Douglas A. Kleiber

Kleiber served as head of Recreation and Leisure Studies at UGA from 1989 until 2001 and was director of the School of Health and Human Performance there from 2001 until 2003.

He currently holds appointments in the Department of Psychology and the Institute of Gerontology at UGA as well. He has degrees in psychology and educational psychology from Cornell University and the University of Texas, respectively, and prior to joining the faculty at UGA, had taught for 12 years at the University of Illinois, serving also as director of the Leisure Behavior Research Laboratory.

Dr. Kleiber is a past president of the Academy of Leisure Sciences.

He was a recipient of the University of Illinois´ Allan V. Sapora Award in 1994, the 2003 NRPA Roosevelt Award for Excellence in Leisure and Recreation Research, the 2008 Russell H. Yeany Award for Cumulative Research from the University of Georgia, and in 2009 received the Distinguished Colleague Award from the Society of Park and Recreation Educators.

He is the author of Leisure Experience and Human Development (Basic Books, 1999), A Social Psychology of Leisure (with Gordon Walker and Roger Mannell, Venture Press, 2011) and numerous articles and book chapters on the significance of leisure in adjusting to negative life events and other developmental transitions.

With study leaves he has been a visiting member of the faculties of Bielefeld University in Germany, Clemson University, and most recently, the Institute of Leisure Studies at Deusto Univesity in Bilbao, Spain where he was supported with a fellowship from the Basque Science Foundation.

Kleiber has also served on the editorial boards of The Journal of Leisure Research, Leisure Sciences, Leisure Studies, and World Leisure.

Expertise: leisure and human development, leisure and aging

Email: dkleiber@uga.edu