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Dr. Janet Dufek received a B.S. in Physical Education and Health Education along with accredited K-12 teaching certifications from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Scientific Foundations of Kinesiology from Illinois State University, and a Ph.D. in Biomechanics from the University of Oregon. She is presently Vice Provost of Faculty Affairs, having previously served for 4.5 years as Associate Dean in the School of Integrated Health Sciences. A Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Dr. Dufek also previously served as Graduate Coordinator for the Ph.D. program in Kinesiology and as Program Director for the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Ph.D. program. She also holds Graduate Faculty Status in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UNLV, is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, a Graduate Research Faculty at Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions and was an Adjunct Professor in UNLV’s School of Medicine.
As a biomechanist at UNLV, Dr. Dufek was a Founding Advisory Board member of the REBEL (Rehabilitation, Exercise Science, Biomechanics, Engineering and Life Sciences) Research Group. Her research focuses on lower extremity function with an eye toward injury prevention. More specifically, Dr. Dufek has used a landing model to assess kinematic and kinetic responses to various experimental conditions, but more so, to examine individual responses to these experimental perturbations. Dr. Dufek has also used running and walking protocols to examine similar phenomena. She is a strong advocate for single subject methodology and variability and performance strategies.
Dr. Dufek regularly collaborates with colleagues in Physical Therapy, Engineering and Nursing to address questions of clinical concern. She has worked with pediatric populations with cerebral palsy and autism, and adult populations with diabetes. Dr. Dufek is a strong advocate for collaborative research.
More recently, in conjunction with colleagues and doctoral students, Dr. Dufek has been investigating new techniques to evaluate and parse out individual responses and components that might predict movement outcomes. Such techniques include but are not exclusive to principal component analysis, spanning sets, and phase-history point-by-point analyses. Her research team is presently using machine learning techniques to predict onset of diabetic ulcerations. Another group is exploring various biomarkers as indicators of “return-to-activity” for persons experiencing head injury (concussion).
Dr. Janet Dufek is a scholar committed to exploring the effects of individual differences and responses, sometimes necessarily challenging traditional statistical procedures. It is Dr. Dufek’s perspective that it is typically not the 50th percentile individual that gets injured, but rather, those that live in the tails of the curve. Thus, her advocacy for single subject analysis.
