous allied heath settings, from orthotics & prosthetics to high school athletic trainer and orthopedic physician extender to coordinator of sports medicine. In addition to this background, she has enjoyed teaching future fitness and allied health professionals for over six years. Starns's primary research interest is in the inclusivity or persons living with disabilities in fitness.
Professor Fink focuses his teaching in the general areas of health behavior and public health, food studies, and qualitative inquiry. Dr Fink was a delegate at the "We Feed the People" expo in Milan, Italy.
After a brief career in professional baseball with the San Francisco Giants organization, Professor Busch has worked in the fitness industry since 2004, helping individuals of all abilities achieve their goals in dietary, behavioral, and fitness area
Professor Nix is a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist (RDN) from Utah. Her research focuses on behavioral interventions to improve the diets of various communities, particularly low-income communities.