Jaci L. VanHeest, an associate professor in the Neag School of Education, has been named UConn\u2019s new Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR). The NCAA requires member institutions to have a FAR to serve as a liaison between the institution and its athletic department.<\/p>\n
VanHeest replaces long time UConn FAR Scott Brown, who recently retired from his position as a professor in the Neag School.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very pleased that Dr. VanHeest is our new Faculty Athletics Representative,\u201d said UConn Director of Athletics David Benedict. \u201cI look forward to working with her to help ensure that our student-athletes have the best possible experience here in all facets of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
VanHeest is also a University Teaching Fellow and the faculty director of the Public Health Learning Community at UConn. She has served on the President\u2019s Athletic Advisory Committee, was the chair of the Institutional Review Board, and served as UConn\u2019s representative on the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am keenly interested in what the student-athlete has to say, what they do and how they can become successful from both a wellness and academic standpoint,\u201d VanHeest said.<\/p>\n
VanHeest was a student-athlete herself as a field hockey player at Hope College in Holland, Mich., where she earned her undergraduate degree in 1984. She also earned a master\u2019s degree and doctorate from Michigan State University.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was a student-athlete of the early Title IX era,\u201d said VanHeest, who is UConn\u2019s first female FAR. \u201cIt\u2019s very positive to see women taking more of a leadership role in athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before coming to UConn, she served as the Director of Physiology for USA Swimming from 1993 to 1998.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is really full circle for me to come back to a position like this,\u201d VanHeest said. \u201cI\u2019ve always been engaged in working with athletes in terms of my research.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her academic areas of expertise include childhood obesity and physical activity, performance of elite athletes, and exercise, bioenergetics and reproductive endocrinology.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jaci L. VanHeest, an associate professor in the Neag School of Education, has been named UConn\u2019s new Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR). The NCAA requires member institutions to have a FAR to serve as a liaison between the institution and its athletic department. VanHeest replaces long time UConn FAR Scott Brown, who recently retired from his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2113],"class_list":["post-154195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-neag","post_format-post-format-quote"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 09:05:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/123"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154195"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154195\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":154197,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154195\/revisions\/154197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154195"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=154195"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=154195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}