 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||
|
  |
Ph.D. Pennsylvania State University
Contact:
Laura Payne is an Assistant Professor of Leisure Studies and the Director of the Illinois Rural Recreation Development Project. The project, which is administered through the Office of Recreation and Tourism Development (ORTD) strives to help small, rural communities develop the infrastructure for sustainable local parks and recreation programs and services that positively impact the quality of rural life. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Relations and a Master of Science degree in Recreation Administration. She has worked in community recreation, non-profit association management, resort recreation, and public relations. After several years in the field, she returned to school to pursue a doctorate in leisure studies at the Pennsylvania State University. While at Penn State, Dr. Payne served as a graduate assistant, instructor, and research manager for a large multi-disciplinary study on the relationship between personal health and park use among older adults. After completing her doctorate in December of 1998, she served as an assistant professor of leisure studies at Kent State University. Dr. Payne has taught courses in leadership and group dynamics, recreation programming, leisure service administration, and leisure and aging. In terms of research, she is interested in examining the effects of leisure behavior on measures of health and well-being (e.g., psychosocial, physiological) among two populations in transition: adolescents and older adults. She approaches these concepts from multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary perspectives by incorporating into investigations aspects of developmental psychology, social psychology, demography, and kinesiology. More specifically, she examines the relationship between leisure lifestyle and health of older adults with chronic conditions; the role of local parks and recreation agencies in the promotion and maintenance of health; and the relationship between nature-based leisure experiences and health.
|
 |
 |
|
|
©Diversity Research Laboratory |
Dr.
Laura Payne