2 MSU professors named Gwen Norrell Professors

Renowned Kinesiology scholars Leapetswe "Leps" Malete and Karin A. Pfeiffer are now the Gwen Norrell Professor in Youth Sport and Student-Athlete Well-being.

Learn about the professorship and their careers:

Leapetswe Malete

Leapetswe Malete joined the Department of Kinesiology in the MSU College of Education in 2016 as an associate professor and the director of global initiatives. He is also the director of the International Research in Youth Sport, Physical Activity and Health Lab, which he established shortly after joining the department. Outside MSU, he is the current president of the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity.

The professorship, which is effective through January 2029, honors Gwendolyn Norrell, who was a nationally recognized proponent for student-athlete welfare, and a former MSU faculty member. The professorship title changes every three years to uplift a new scholar; previous honorees were Professor Emeritus Dan Gould and current Professor Tracey Covassin.

“Growing up in Botswana, I witnessed sport as both a source of joy and resilience and as a mirror of broader social challenges,” wrote Malete in his narrative statement for the Gwen Norrell professorship. “This formative experience instilled in me a conviction that sport could serve as a transformative space for psychological well-being, adaptive development, and expanded life opportunities.”

Malete built upon that trajectory with both a master’s and a doctoral degree in kinesiology from MSU — and now with funding from the Norrell Professorship’s endowment.

Malete joined the college faculty after 15 years at the University of Botswana, where he led the development of undergraduate and graduate programs in sport and exercise psychology, conducted research on youth sport and physical activity, and contributed to the strategic development of sport through service roles with clubs and national teams. He also held several leadership positions, including the director of international programs.

Malete’s research career spans the United States, the African continent, and the Caribbean, supported by over $14.3 million in external, competitive research funding. His work focuses on sport- and physical activity-based life skills development, mental health and well-being, entrepreneurship, and psychosocial growth among underserved youth. To learn more about Malete’s work, see Harnessing the Power of Sports to Help Young People Thrive, The Engaged Scholar E-Newsletter.

Broadly, Malete aims to advance research and interventions related to youth psychosocial well-being and adaptive development, strengthen collaborations between the Department of Kinesiology and external organizations (including the Michigan High School Athletics Association) and mentor future kinesiology scholars.

Karin A. Pfeiffer

Karin A. Pfeiffer, a two-time MSU graduate, is the director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and an MSU Red Cedar Distinguished Professor.

The professorship comes with funding to bolster research efforts, which Pfeiffer will use to hire graduate research assistants, reimburse for travel and create incentives for research participants.

Pfeiffer’s work will center on the physical and psychological effects of biobanding in high-level youth hockey players, particularly girls. Biobanding is a way to organize youth sports team competition; rather than by simply chronological age (all 14 year-olds on a team, all 15 year-olds on another), biobanding matches players based on their biological age (but still within their chronological age group) by assessing their size, along with their parents’ and grouping them as early, average or late maturers.

Pfeiffer will examine two components of biobanding in high-level youth hockey players, both boys and girls.

She will explore the physical and psychological effects on the players themselves — how does the practice shape their motivation, enjoyment of hockey? Pfeiffer will use surveys and interviews to catalogue qualitative data and also compute quantitative statistics through shots on goal, assists, fitness and similar metrics.

Pfeiffer’s team will also “explore parent and coach perceptions of the biobanding technique, primarily assessing this through qualitative interviews or focus groups.

Read more about Pfeiffer’s career in the January 2026 edition of the New Educator magazine, including her election as leader of one of the top organizations in professional sports medicine and nomination to join the Board of Directors for an international agency.

The endowment for the Gwen Norrell Professor in Youth Sport and Student-Athlete Well-Being also created an annual speaker series. This year’s speaker is Nicole LaVoi, who is a senior lecturer in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota and director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Her multidisciplinary research answers critical questions that can make a difference in the lives of girls and women in sport.

These stories originally appeared on the College of Education website.