Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia counseling professor Diane Samdahl has been elected president of the Academy of Leisure Sciences, a national organization dedicated to the intellectual advancement of leisure sciences.
Since its creation in 1980 by 30 founding Fellows, the academy has grown by more than 70 Fellows who have been elected in recognition of their scholarly and intellectual contributions to the study of leisure.
The president of the academy is elected by the membership via mailed ballots. Samdahl will be sworn in and will serve one year as president-elect starting on Oct. 14.The following year, she will serve as president.
The president and president-elect oversee the activities of the academy, including correspondence and alliances with the National Recreation and Park Association, the Society of Park and Recreation Educators, and the World Leisure and Recreation Association.
Samdahl has been a Fellow in the academy since 2005, and has been heavily involved with the Future Scholars Program. This program selects four nominated master’s students, who are interested in pursuing a doctorate in recreation and leisure studies, to receive an expense-paid trip to the national NRPA conference, where they are matched with a mentor and meet with faculty from all of the doctoral-degree granting universities in the field. This process also helps facilitate their selection of a doctoral program well-matched for their particular areas of study.Samdahl plans to continue work on this program during her term as president-elect and president.
Samdahl joined the UGA faculty in 1992. She received her Ph.D. in leisure studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.