The assistant professor of sport and event management serves as a co-editor for the fall 2015 issue of New Directions in Student Leadership, which highlights student leadership development within recreation and athletic environments.
Cara McFadden, an assistant professor in Elon University’s Department of Sport and Event Management, co-edited the fall 2015 issue of New Directions in Student Leadership, titled “Student Leadership Development through Recreation and Athletics.”
McFadden partnered with Donald Stenta, director of student life recreational sports at Ohio State University, to edit the quarterly thematic sourcebook series. Their issue concentrates on enhancing educators’ understanding of how students’ leadership capacity is developed in recreation and athletic environments.
McFadden served as co-author for two of the book’s chapters, titled “Connecting Collegiate Recreation and Athletics to Leadership” and “Collegiate Recreation Student Employee as Student Leader,” respectively.
In the first chapter, McFadden teamed with Stenta to explore multiple perspectives for how leadership capacity can be developed in collegiate recreation and athletic settings. In the following chapter, McFadden and co-author Julia Wallace Carr highlight conceptual and practical explanations for developing leadership capacity of collegiate recreation student employees. Wallace Carr is an associate professor of sport and recreation management at James Madison University.
Tony Weaver, associate professor of sport and event management at Elon, also co-authored a book chapter, titled “Student Athlete as Student Leader.” His passage examines student-athlete campus engagement and challenges faced by athletes that may impede leadership development. Weaver’s chapter co-author is Katie Simet, an academic advisor and learning specialist in Marquette University’s athletic department.
NIRSA, a leading resource for professional and student development, education and research in collegiate recreational sports, recently announced that it will distribute a complimentary copy of the new issue in the New Directions in Student Leadership series to its institutional members. McFadden is the current chair of the NIRSA conference program committee.
The New Directions for Student Leadership series explores dimensions of the development of leadership in high school youth and college students to aid leadership educators who design educational courses and programs for students.