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W Club selects 2010 award winners

Feb. 16, 2010

KALAMAZOO--Western Michigan University and the Varsity "W" Club Board of Directors have selected two of the University's faculty members to receive the Varsity "W" Club's 2010 Woman and Man of the Year awards.

Dr. Jody A. Brylinsky, professor of health, physical education and recreation, is the 21st Woman of the Year and Frederick Z. Sitkins, professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering, is the 44th Man of the Year. The two were honored earlier this month at a halftime reception during the men's basketball game against Bowling Green State University.

Brylinsky has been at WMU for 19 years and coordinates the graduate program in sport performance, which prepares master-level coaches. Her teaching and research focus on all aspects of coach education as well as the social and psychological development of athletes.

She is a past president of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, an inductee into the NASPE Sport Hall of Fame, and a past chair of the writing team for the first and second revision of the "National Standards for Sport Coaches."

Brylinsky has received numerous honors for her work in physical education and with Special Olympics. She is a volunteer coach for Special Olympics, and was selected by the U.S. Olympic Committee as a Project Gold participant. Earlier in her career, she was a high school coach as well as a college athlete, coach and athletic director.

Sitkins came to WMU in 1979 and serves as director of Cooperative Education for the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He is a 1959 alumnus who briefly was a member of WMU's track team.

His areas of expertise include quality assurance, metrology, motion control in manufacturing processes, and ISO 9000/QS 9000 assessment and preparation. He especially focuses his research on advanced manufacturing techniques, and robotics and motion control.

A strong supporter of athletes and athletics, Sitkins serves as an NCAA peer reviewer of various institutions' athletic programs and successfully oversaw the last NCAA peer review of WMU's athletic programs.

He also has been a caller as well as a fund-raising team and campaign chair for WMU's Mike Gary Athletic Fund, been a member and chairperson of the WMU Athletic Board, and serves as the faculty athletics representative to the NCAA, Central Collegiate Hockey Association and Mid-American Conference.

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Media contact: Jeanne Baron, (269) 387-8400, jeanne.baron@wmich.edu

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