Exercise science program accredited by national organization
New endorsement will open doors for students seeking professional certification in their careers.
Janel Shoun-Smith |
The Department of Kinesiology’s exercise science program became the first program in Tennessee to achieve initial accreditation by the Council on Accreditation of Allied Health Education Programs (CAAHEP) on January 20. The initial accreditation will be in effect through 2027.
Accreditation is a sign to potential students, potential faculty, and community constituents that quality in programming is of utmost importance to Lipscomb’s Department of Kinesiology, said Chair Dr. Ruth Henry.
CAAHEP accreditation provides significant benefit to Lipscomb’s exercise science students, especially because in a few years graduation from an accredited program will be a requirement for candidates taking certain certification exams in the discipline.
Henry and Dr. Kent Johnson, program director for exercise science, chose in 2021 to go ahead and begin the accreditation process to prepare for these future requirements. Johnson and Henry have both served as site visitors at campuses in other states, and knew the quality that would be required of our program.
Through the coming years, the program will be reviewed annually to ensure that the curriculum is up to date, and that graduates are able to pass credentialing exams and gain employment at an appropriately high rate, said Henry.
The accreditation process involved a thorough review of Lipscomb’s exercise science curriculum, faculty and instruction spaces, both classrooms and labs. The site visit was conducted in November, and there were no deficiencies cited in any of these areas.
“The site visitors from other universities were particularly impressed with the quality of our lab spaces and equipment,” said Henry.
In 2019, the kinesiology department moved into a renovated James D. Hughes Center, which provided a 23,500-square-foot hub for all of Lipscomb’s health science programs, cardiopulmonary-metabolic, strength and conditioning, and body composition labs for the department.
The Committee on Accreditation for the Exercise Sciences (CoAES), established in 2004 under the auspices of CAAHEP, was charged with establishing standards and guidelines for academic programs that prepare students for occupations in the fields of health, fitnes, and exercise science.
The rigorous accreditation standards are established by CAAHEP, CoAES, American College of Sports Medicine, American Council on Exercise, American Kinesiotherapy Association, American Red Cross, National Academy of Sports Medicine, and Nation Council on Strength & Fitness.
Currently, there are 72 undergraduate programs that are accredited by CAAHEP, representing 30 different states.
“The achievement of this accreditation was accomplished by the hard work of Drs. Johnson and Henry, but also involved extensive curriculum examination and reporting by the entire faculty of the kinesiology department,” said Quincy Byrdsong, vice provost of health affairs. “An especially key player was Linda Price, the program coordinator for kinesiology, who was tasked with much of the documentation. Lipscomb is thrilled to add this credential to the degrees of our students.”