Linda S. Pescatello, PhD, FACSM

Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor (PI)

Department of Kinesiology

Research Overview

Linda Pescatello, PhD, FACSM, is a Distinguished Professor of Kinesiology. She has been funded by the American Heart Association for her work on exercise and hypertension; Pratt & Whitney for research relating to comprehensive worksite health promotion interventions; and the USDA for providing personal training physical activity interventions to adolescent, overweight, minority girls. As a member of the Exercise Science and Genetics Collaborative Research Group, she had been funded by Donaghue Medical Research Foundation for her research related to exercise genomics; the National Institutes of Health, Aging and Neurological Disorders and Stroke for a 5 year multi-center grant project entitled, “Functional Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Associated with Human Size and Strength”; and the National Institutes of Health and National Heart Blood and Lung Institute for a 4 year multi-center grant, “The Effects of Statins on Skeletal Muscle Function.” She is has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Institutes on Drug Abuse for the 4 year project, “Healthy Activities for Prize Incentives” and the 5 year project, “Reinforcing Exercise in Cocaine Abusers”; the National Institutes of Health and National Institutes on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism for the 2 year project “Motivational Interventions for Exercise in Hazardous Drinking College Students”; the National Institutes of Health and the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute for the 2 year project Contingency Management for Promoting Weight Loss in University Students; and the National Dairy Council for the 3 year project, “Investigation of Whey Protein Supplementation for Physiologic Enhancement to Resistance Training and Dietary Regimes in Young Adults.” On-going projects in her laboratory include the effects of cholesterol medications on exercise-induced muscle injury, genetic determinants of the blood pressure and muscle response to exercise and habitual physical activity, physical activity and contingency management as interventions to curb hazardous drinking and overweight among college students and enhance treatment adherence among HIV positive substance abusers and Cocaine abusers, and the use of meta-analytic technique to systematically review and quantify the response of health-related phenotypes to exercise among those with chronic disease, particularly those with cancer and hypertension. She has received awards for her work from the American College of Sports Medicine, the Association for Worksite Health Promotion, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the University of Connecticut School of Education Alumni Society, and School of Allied Health.

Education

PhD, Exercise Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 1986

MA, Exercise Science, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 1981

BS, Biological Sciences/Education; Minor, Chemistry, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 1977

Recent/Selected Publications

Research Gate