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Faculty of Health Professions Employee Milestones

Our faculty and staff play a vital role in providing 38 health programs across 10 schools, supporting and producing topnotch research and making the Faculty of Health Professions the educator of choice for tomorrow’s health professionals. In 2013, the Faculty of Health Professions launched the Employee Milestone Recognition Program which recognizes employees with 10 and 20 years of continuous service with the Faculty. Award recipients receive a gift card to the Dalhousie Bookstore.  

Milestone Award Recipient: John Kozey

Title: Associate Professor, Head of the Division of Kinesiology
School: Health and Human Performance
Years with FHP: 1993-present

What did you want to be when you were 10 years old?  That was a long time ago, I think it was a heavy equipment operator.

What was your first job?  Gas station attendant and country store worker filling shelves – I was 8 years old, every Tuesday in the summer.  At 12, I worked in tobacco harvesting driving a tractor to bring the tobacco in from the fields to the kilns.

When did you decide you wanted to be a researcher/professor?  After trying to be a university basketball coach – 1980.

What brought you to Dal 20 years ago?  I was working in Halifax operating my own consulting company and finishing a PhD in industrial Engineering.  I got a letter from Dr. John McCabe asking if I was interested in a limited term contract in Kinesiology. Jumped at it.

What is your favourite thing about working at the FHP?  I enjoy the many different people with whom I get to meet and interact.  The students keep us young in thought and faculty colleagues provide strength and support.  On a broader note, Dalhousie is small and to compete nationally and internationally we need to find collaborators in other units and outside the University – it makes our work more dynamic and broader in scope.

What is the biggest change you’ve seen at the FHP in 20 years?  The degree of interactions and maturation amongst faculty members across the Schools, enrolment growth and lastly the PhD program.

What has been the highlight of your career with the Faculty? Graduation of my first PhD student, and the interactions with my internal colleagues and external research partners.

Fill in the blank: If I wasn’t an academic, I would be moving houses – family business.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting their career with Dal, what would it be?  Set your goals, find a mentor(s) and learn to say ‘thanks for the opportunity but no thank you at this time.’