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Owens Professor Jami Williamson Honored to Win Dale P. Parnell Distinguished Faculty Member Award

As one of only five community colleges in Ohio to offer an associate degree in Exercise Science, Owens Community College is serving a unique student population.

So unique, in fact, that Jami Williamson, professor of Therapeutic Services, said most people don’t realize that the program is offered at Owens or the high quality of facilities at the Student Health and Activities Center.

Jami Williamson

That relative anonymity is one of the reasons Williamson was excited to learn that she will be honored as a recipient of the 2025 Dale P. Parnell Distinguished Faculty Member award by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC).

“I think it is really important,” Williamson said. “In the last few years, we’ve had more and more students come in. The program has significantly grown in the last several years.”

Williamson said the enrollment in the program has nearly doubled in size over the last five years, with 20 students registered in the Spring 2025 semester. As she said, “It’s one thing to stick around. It’s another thing to grow and succeed.”

Despite the success the program has seen recently, Williamson said she was still surprised to win the award. The biggest benefit for her is that it highlights the Exercise Science program.

“It’s a pretty big honor,” Williamson said. “It’s kind of surprising. I mean, nobody ever expects to win awards. That’s what kind of makes them neat.

“It definitely is an honor and I think it’s nice for a small program to have that recognition.”

Williamson is the fifth Parnell award recipient at Owens. The award will be presented during the AACC national conference next week in Nashville. Williamson will not attend the conference and will receive her award after its conclusion.

In addition to the associate degree, a Personal Trainer Certificate can be earned in two semesters. It was approved recently by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) Education Recognition Program through September 30, 2027, meaning the program “has demonstrated that it meets the requirements to prepare students for certifications,” according to the award letter.

Williamson said one of the main benefits the associate degree and certificate programs offer students is the ability to learn from hands-on experiences. Students get to work with and train Owens volunteer faculty and staff, which presents the students with a variety of clients and fitness levels and goals. According to Williamson, it gets students “out of their own box.”

“It definitely benefits them because it gives them hands on experience from the beginning,” Williamson said. “Most of the students that come in here want to train in some way, shape or form. Many of them want to be personal trainers, others want to go into strength and conditioning. This gives them hands-on practice right away.

“We have labs with all of our classes and they get to practice not just how to do exercises, but how to communicate with (clients), how to speak in public, how to program workouts from the very beginning that are not for you, but for someone else who is nothing like you.”

It’s those students who Williamson directly credits for her receiving the Dale P. Parnell award. She routinely has faculty and staff who comment on the quality attitudes her students always have.

“My students are a big part of me getting that award because without the students being excited to learn, it makes this harder,” Williamson said. “I love teaching them. They’re the reason I come every day. … I feel like if you go into exercise science, they’re doing it because they love it. And if you love what you’re doing, it’s easier to do what you’re doing.”

For more information on the Department of Exercise Science, please visit owens.edu/snhp/exercisescience.

To learn more about the Certified Personal Trainer Certificate, please visit owens.edu/snhp/pt-cert.