معرفی
Cara Lucia is an Associate Professor and Department Chair of Sport Management at Elon University with over 20 years of experience in collegiate recreation and higher education. She served as President of NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation (2021-2022) and specializes in collegiate recreation, community sport, facility operations, leadership development, and college student development.
Her educational background includes:
- Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies (Higher Education Administration) from Virginia Tech, dissertation on the Sense of Competence Scale-Revised
- M.A. in Recreation Administration from Central Michigan University
- B.S. in Sport Management from Elon University with a minor in Business Administration
Dr. Lucia's research focuses on leadership pathways in collegiate recreation, service-learning pedagogy in sport management, and residential learning communities as high-impact practices. Her work bridges recreation management, student development theory, and assessment methodologies with particular attention to gender dynamics in professional advancement.
Analysis of her publication record reveals consistent emphasis on women's leadership development in recreation professions, innovative curriculum design integrating service-learning, and evidence-based assessment tools for student competence. Recent work explores critical hope frameworks and inclusive excellence within collegiate recreation settings.
She maintains active leadership roles including NIRSA presidency, editorial contributions to journals like Learning Communities Research and Practice, and development of the copyrighted Sense of Competence Scale-Revised instrument. Her professional service spans committee leadership, conference programming, and faculty development initiatives across multiple higher education associations.
