CLEVELAND -- Ball State University’s Dr. Lindsey Blom has been named the winner of the 2021 Mid-American Conference Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success. This second year award recognizes one full-time faculty nominee from each MAC institution who has demonstrated a dedication to student success and one overall conference winner.
"Dr. Lindsey Blom is a model professor. She excels in teaching, research, and service. Yet, what jumps out is her student-centered focus, and passion for teaching and mentoring students," said MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher. "I congratulate Dr. Blom on being selected to receive the Mid-American Conference Outstanding Faculty Award for Student Success."
“Professor Blom earned this great honor as a result of her dedication to the success and welfare of our students,” Ball State President Geoffrey S. Mearns said. “I am proud that, for the second consecutive year, one of our outstanding teachers has received this recognition. It is a reflection of the commitment of our faculty and staff to the success of all of our students.”
Blom is a Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology, Faculty Athletics Representative, and Sport & Exercise Psychology Graduate Program Coordinator at Ball State University interested in psycho-social aspects of youth sport and sport for development and peace. For the past decade, she has investigated positive youth development through sport and using sport to promote peace at the individual, community, and international levels. Specifically, her research focuses on maximizing the benefits of sport participation through a mastery and cooperative approach fostered by trained coaches and supportive parents, emphasizing holistic athlete development.
Her recent projects include exploring the peace indicators and development of purpose in Liberian youth involved in a sport for development program, conducting sport for social change programs in India, Jordan and Tajikistan, developing a values-based curriculum that can infused into recreational sport leagues, chairing the NASPE task force for the position statement on Maximizing the Benefits of Youth Sport, and running local after-school sport for peace and leadership programs with elementary school children. Throughout her academic career, Dr. Blom has co-authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and a book, Survival Guide for Coaching Youth Soccer, and received over three-quarters of a million dollars in externally funded grants as the principal investigator or Co-PI, with two recent PI grants related to sport of social change funded by the Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ SportsUnited program. Dr. Blom also serves on the Board of Director for Dream Sports Africa and Ball State’s Center for Peace and Conflict Studies as well as the Journal of Applied Sport Psychology Editorial Board, and is a Ball State New Faculty Academy Facilitator and an Association for Applied Sport Psychology Fellow.
To accompany her educational training and research experience, Lindsey has over 15 years of consulting experience as a certified mental performance consultant (CMPC) and over 15 years of experience as a youth soccer coach. As a consultant, she has worked with administrators, coaches, and athletes from the youth to collegiate level on issues in creating a positive sport environment and maximizing performance. Furthermore, she has led numerous team-building workshops and presented at coaching conferences. Additionally, as a soccer coach, she has worked with children ages 4 to 18, in recreational, competitive, and school-based settings using her experiences as a semi-professional and Hall of Fame Division I soccer player.
“I am incredibly honored by this recognition,” said Blom. “Student success is the goal of all of the decisions we make on our campus and across the MAC. Over the past 13 years at Ball State, I have had the opportunity to work with incredible students, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, across campus. I am regularly impressed by their energy, innovative ideas, hard work, passion, and dedication to Muncie and surrounding communities. They energize and encourage me every day.”
