Maria Kosma

Maria Kosma is a professor in Kinesiology and public health at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She began her role there in 2003 and has accumulated 23 years of experience as a professor. Her passion lies in physical activity and public health, with a focus on health promotion through holistic movement programs that connect body and mind. These programs impact mental, physical, and physiological health and have been implemented with clinical and non-clinical populations, including people with disabilities, as well as individuals from different age groups such as young adults, college students, adults, and older adults, and various ethnicities. Kosma earned her undergraduate degree in kinesiology from the University of Athens in Greece. She pursued part of her master's degree at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and completed additional master's work at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland before obtaining her PhD from Oregon State University in the United States. She is a fellow of SHAPE America and serves as the head of the sports unit at ATINER in Greece. In addition to her academic duties, which include 40 percent research, 40 percent teaching, and 20 percent service, Kosma conducts community-based research implementing holistic movement programs at LSU, physical therapy settings, older adult centers, aging councils, and retirement centers to improve mobility, physical function, and mental health, and prevent falls. She attributes her success to doing work she loves, positively influencing her community and students, being a dedicated parent, and receiving support from family, colleagues, and mentors. Kosma values honesty, integrity, autonomy, and respect, and advises others to be true to themselves, focus on the good, be strong leaders, find mentors, be innovative, and do meaningful things that benefit others without obsessing over the bad.