PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Dr. Josephine Godwyll 

Josephine is a geospatial scientist and a community development practitioner from Ghana, West Africa. She has a Ph.D. in Parks and Recreation Management from the School of Community Resources and Development, Arizona State University, USA. Her training as a geospatial engineer (specializing in computer aided design for recreational spaces), is coupled with her passion for community development. This pursuit is especially highlighted in her work, which focuses on recreation access, justice, and the well-being of marginalized and minoritized populations. The research she does though her Justice in Environments of Leisure Lab (JELL) focuses on interactions across the aforementioned populations, design professionals, and virtual and physical recreational spaces (e.g., gamified apps, parks etc.). She puts such research work into practice in her work as the co-founder of Young At Heart Ghana, a non-profit creating game-based learning spaces that have reached over 10,000 children and youth across Africa. She also consults with Navajo Nation parks and recreation project (USA) and Campus and Community Recreation services (UoA, Canada), on projects focused on the barriers to access for recreational programming. 

Dr. Taniya Nagpal

Taniya Nagpal is an Assistant Professor at The University of Alberta with the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport and Recreation. She completed her PhD from the University of Western Ontario with the Exercise and Pregnancy Lab and Exercise and Health Psychology Lab. Her dissertation work included developing and testing strategies to improve adherence to physical activity in pregnancy, and measuring downstream health outcomes for both mother and newborn. Following this she completed a 2 year Mitacs funded post-doctoral fellowship with The University Ottawa's Adamo Lab and The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.  Her research aims to understand health related-stigma, such as obesity and weight stigma, from lived experience and implications on healthcare delivery and behaviours. Her goal is to inform and develop person-oriented tools and interventions focused on stigma reduction to improve quality of healthcare and access to health resources like physical activity in preconception, pregnancy and postpartum. 

Dr. Jo Sheppard

Meet Jo Sheppard, who joined the University of Alberta Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation as an associate teaching professor and in-field learning/experiential learning lead. Sheppard, who goes by ‘Jo’, is originally from Ontario, and joins us from the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, where she spent 15 years in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Kinesiology. A wife and mom of two, Sheppard is a proud member of the 2SLGBTQIIA+ community, and she strives to be a positive role model in her personal and professional life, advocating for inclusivity and acceptance for all.