Yale Bulletin and Calendar

March 2, 2007|Volume 35, Number 20

Yale senior Kelsey Johnson, who has been named one of three finalists for the Eastern College Athletic Conference Women's Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year Award, is a scientist off the ice.

Yale senior is finalist for inaugural ECAC Women's Hockey Student-Athlete Award

Kelsey Johnson '07, an economics major who is researching the most cost-effective way to eradicate malaria, has been named one of three finalists for the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Women's Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year Award.

Johnson, who plays forward, is a three-time ECAC All-Academic selection. Each of the ECAC's 12 schools were asked to nominate a top scholar athlete who met the following requirements: a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale through the fall term; participation in a minimum of 50% of the team's contests (33% for goaltenders); and demonstrated leadership on and off the ice (e.g. character, contributions to the community, participation/involvement in institutional groups or committees, etc.) The three finalists were selected by a committee made up of athletic department and university administrators.

Johnson, who hails from Wayzata, Minnesota, has a 3.81 grade-point average. She has participated in numerous community service activities in New Haven, in her home state and abroad.

The Yale senior first became involved in malaria research as part of a seminar she took last year. Her senior thesis, which her faculty adviser intends to see published, indicates that vaccination may not be as cost-effective in fighting the disease as spraying or bed nets. Johnson plans to continue her malaria research in a clinical setting this summer at the University of Minnesota, where she will be working with samples from countries such as Uganda and focusing on the genetics of the disease.

While Johnson expects eventually to attend medical school, she plans to work for a year with Genzyme Corporation on ways to get companies to invest in neglected diseases. She spent the summer of 2006 at Genzyme preparing a case study for the cardiovascular business on a failed clinical trial while working in the laboratory researching potential cell therapies for the treatment of heart failure.

As a freshman and sophomore, Johnson tutored Spanish-speaking elementary students through School Volunteers for New Haven. During the summer after her freshman year, she volunteered in the endocrine surgery department at Hospital Universitario Marqués de Valdecilla in Spain, where she assisted surgeons in the operating room and helped provide post-operative care. She volunteered at the Minnesota Early Learning Foundation in the summer after her sophomore year, researching and writing reports on developments in early childhood education.

Johnson has also been involved with the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life campaign, and captained a Relay for Life team each of the last two years. During her junior year, she began serving as a member of both the Cancer Education Committee and the Relay for Life Food and Beverage Committee. In addition to serving on those committees this year, she has been elected to the Colleges Against Cancer board as publicity chair. She has also been a part of Yale's Thomas W. Ford '42 Community Outreach Program, which includes "Skate with the Players" events, Youth Days and an annual toy drive for underprivileged children.

Johnson has been involved with Danceworks for the past two years and is serving as a senior class gift agent for her residential college, Branford College.

During her time at Yale, the women's hockey team has set the school record for wins in a season (16 in 2004-2005); made its first trip to the ECAC semifinals (2004-2005); and snapped a 41-game losing streak against Dartmouth (2006), a 39-game losing streak against Harvard (2004), a 37-game losing streak against Brown (2006) and a 19-game losing streak against Northeastern (2006).

Johnson won Yale's Blanning Award as the team's most improved player in 2004-2005. In the middle of that year, she made the switch to defense from her natural forward position. She returned to forward the following year and scored a career-high six goals. She has 17 goals and 42 points for her career. A three-year letter winner, she is one of four seniors on Yale's roster to have appeared in all 123 games over the last four seasons. Her sister, Berit Johnson, is a freshman defenseman for Yale.

The winner of the ECAC Women's Hockey Student-Athlete of the Year Award, which is in its inaugural year, will be announced at the ECAC banquet on March 2. The other finalists for the award are Sarah Daniel of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Tara French of Colgate University.

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