January 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 32

Up and Coming
Meet the new wave of parks and recreation researchers.

OST UNIVERSITY EDUCATORS WEAR TWO HATS-instructor and researcher. In studying and quantifying trends
and issues in the ﬁeld of parks and recreation, they reinforce their areas of expertise, which in turn makes them
better teachers and broadens the knowledge base for the entire ﬁeld of practitioners and advocates.
The magazine's editors asked the standard bearers of university research for their picks for up-and-coming researchers. These
academics have recently made their marks in shaping the way the ﬁeld is studied and guided by their ﬁndings.
Each is listed by his or her current university, education, and ﬁeld(s) of expertise. They also responded to the editors' question:

What is the single biggest challenge facing the ﬁeld of parks and recreation in the next several years
and how can research address it?
Jason N. Bocarro, Associate Professor
Department of Parks, Recreation,
and Tourism Management
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, North Carolina
EDUCATION: Ph.D. Recreation, Parks, and
Tourism Sciences (youth development/
outdoor education concentration), Texas
A&M University; M.A. Recreation, Physical,
and Health Education (youth development/
outdoor education concentration), Dalhousie University,
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada; B.S. Sport and Exercise Science/
Sociology, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, England.

Michael B. Edwards, Assistant Professor
Department of Recreation,
Park, and Tourism Sciences

AREAS OF INSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH: Bocarro is a recipient

Texas A&M University

of an N.C. State University Outstanding Teaching Award and in
2009-10 was inducted into the university's Academy of Outstanding Teachers. Bocarro's research focuses on childhood
and adolescent obesity and inactivity and speciﬁcally how
sport and recreation can contribute to alleviating this public
health problem. Most of his current research efforts have been
targeted around the issue of how parks, recreation, and youth
sport programs can increase the physical activity levels of children and adolescents. He has four current physical activity research projects funded by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation and two funded projects from USA Hockey and
the National Hockey League. He also served on the board of
the Society for Park and Recreation Educators (2006-09) and
is currently serving a two-year term (2011-13) as the research
co-chair for the National Recreation and Park Association.

College Station, Texas

CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY: The biggest single challenge

CHALLENGE AND OPPORTUNITY: The ﬁeld of parks and recreation will continue to face challenges related to effectively
serving communities in the face of the growing climate of ﬁnancial austerity. Research can help demonstrate the value of
parks and recreation as critical to promoting community
health, social, and economic development. Additionally, it is
imperative that research assist in enhancing management
practices and policies to ensure organizational and community resources are best utilized to provide beneﬁts to a more diverse set of stakeholders.

will relate to the viability of the park and recreation ﬁeld/profession. Recent events, such as the worst economic recession in recent memory, combined with signiﬁcant social
trends (e.g., growth of technology, competing service providers, growing population diversity) will provide the park and
recreation profession with the challenge of effective program
delivery and resource management. With the increased
growth of other providers offering leisure programming, the
park and recreation profession will have to answer the

question of why they are the best option of delivering programs and managing park and recreation resources.
Research tools have become more sophisticated (e.g., geospatial technology, apps), which allows the potential to more
accurately answer the questions related to the challenges
above. Furthermore, researchers are recognizing (or at least
they should be!) the need to better translate their research to
wider audiences. The translation/dissemination piece of research will be an increasingly critical part of the research process in the future.

Parks & Recreation

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EDUCATION: Ph.D. Parks, Recreation, and

Tourism Management (youth sport and physical activity), North Carolina State University;
M.A. Arts in Exercise and Sport Science, East
Carolina University; B.A. History, University of North Carolina.
AREAS OF INSTRUCTION AND RESEARCH: Edwards specializes

in social inequality in children's access to spaces and programs for physically active and health-promoting leisure and
recreation in rural areas. " My research is primarily positioned
within the sociological paradigm, and I generally approach research questions as a sociologist, " he says. " My research has a
strong social justice viewpoint in terms of understanding social inequality and seeking to alleviate historical disparities. "

January 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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