Research Projects

Student Athlete Health and Well-Being: Looking at the Past to Inform the Future

About the Study

This study, funded by the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Health & Well-Being Grant Program, compared the student athlete to cohort-matched, non-student athlete alumni who graduated 2, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 year prior.  

The athletes were from the following NCAA sports:

The study utilized surveys to measure physical and psychological health and well-being, including questions related to chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, heart disease, obesity, neurodegenerative disease, etc…) and mental health diagnoses.

Research Team

Theresa D. Hernandez, Ph.D., Principal Investigator

 Kristen Lenahan, MA, Project Coordinator

 Miguel A Rueda, Collaborator 

Lenahan, K. N., Rueda, M., Hernández, T.D. (2022). Student Athlete Health and Well- Being: Looking at the Past to Inform the Future. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 53(5), 459-474. 

Cortisol Awakening Response Following mTBI

This study, funded by the Innovative Seed Grant Program (ISGP), aimed to understand the physiological consequences of mTBI specifically as they concern circadian functioning and cortisol levels.  Research on this project has focused on undergraduate level college students who recently sustained an mTBI, compared to healthy undergraduate student controls.

The study utilized measures such as the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM), in-home salivary cortisol samples, and actigraphy data.  

Collaborators 

Robert Spencer, Ph.D., Principal Investigator https://sites.google.com/a/colorado.edu/spencer-lab/home

Theresa D. Hernandez, Ph.D., Co-Investigator

Eduardo Villegas, Ph.D., Researcher

Matthew Hartsock, MA, Researcher 

Kristen Lenahan, MA, Research Assistant 

CU Wardenburg Health Services (WHS) Concussion Team


Villegas, E., Hartsock, M., Aben, B., Lenahan, K., Hernández, T.D. and Spencer, R. L.  (2022)   Association between altered cortisol profiles and neurobehavioral impairment following mTBI in college students. Journal of Neurotrauma, 39(11-12):809-820

PAC 12 Concussion Coordinating Unit

The University of Colorado Boulder serves as the Pac-12 Concussion Coordinating Unit (PCCU), acting as the administrative and operations coordinating unit of the Pac-12 Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (CARE) Affiliated Project (CAP). The Pac-12 CAP is a collective effort between the Pac-12 Conference universities to, among other things, establish a clinical infrastructure and research framework to advance sport-related concussion education and research. The PCCU also serves as the interface between the Pac-12 CAP and the NCAA CARE Consortium. 

For more information, please visit:

 https://www.colorado.edu/initiative/pac12ccu/

Collaborators 

Sourav Poddar, M.D.  Principal Investigator

Brigette Whelan, Project Director

Theresa D. Hernandez, Ph.D, Co-Investigator   

Bohr A.D., Aukerman D.F., Harmon K. G., Romano, Russell, Hernández, T.D., Konstantinides, N., Petron, D.J., Ghajar, J., Giza, C., Poddar, S.K. and McQueen, M. B. (2021) Pac-12 CARE-Affiliated Program: structure, methods and initial results. BMJ Open Sport & Exercise Medicine, 7:e001055. doi:10.1136/ bmjsem-2021-001055.