Professor Trish Van Oosbree has been a champion for the Department of Kinesiology, helping build it into the second-most popular major on campus. Fittingly, she has been named as the inaugural Yao Yuan Sze Chair in Kinesiology.
As a result of her excellent teaching and mentoring, Van Oosbree has helped many Whittier students achieve admittance to top graduate programs in an array of health care professions. During her tenure, she has served on and chaired all faculty leadership committees on campus, served as the kinesiology department’s chair for 12 of her 25 years on campus, and was a key contributor to the new design of the Science & Learning Center.
She is also an instructor for the College’s Healthcare Leadership Development Program.
Endowed positions provide invaluable support for the faculty’s salary, research, and professional development opportunities.
The Yao Yuan Sze Foundation has also created fellowships in kinesiology, provided operational budget for the department and for student support services, and made a leadership gift enabling the construction of two laboratories in the Science & Learning Center forming the Yao Yuan Sze Center for Health and Wellness. Van Oosbree serves as an advisor to the Yao Yuan Sze Fellowship program, which provides financial and mentoring support for students interested in conducting supervised research with a faculty member.