Our Team

Jay Kimiecik, PhD, ½ time Director

Email: kimiecjc@muohio.edu
I took on the Director role as a ½ time position from the inception of Employee Health & Well-Being, which began in September 2005. I also took on the role of ½ time Associate Director with the Partnership Office beginning in Fall 2006, but that’s another story.

Before I took on these dual roles for the University, I was a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health (KNH) since my arrival at Miami in 1990. I still maintain my affiliation with KNH and teach one course a year.

I'm very eclectic as I've hosted a radio show on fitness, published academic research, and consulted with health and fitness organizations such as the YMCA. But I probably most enjoy speaking to and facilitating groups that are interested in purposeful and engaged living for themselves and others.

The best part of my Employee Health & Well-Being experience has been meeting and interacting with our employees on both the Oxford and Regional Campuses. We have wonderful employees and I enjoy being involved in creating and developing healthy living experiences for them that become a permanent part of their lives.

I also love to write. One of my proudest professional accomplishments was authoring the YPersonal Fitness Program (YPFP): 12 Weeks to a Better You, which is an exercise behavior change program that has been used in over 500 hundred YMCAs in North America impacting thousands of YMCA members and communities over the years. I've been fascinated by enjoyment for years so I followed the YPFP with The Intrinsic Exerciser: Discovering the Joy of Exercise (Houghton Mifflin, 2002) and most recently wrote Runner as Hero, which explores my own experiences with running, aging, and performance.

I live in Oxford with my wife, Kim, and our two children, Carly and Colin. We love sports so in our leisure time we play soccer, baseball, tennis, golf, or basketball. But most of all I'm a runner. And just in case you want to know my academic background, I received my BS from Cortland State in New York, an MS from Purdue University, and a PhD in exercise and sport psychology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.