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Dr. Lori Gano-Overway 
Assistant Professor
Department of Health & Exercise Science
As an All-American swimmer at Hope College in Holland, Mich., Dr. Lori Gano-Overway was motivated by a coach who employed the use of psychological skills.
A big proponent of goal setting, Gano-Overway's swim coach had the athletes keep a journal of their goals, workouts and performances throughout the season. He also encouraged them to visualize their races and Gano-Overway found it improved her swimming and she was hooked. Now, as an assistant professor of health and exercise science at Bridgewater College, she teaches those same psychological skills to students.
In her Psychological Principles in Physical Education and Sport (aka Sport Psychology) class, Gano-Overway employs active learning strategies to help students see the importance of using psychological skills and creating a positive psychological climate. Her techniques range from having students identify real-world examples of ethical sport conduct such as exhibited by Apolo Anton Ono and Joey Cheek at the 2006 Winter Olympics to bringing her dog to class and having students identify the mechanisms at work in using positive reinforcement to change the dog's behavior.
A former student in Gano-Overway's Sport Psychology class found the motivational strategies and theories that were discussed in class had helped the volleyball team she coached to develop motivation over the course of the season. She realized the material she was learning at BC would be helpful in her future career. For Gano-Overway, this is what makes teaching so rewarding - seeing students meaningfully apply concepts and be sparked by the process - to become life-long learners.
Gano-Overway's research interests, which focus on creating psychological environments for young people, meshes well with her teaching at BC. Specifically, she explores how sport and physical education environments can be created to enhance motivation, foster psychosocial development and encourage pro-social behaviors.
Gano-Overway, a Research Consortium Fellow at the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD), was awarded a $12,000 research grant from the organization to explore the influence of a caring climate on pro-social and anti-social behaviors in the physical education classroom.
Gano-Overway received a B.A. degree in business administration and psychology from Hope College. She earned a M.S. in sport psychology from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in psychosocial aspects of sport and exercise from Michigan State University.
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