Option in Health and Human Performance
Curriculum
The program requires 60-credit hours of coursework beyond the master’s degree:
- Research and Statistics — 9 hours
- Common Core — 9 hours
- Option — 24 hours
- Dissertation — 15 hours
Research and Faculty
Our mission is to perform high-quality research that is both innovative and impactful. Our labs use state-of-the-art technology to investigate physiological changes with aging, training, fatigue, disease and more. We also study proactive health behaviors that can help avoid negative health outcomes, including what influences those behaviors. Research areas include:
- Motor control
- Proprioception
- Sensory-motor integration
- Fall prevention
- Muscle hypertrophy & atrophy
- Neuromuscular function
- Exercise prescription & training methodologies
- Sexual health
- Athletic or military performance
- Tactical training performance
- Brain behavior & plasticity
- Muscle quality
- Exercise metabolism
- Nutrition & dietary supplementation
- Substance abuse
- Chronic disease
- Preventative health
Research Labs and Facilities:
- Applied Neuromuscular Physiology Lab
- Human Performance Lab
- Musculoskeletal Adaptations to Aging and Exercise Lab
- Sexual Health Research Lab
- Tactical Fitness and Nutrition Lab
Meet our health and human performance faculty
Meet our public health faculty
Admissions
Applications to the program are accepted on a rolling basis. To apply to the PhD in Health, Leisure and Human Performance, option in Health and Human Performance program, complete the following:
- Graduate College application
- Transcripts from all previously attended institutions (3.5 minimum graduate GPA required)
- Current resume/vita
- Three letters of recommendation
- Professional goal statement (approximately two pages, double-spaced)
- Professional writing sample (scholarly paper, thesis, report or other publication within the last 10 years)
*If you have not completed a master’s degree prior to admission, you must complete all master’s-level prerequisites in addition to the doctoral requirements.
Cost & Assistance
Full-time students may be eligible for graduate assistantships in the School of Kinesiology, Applied Health and Recreation, either as a Graduate Teaching Associate (GTA) or a Graduate Research Associate (GRA). These positions are highly competitive and typically awarded in the spring semester. Those granted assistantships are eligible to receive a tuition waiver, health insurance and stipend. Please contact doug.smith@okstate.edu for more information.
Currently enrolled students are also eligible for scholarships offered through the
College of Education and Human Sciences.