Fitness and Wellness: A Way of Life

Carol K. Armbruster, PhD, is a senior lecturer in the department of kinesiology in the School of Public Health at Indiana University (IU) at Bloomington. During her more than 35 years of teaching college students and training fitness leaders, she has served on the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and American Council on Exercise (ACE) credentialing committees, and she is a fellow of ACSM. She is also an ACSM-certified exercise physiologist, holds the level 2 Exercise Is Medicine credential, and has level 1 Functional Movement Screening certification.

She previously served as a program director of fitness and wellness for the IU Division of Recreational Sports, where she managed a program that offered more than 100 group exercise sessions per week. Prior to working at IU, Armbruster worked at the University of Illinois, Colorado State University, Rocky Mountain Health Club, the Loveland (Colorado) Parks and Recreation Department, and the Sheboygan (Wisconsin) School District.

Armbruster enjoys combining her interests of teaching, community engagement, and translational research. Her doctoral work focused on translational research of active-duty military in the over-40 age population. She is especially interested in functional movement, worksite wellness outcomes, safe and effective movement instruction, and evaluating safe and effective outcome-based physical activity and movement program delivery methods in order to encourage healthy lifestyles and focus on improved quality of life and prevention of illness.

Ellen M. Evans, PhD, is a professor in the department of kinesiology, associate dean for research and graduate education, and director of the Center for Physical Activity and Health in the College of Education at the University of Georgia (UGA). She was a postdoctoral research fellow in geriatrics and gerontology and applied physiology at Washington University School of Medicine and was on faculty of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign prior to joining the faculty at UGA.

Evans has been named a fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the National Academy of Kinesiology (NAK).

At UGA, Evans embraces the land-grant institution’s mission by integrating her teaching, research, and public service work. The goal of her research is to create and disseminate knowledge regarding the importance of exercise and physical activity, and nutrition for optimal body composition, with a special interest in women’s health. Her primary populations of interest are older adults and college students. Evans teaches courses ranging from a freshman seminar to core and elective undergraduate courses to graduate-level courses in the areas of clinical exercise physiology, aging, and obesity.

Catherine M. Laughlin, HSD, MPH, is a clinical professor and assistant department chair of the department of applied health science in the School of Public Health at Indiana University (IU) at Bloomington. Her research interests include sexual health education, cancer prevention and education, program planning, and implementation and evaluation in community-based organizations. She is regularly interviewed by media outlets as a human sexuality and sexual health education expert.

Laughlin has won numerous teaching and service awards throughout her more than 25 years of service at IU. In 2017, she received the Disstinguished Service Award from IU. In 2015, she was the recipient of the Founding Dean’s Medallion and the Outstanding Service Award from IU’s School of Public Health. In 2014, she earned the Tony and Mary Hulman Health Achievement Award for Innovative Public Health Programming from the Indiana Public Health Association.