Janet Dufek

Janet S. Dufek, Ph.D., has held numerous leadership roles during her professional career. Dr. Dufek is presently the vice provost for Faculty Affairs at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), where she supports over 4000 faculty and staff. Prior to moving into this position, Dr. Dufek served as associate dean in the School of Integrated Health Sciences. In this role, she filled the positions of both associate dean of academics and associate dean of research—roles that are typically filled (at UNLV) by two different individuals. Concurrent to serving in this leadership position in the dean’s office, she continued as the director of the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Ph.D. program, a position that she held since the inception of the degree in 2012. Janet also served as the Ph.D. graduate coordinator for the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences until that program was shelved in 2013.

Dr. Dufek also held leadership roles in UNLV’s Graduate College. She served as an executive committee member for multiple years as well as Chair of UNLV’s Top Tier Committee, which was established to further the institutional mission. Janet holds Graduate Faculty Status in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences, the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and is an Adjunct Professor in the Kerkorian School of Medicine at UNLV. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Biomechanics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. While at the University of Oregon, Dufek’s academic leadership roles included undergraduate coordinator and co-director of the Biomechanics/Sports Medicine Laboratory. She has also served as the Vice President and on the Board of Directors for the BioDynamics Foundation (501-c-3 non-profit) and as a member of the Board of Trustees at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions.

Dr. Dufek, is a biomechanist with expertise in lower extremity function. Her research areas include mechanisms of locomotion and jump-landing activities as related to injury prevention, clinical gait assessment and performance enhancement for clinical populations. Her work also explores performance strategies, single subject assessment, and performer variability as they relate to individual movement outcomes. With over 150 peer-reviewed publications and numerous textbook chapters, as well as three patents, she is a strong advocate for interdisciplinary research.

Dufek earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (pedagogy) and her master’s degree from Illinois State University (scientific foundations of exercise). After a two-year stint at the Olympic Training Center in the biomechanics laboratory, Dufek went on to earn her Ph.D. at the University of Oregon in biomechanics. Dufek is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at University of Wisconsin-Superior as a Scholar-Athlete in 2007.