Athens, Ga. – University of Georgia recreation and leisure professor Douglas Kleiber will receive the Society for Park and Recreation Educators’ Distinguished Colleague Award-the group’s highest recognition-during the National Recreation and Parks Association Congress in October.
Kleiber, a faculty member in the College of Education’s department of counseling and human development services, is being recognized for meritorious and distinguished service to the organization and to recreation, leisure and park education and research.
Kleiber is widely known as a leading authority on leisure and human development.His work has addressed a wide range of research issues that has furthered the understanding of leisure behavior and the role of leisure in the psycho-social adjustment of the individual. He was among the first scholars to explore personality differences in leisure behavior and the contributions that people’s leisure could make to their mental health.
His book, Leisure Experiences and Human Development (1999), in which he pulls together his observations and research over many years and presents a comprehensive developmental treatise on leisure over the entire life course, has been highly praised by scholars both inside and outside of the field.
Kleiber has received many honors for his work over his 37-year career including the 2008 Russell H. Yeany Research Award from the UGA College of Education, the 2003 NRPA Theodore and Franklin D. Roosevelt Award for Research on Recreation and Leisure and the 1994 Allan V. Sapora Research Award from the University of Illinois. He was inducted into the Academy of Leisure Sciences in 1987 and served as its president in 1992.
He has served as associate editor of several professional journals including Leisure Studies, Leisure Science, World Leisure Journal, Journal of Leisure Research and Journal of Sport Behavior.
Kleiber joined the UGA faculty in 1989 as a professor and head of the department of recreation and leisure studies, which he led for 12 years. He served as director of the School of Health and Human Performance from 2001-03.He received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Kleiber will be presented the award in Salt Lake City on Oct. 16.
