Jane Shimon, professor in the Department of Kinesiology, will retire from the university at the end of the Spring 2025 term after 24 years of service. The campus community is invited to a retirement celebration from 3-5 p.m. on Monday, April 28 in the Student Union Bishop Barnwell Room. Coffee and dessert will be served.
Shimon came to Boise State in 2001 after serving as a high school teacher in physical and health education, along with being an athletic trainer and instructor at various high schools and Division I and III universities. Upon completing her Ed.D. in physical education pedagogy at the University of Northern Colorado, Shimon has focused on preparing future physical and health education teachers.
“Every once in a while, a faculty colleague like Dr. Jane Shimon comes along,” said Lynda Ransdell, chair of the Department of Kinesiology. “She is the consummate professional – someone who does high quality research, cares deeply about students and has consistently exceptional teaching evaluations, and provides impactful service – to the department, the college, the university and to the profession of kinesiology. Jane Shimon exceeds every category in which she has ever been evaluated. We will miss her tremendously after 24 stellar years of service.”
Shimon has a legacy of leadership and service. She served as the chair of the Department of Kinesiology from 2019-2022 and has been active in a number of professional organizations throughout her career. She’s served two three-year terms as president-elect and president for the Idaho Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. She has served on the university curriculum committee since 2016 and has been co-chairing that committee since 2022. She has also spent many years on college curriculum committees, first in the College of Education and then in the College of Health Sciences when the kinesiology department moved colleges. Shimon has chaired the college’s curriculum committee since 2016 and has been chairing the department curriculum committee for the last year.
Shimon authored the textbook “Introduction to Teaching Physical Education – Principles and Strategies” and the third edition of the book will be released in April 2025. She has authored 35 peer-reviewed articles and given more than 60 presentations across the nation, region and state. In 2017 she was invited to give the Dr. Bob Frederick Sport Leadership Lecture at Lewis-Clark State College.
Shimon has spent years as an academic reviewer and editor. She served as a manuscript reviewer for the Journal of Sport Medicine and Physical Fitness and the European Physical Education Review from 2014-2022, and as the editor of Journal of Kinesiology and Wellness from 2014-2018. She spent four years on the Journal of Physical Education, Recreation and Dance editorial board and seven years on the review board for submissions to the research consortium for the SHAPE America Conventions.
Shimon has been consistently recognized for her dedication to education and service. She won the 1998 Outstanding Teacher Award for the College of Education and Human Development at Radford University in Radford, Virginia, the 2011 Faculty Service Award from Boise State’s College of Education, and the 2023 Spotlight Service Award from Boise State’s School of Allied Health Sciences. Shimon was named the 2006 Outstanding College Educator of the Year and she received the Distinguished Service Award from the Idaho Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance in 2012 . In 2001, she received the G. A. Broten Young Scholars Award from the Western College Physical Education Society and in 2007, she was named College/University Educator of the Year from the Northwest District Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance.