Floyd to Head PRTM

A faculty member whose research examines the capacity of neighborhood parks and green spaces to promote physical activity and reduce health disparities has been named the new department head for Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management.

Myron F. Floyd, currently director of graduate programs for the department, assumes his new responsibilities in July.

Floyd holds a bachelor’s degree in recreation and park administration and a master’s degree in recreation and tourism management from Clemson University and a Ph.D. in recreation and resources development with a specialization in natural resource sociology from Texas A&M University. He is a fellow of the Academy of Leisure Sciences. In 2008, he received the National Recreation and Park Association’s highest research honor, the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Award.

Over the last two decades, Floyd’s research has focused on racial and ethnic inequality in the provision of parks, open space and public recreation services.

He has served as principal investigator or co-investigator on numerous large multidisciplinary research projects funded by governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the USDA Forest Service, USDI Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Floyd is a frequent speaker on the topic of parks and health at national and international conferences and symposia. He is co-author of Race, Ethnicity, and Leisure: Perspectives on Research, Theory and Practice from Human Kinetics, as well as 65 peer-reviewed journal articles, 22 peer-reviewed monographs and proceedings papers, 15 book chapters and more than 100 presentation papers and abstracts.

He has served on the advisory board of the National Policy and Legal Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity and the science committee of the National Park Service’s Healthy Parks Healthy People Initiative. Floyd was appointed to the Forestry Research Advisory Council in February by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.