Lynn came to Montana State University in 2002 after 15 years of teaching at the University of Maryland and three years at Western Maryland College.  Lynn's expertise is in pedagogical studies (the study of teaching and learning) and she received her doctorate from the University of Maryland.

The current focus of Lynn's research is in understanding the connection between personality and performance.  Over the past 4 years, she has conducted studies examining this connection in athletic, academic, and administrative settings.  Currently, Lynn and her graduate students are seeking to understand “how to harness the strengths of a person’s personality to maximize their performance.” The overall result of this work suggests that “personality matters.”   By understanding a person’s strengths of personality and the effects of stress on those strengths, Lynn is also applying previous research conducted over a 15-year period where she studied the ethic of care.  Her work in the ethic of care focused on how teachers care for their students and teach them to care for themselves, the content, and each other.  She also studied how teachers become caring and, more importantly, credible in their teaching journey. 

Over the course of her career, Lynn has been recognized and honored as a result of both her research and teaching.  She has published and presented her work at state, regional, national, and international meetings over 60 times.  From the American Educational Research Association, Lynn has received three awards. These include the Exemplary Paper of the Year Award in 2006, the Lawrence F. Locke Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award in 2001 and the Outstanding Graduate Paper Award in 1996.  She was honored in 2003 with the National Girls' and Women's Sport Pathfinder Award presented at the annual convention of the American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (AAHPERD).  While at the University of Maryland, Lynn was a 6-time recipient of the University Excellence in Teaching Award and at Montana State University, she has been honored by her students 5 times for Outstanding Teacher.

In addition to teaching, research, and service at Montana State University, Lynn has a consulting business, Performanality, PLLC, where she works in various settings to teach, coach, train, and inspire people to understand the connection between personality and performance and how best to take care of themselves and those around them to maximize performance and be their “best self.”

Current Research Projects

• Owens, L.  (2005).  The Role of Personality in Enhancing Team Performance and Understanding:  NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Team
• Owens, L.  (2005). The Role of Personality in Understanding Performance of World Championship Ironman Triathletes.
• Owens, L. & Grue, K. (2005). The Role of Personality in Understanding Student Performance in Academic Majors:  Health and Human Development
• Owens, L. & Krambeer T. (2005).  The Role of Personality in Understanding Success of Top Performing Coaches in Montana State University
• Owens, L. & Garberg, R. (2005).  The Role of Personality in Understanding Performance and Stress in NCAA Division I Athletic Trainers.
• Owens, L. & Wiley, L. (2006).  The Effects of Injury on Personality in NCAA Division I Athletes.

Recent Publications

• Owens, L. (2006).   Teacher radar:  The view from the front of the class.  Accepted for publication in the April 2006 Journal of Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. 
• Owens, L. & Ennis, C.  (2005). The ethic of care in teaching:  An overview of supportive literature.  Quest, 57 (4), 392-425.
• Owens, L. & Stewart, C. (2004).Understanding athletes' learning styles. International Society of Biomechanics in Sport, Coach Information Service, http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/cis/index.html
• Stewart, C., Owens, L., Collins, T., Eggart, B. (2004)  Coach education in rural environments:  Part 2 – ongoing assessment.  International Society of Biomechanics in Sport, Coach Information Service, http://www.education.ed.ac.uk/cis/index.html

Recent Honors

2006 Recipient of the Exemplary Paper Award presented by the Special Interest Group: Learning and Instruction in Physical Education of the American Educational Research Association.

Recent Scholarly Presentations

• Owens, L. (2006).  Developing teacher radar.   Invited keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the PE 4 Life Institute, Napierville, IL  March 2006
• Owens, L. (2006).  Becoming a credible teacher.  Invited keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the PE 4 Life Institute, Napierville, IL  March 2006
• Owens, L. (2005).   Teacher radar.  Presented at the annual meeting of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.  Chicago, IL.
• Owens, L. (2004)  Fueling the fire:  Understandings stages of teacher development.  Presented at the annual meeting of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance.  New Orleans, LA.

• The ethic of care
• Enhancing performance by understanding personality