Sharon Jalene joined the Department of Kinesiology & Nutrition Sciences in 2013 as an instructor. After completing both master’s and doctoral degrees at UNLV, Jalene was hired as an Assistant Professor-in-Residence. She was then appointed Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Affairs, and in 2022, she was named the Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs for the School of Integrated Health Sciences. She is also the Director of the B.S. of Applied Health Sciences.

In partnership with Student Affairs and the campus counseling center, Dr. Jalene secured funding and coordinated the implementation of the UNLV student and employee holistic web-based app, You @ UNLV. She also serves as the director of the steering committee for UNLV’s partnership with the Nevada Science Olympiad and is a member of the Young Rebels initiative.

Since 2013, Jalene has received seven teaching and service awards, including the 2019 UNLV Foundation Distinguished Teaching Award. In addition, she received three grants from the Office of Faculty, Policy, & Research and one from the Department of General Education at UNLV for course development. Jalene also directs a campus-wide service project, Fitness4Finals, twice yearly.

Jalene’s research examines the increasing incidence of college student depression, intervention preferences, and the bidirectional relationship between depression and cardiorespiratory fitness.