Associate Professor Jaclyn Maher has won the 2025 UNCG Thomas Undergraduate Research Mentor Award in the tenured faculty category. The kinesiologist, who examines the factors motivating physical activity engagement in populations across the lifespan, has mentored 54 undergraduates in independent studies since she arrived at UNCG in 2017.
In Maher’s lab, undergraduate mentees gain in-depth, hands-on experience with all aspects of physical activity research, including participant recruitment, participant trainings on study procedures and equipment, monitoring participant compliance, data analysis, and publication.
Five undergraduate students have co-authored peer-reviewed manuscripts with Maher. Two have won UNCG Undergraduate Research and Creativity Awards, one was a UNCG McNair Scholar, two won UNCG School of Health and Human Sciences (HHS) Marjory Johnson Pre-PT Research Fund Awards, two have won HHS Sayde Dunn Doxie Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Awards, and four students have been funded as Center for Women’s Health and Wellness Williams Scholars. She has also mentored three N.C. A&T State Universities students through the American Heart Association’s HBCU Scholar’s Program.
All of these students completed their own independent research projects, presenting posters at local, regional, or national conferences under Maher’s supervision.
Maher – who has over 65 publications of her own and funding from institutions such as the American College of Sports Medicine and National Institutes of Health – received UNCG’s Early Career Research Excellence Award in 2024. In 2022, she also won the Thomas Award in the pre-tenure category.
Story by Nikkola Brown
Photos by David Lee Row
