Karan L. Onstott

Associate Professor of Health Promotion and Wellness

Office: Voigt Science 120-A

Phone: (618) 537-6932

Education

Rh.D., Health & Wellness Promotion, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (1993)

M.S., Counselor Education, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (1979)

B.S., Recreation, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (1975)

Personal Quotes

Live with intention.
Walk to the edge.
Listen hard. Laugh.
Practice wellness. Play 
with abandon. Continue to
learn. Appreciate your
friends. Choose with
no regret. 
Do what you love.
Live as if
this is all there is.
~ Maryanne Radmacher

Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire. ~ W.B. Yeats

Teaching Interest

I teach Health, Introduction to Human Nutrition, Supplements and Sports Nutrition, Introduction to Health Concepts, Drug Education, Safety Education and Crash Prevention, Programs in Community Health, Evaluation in Health Education, and the Brain and Learning. I am especially interested in the areas of both nutrition and the brain. My teaching goal is to prepare students to be wise healthcare consumers and to be able to live wellness–based lifestyles.

Research Interest

I am interested in studying what factors influence a person to integrate wellness practices into his or her lifestyle.

Doctoral dissertation topic: “A study of disabled women university students’ knowledge about, utilization of, and satisfaction with gynecological care”.

Publications

An effective management idea: Personal and personnel health awareness and promotion. In Shofner-Hoffman, B. & Long, S.S. (Eds.), Human resources management: Cultivating quality in rehabilitation (pp. 115-132).

The effect of sex on salaries of certified rehabilitation counselors.  Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 30 (2), 94-101. with M.M. Beardsley and J.M. Ashley. 

Roles and functions of certified rehabilitation counselors. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 27 (4), 196-224. with S.E. Rubin, R.E. Matkin, J. Ashley, M.M. Beardsley, V.R. May, and F.D. Puckett.

Teaching Philosophy

I feel as a teacher I am a bridge for students to travel over, back and forth between knowledge and the unknown, questioning and answering, or that I am like a birdfeeder of sorts; a vessel from which students can take little pieces of knowledge and food for thought that will nourish questioning, thinking, and learning. The nourishment provided by those pieces from the birdfeeder can be used so that the students may fly away, grow, and develop. I feel it is critical to cultivate an understanding that the path between learning and questioning is a lifetime journey, and to assist students in developing the tools to build their own bridges so, when I am no longer the bridge, they will be able to build their own; insuring that the ongoing exploration for answers and thinking and growing can continue forever.