Janet Dufek, Ph.D., is the vice provost for Faculty Affairs.

Dufek oversees resources, services and programs to promote faculty excellence in multiple areas, including teaching, research and service. Programs in Faculty Affairs cover instructional development, mentoring groups and leadership development. The office also collaborates with academic departments, schools, colleges and other administrative offices on campus to advance faculty diversity.

The primary role of the office of Faculty Affairs is to provide support, services and resources for all campus faculty, academic and administrative, to become the best that they can become throughout their professional life cycle. This includes supporting opportunities for advancement and attainment of individuals' professional goals.

Dufek has held numerous leadership roles at UNLV, including director of the Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Ph.D. Program, graduate coordinator for the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences, and as an executive committee member in the Graduate College.

Dufek, a biomechanist with expertise in lower extremity function, joined UNLV in 2009 as a professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences. She teaches graduate-level biomechanics and instrumentation techniques in biomechanics courses as well as undergraduate biomechanics. She also supervises selected undergraduate research projects and oversees an interdisciplinary health sciences graduate seminar.

Dufek’s research focuses on mechanisms of locomotion and jump-landing activities as related to injury prevention, clinical gait assessment and performance enhancement for clinical populations. Her work also explores performance strategies, single subject assessment, and performer variability as they relate to individual movement outcomes. She is a strong advocate for interdisciplinary research.

Dufek earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Superior (pedagogy) and her master’s degree from Illinois State University (scientific foundations of exercise). After a two-year stint at the Olympic Training Center in the biomechanics laboratory, Dufek went on to earn her Ph.D. at the University of Oregon in biomechanics. Dufek is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at UW-Superior as a Scholar-Athlete in 2007.