Student Spotlight: Allen recognized for research at ACSM National Conference

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

Media Contact: Christy Lang | Director of Marketing and Communications | 405-744-9740 | christy.lang@okstate.edu

Shawn Allen has gained notability through his research and hard work, but in his time at Oklahoma State University, he has also proven himself to be an inspiring and selfless team member.

Allen, an Oklahoma native, is a Ph.D. student in the health and human performance program in the School of Kinesiology, Applied Health and Recreation. He earned his bachelor’s degree in applied exercise science in 2021 and his master’s in health and human performance in 2023, at OSU.

Allen was recently awarded the Raymond A. Weiss Research Grant from the American College of Sports Medicine for his project on the impact progressive resistance training has on older adults. 

“We understand that whenever you get older, you have a lot of age-related decrements, and one way to mitigate that is through physical exercise, specifically in resistance training,” Allen said. “Something that’s lesser known is the very small changes that are happening.”

For this grant, Allen had been observing blood biomarkers of participants in the training program to see if they had experienced positive impacts on their skeletons.

“A lot of our older adults that come in, especially our women, are pre-sarcopenic,” Allen said. “Some of them can even be within sarcopenia levels.”

Sarcopenia is the age-related loss of muscle mass, strength and function that can lead to various symptoms, such as weakness, fatigue, and difficulty walking and standing. 

Along with receiving a doctoral research grant, Allen was selected to be featured by the National ACSM Aging Group. This gave Allen a monetary travel award to Atlanta, Georgia, where he presented his research.

“It’s a big conference centered around sports medicine, but covers numerous individual categories,” Allen said. “For me, I go to a lot of the musculoskeletal talks, a lot of the aging talks.”

Interestingly, this wasn’t Allen's first trip to Georgia. When he was 18, Allen joined the military and completed his basic training at Fort Benning.

“I served active duty for five years, including two deployments,” Allen said. “I achieved the rank of sergeant, or an E5. Then I got out and came to college. During that time, I was a part of the Oklahoma National Guard, and I was in a scout sniper platoon.”

Despite experiencing an initial adjustment from active duty to an academic environment, Allen chose his undergraduate degree, applied exercise science, because of his work in physical training.

“I was in charge of training the people who were failing their physical fitness tests, and that's when I figured out that I really liked helping people better themselves physically,” Allen said. 

OSU’s program offerings are allowing him to pursue a career in doing just that. 

Allen met assistant professor Dr. Bree Baker shortly after arriving at Oklahoma State University, and has worked with her in the Musculoskeletal Adaptations to Aging and eXercise (MAAX) Lab since. 

“Shawn was actually in a different lab when I arrived,” Baker said. “He finished his master’s with us and decided to stick around for a Ph.D.”

Baker believes that Allen has shown exceptional dedication to his personal research, as well as other projects happening in the lab. Despite having his workload to keep himself busy, Allen is always willing to step in and help his peers. 

“Shawn is a giver,” Baker said. “He helps our undergrads, he helps our master's students, he helps other Ph.D. projects. I mean, he works on every project.”

A future in academia and leadership seems like the path for Allen based on his personal career goals and Baker's observations.

“He’ll spend hours teaching an undergraduate student who’s interested in a particular technique in the lab, with no benefit to himself,” Baker said. “I think he’s really taken to mentoring, and they enjoy working with him as well.”

Allen is in his second year of a four-year Ph.D. and has already begun making a name for himself in the academic and career fields. Shawn is not certain exactly which path he will take after he graduates, but this recent recognition from ACSM is sure to help him achieve great things.

Story By: Annie Ross | annie.ross@okstate.edu