In COVID-19 Crisis, Instructor Fights for People With Disabilities
The Rutgers University instructor, a quadriplegic paralyzed from the chest down, could see that the pandemic was taking a disproportionate toll on marginalized communities, including people with disabilities.
“Every day I’m watching the news and seeing people being dragged out of nursing homes in body bags,” says Robles, a teaching instructor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health in the School of Arts and Sciences. “This isn’t something where I can just sit back and say maybe things will get better.”
Robles, in fact, has never been one to just wait for things to get better.
As a Rutgers undergraduate in the 1980s, he was a self-described “pain in the neck” to university officials, forming the Handicapable student group to demand a more accessible campus. Since joining the faculty in 2013, he has been a pioneering teacher, introducing the first undergraduate course to explore the lived experience of people with disabilities. Click here for the full Rutgers Today article.
"If we are going to say that we are going to protect some people with disabilities, then we should protect all people with disabilities," said Javier Robles, chair of the New Jersey Disabilities COVID-19 Action Committee (DAC).
While the report "takes a broad look at the state’s systems and functions and how they impact people with disabilities, their families, and service provider networks," some things need to be fixed “immediately” as COVID-19 sweeps back into the spotlight with cases rising again, said 
The Mid-Atlantic Regional Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (MARC-ACSM) held its 43rd annual meeting on Friday, November 6, 2020. Nathan Stewart, a 2nd year Master’s Student in the Kinesiology and Applied Physiology Graduate program within the Department of Kinesiology and Health, was awarded 1st place in the Master’s Student Competition. His work was entitled: Nocturnal Blood Pressure Dipping Relates to Insulin Sensitivity but not Vascular Function in Metabolic Syndrome. The co-authors were Dr. Emily Heiston, Ms. Stephanie Miller and 
“At night when you lay down to sleep, you want your head to be properly supported so that your neck muscles can relax,” says 
"Our study needs to be replicated, but the precision medicine approach of predicting who may or may not benefit from exercise as an antidepressant is provocative," said senior author 
Loree Gymnasium