Faculty Contributors

Doug Booster holds a Masters degree in Health Education and bachelors degrees (with honors) in Heath Education and Physical Education from Oregon State University. Booster taught at the college level from 1983 to 2004. He served as an associate professor at Central Oregon Community College (COCC) from September 1987 to June 1996 and was formerly chair of its Health and Human Performance Department before reducing his class load to focus on his company, ProHealthNet, Inc. While at COCC, Booster taught a variety of health, exercise, nutrition and activity classes and served on several committees, including the Academic Affairs Committee, the Chairmoot Committee, and the Curriculum Development Committee.

During his tenure at COCC, Booster formulated and taught courses including Training Theory & Application, Introduction to Human Movement, Sport & Exercise Psychology, Sports Nutrition, Health and Fitness for Life, Stress Management, Time Management, Nutritional Fitness, and an extreme fitness class known as Total Fitness, designed to teach mental preparation for the completion of physical tasks. He also initiated the design and development of a two-year Associate of Science degree in Exercise Science. Booster further developed and implemented the Staff Wellness Program, which included fitness testing, exercise prescription, lectures, and health risk assessments (e.g., blood cholesterol test, prostate screening and mammograms) for COCC faculty.

Since 1998, Doug has provided extensive training for fire service personnel - both structure and wildland. In the last 4 years, Doug has traveled to 14 different states to teach classes for various wild fire agencies. Some of those classes are Fatigue and Decision Making; Fire: Seasonal Work, Year-Long Commitment; Stress in the Workplace; Effective Communication; Group Development and Cohesion; and Simplified Eating for Health and Performance.

Booster has been recognized for his excellence in teaching through the PACE (Positive Attitude Contributes to Excellence) Award from Central Oregon Community College in March 1996 and through a nomination as the Outstanding Part Time Instructor at Linn Benton Community College in June 1985.

Dr. Hammermeister has taught at Central Oregon Community College, the University of Idaho, and the University of California (San Diego). He also served as the head men’s tennis coach at UCSD from 1986-1991 and assistant director/head boys’ tennis coach at The Bishops School in La Jolla, CA. While working as head men’s and women’s tennis coach at the University of Puget Sound, Jon was named NAIA District I Women’s Tennis Coach of the Year for 1986, and was nominated for the 1990 NCAA Division III Tennis Coach of the Year award during his stint with UCSD's Men’s Tennis team.

Dr. Hammermeister has been published numerous times in peer-reviewed/refereed journals including Health Communication, The Journal of Sport Behavior, The Sport Psychologist, and the American Journal of Health Education to name a few. He has been a featured presenter at a number of refereed international, international, regional, local, and student conferences.

Jon has won several research grants, has served on a number of college committee and faculty governance assignments, and has given countless community presentations on various aspects of health and wellness. He is an accomplished triathlete, having competed in 13 ironman-distance races, including the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 1990 and 1995.

Dr. Heath has also held a tenured Associate Professor position at the University of Texas (El Paso), was a postdoctoral scholar in Exercise Endocrinology and research assistant in Cardiovascular Genetics. From 1992-1993, he was an exercise physiologist at the Wellness Center (cardiac rehabilitation) at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT.

Ed's work has been published in countless journals and he has been funded with more than $700,000 in research support. He has served as a book review editor for Divine/ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine) and as a reviewer for publications such as Preventative Medicine, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, and Quest. He has served as a member of both the National Association of Physical Education in Higher Education Public Affairs and the ACSM Strategic Health Initiative on Pediatric Exercise international committees.

Dr. Heath has been recognized for his work by the Center for the Advancement of Health, National Association for Physical Education in Higher Education and ACSM. He was nominated in 1998 for the Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award.

In Dr. Virk’s graduate research work, he studied the effects of Vitamin B-6 on metabolism and exercise physiology and produced a number of scholarly works, including presentations of his work at the 1992 and 1993 Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology conferences. His work on this subject has also been published in the Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise Journal (Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 400-409, 1999).

Ricky served on the Wellness Council and Planning Advisory Committee at Seattle Central Community College. He also worked on the Community Health/Health Science Committee, the Environmental Studies Committee, the Wellness Council and a number of faculty search committees at SUNY Potsdam. Ricky is an avid golfer and runner.