Candace D. Bloomquist, MS, PhD

Candace D. Bloomquist, MS, PhD

Candace D. Bloomquist, MS, PhD

Associate Professor
College of Professional and Continuing Education

Academic Appointments

Department

  • Interdisciplinary Leadership

Position

  • Associate Professor

Biography

I am of European ancestry, my family members immigrated from Germany and Sweden to the Minnesota area of North America in the 1800’s (Dakota and Ojibwe tribal lands). In the 1900's my grandparents relocated to northeast Nebraska (Ponca and Omaha tribal lands). I was born in a rural town in northeast Nebraska and lived there for the first 18 years of my life. I developed extensive relationships across the United States and Canada through my pursuit of learning. I earned a Ph.D. in exercise psychology at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, a master’s degree in Kinesiology at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas and a bachelor’s degree at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.
My passion for, and commitment to, health for all is a constant goal. I believe in thinking differently, challenging the status quo, and reaching for opportunities. I strive to enhance the growth of individuals and organizations, to increase teamwork and personal involvement, and help others develop humility, consciousness, and compassion as change leaders. My research interests include trust in higher education, health equity, quality improvement, health promoting schools, and teaching and learning in higher education. My desire is to expand my research to recognize the cultural components that are present in our interconnected world.
Prior to coming to Creighton University as an Assistant Professor, I served as a health educator in the Health Promotion Department at the Saskatoon Health Region, a regional health authority in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I have also served in the citizen sector (a.k.a. – non-profit) at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Saskatchewan as a community action specialist; and before that I served in the U.S. Army as a medical laboratory technician. And, before all of this I was a student-athlete competing in multiple sports throughout high school and ultimately focusing on basketball during university.
As I mentioned, I believe in thinking differently, challenging the status quo, and reaching for opportunities. It is important for me to surround myself with people who care about making positive change through engagement and innovation. For me the essence of this is in the building of a culture of health. To build a culture of health we need leaders that are ready to enable, mediate and advocate to ensure that the strategic shifts that are coming to our health, education, business and government systems are designed with “health for all” in mind. I believe there are exciting opportunities ahead and I would like to share with you how my philosophy on teaching and learning aligns with my desire to help build a culture of health. 
My philosophy on teaching and learning is to engage and serve, build a trusting atmosphere and environment, and use stories, dialogue, and questions to illuminate ideas and solutions. My goal is to create an environment for thriving. This doesn’t mean the environment is comfortable, this means the environment is safe. Safe to explore, take risks, innovate, ask questions and celebrate the gift of the human imagination, reasoning, and creativity. I believe education should cultivate the courage to be uncomfortable and teach how to accept discomfort as a part of growth. The experience of wrestling with issues, integrating different ideas, and coming to your own conclusions might make it a little harder to get quick and easy answers, but it also gives us the perspective and knowledge from which we can evaluate the world. Through this interdisciplinary lens we can view the many, and quickly, changing events that make up a typical day in our world today.
I practice magis and cura personalis by setting high expectations of myself and my students. My work contributes to the mission and identity of Creighton by supporting a person-centered approach to learning, enhancing the practice of Jesuit values for outreach and care in the community, helping to attract and retain diverse students, helping to engage external partners and foster new relationships, creating a dynamic and responsive learning environment, and stewarding university resources by facilitating process improvements to improve our program’s capacity to serve.
I am inspired by many people who have gone before me who have thought deeply about these ideas and were willing to share their thoughts in writing: bell hooks, Brene Brown, Paulo Freire, Sir Ken Robinson, Parker Palmer, and many more.
“If you’re comfortable, I’m not teaching and you’re not learning. It’s going to get uncomfortable in here and that’s okay. It’s normal and it’s part of the process” (Brown, 2012, p. 199).
“Without feedback there can be no transformative change. When we don’t talk to the people we’re leading about their strengths and their opportunities for growth, they begin to question their contributions and our commitment. Disengagement follows” (Brown, 2012, p. 197).
“If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original” (Robinson, 2006).
“The teacher is of course an artist, but being an artist does not mean that he or she can make the profile, can shape the students. What the educator does in teaching is to make it possible for the students to become themselves” (Horton & Freire, 1990, p. 181).
“I entered the classroom with the conviction that it was crucial for me and every other student to be an active participant, not a passive consumer...education as the practice of freedom.... education that connects the will to know with the will to become. Learning is a place where paradise can be created” (hooks, 1994, p. 14).
Brown, B. (2012). Daring greatly: how the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead. New York: Penguin Random House.
hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress, New York: Routledge.
Horton, M. & Freire, P. (1990). We Make the Road by Walking: Conversations on Education and Social Change. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Robinson, K. (2006, February). Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity?language=en
Candace uses she/her/hers pronouns.
A more complete listing of scholarship, teaching, and research interests can be found in my Curriculum Vitae.

Curriculum Vitae

Publications and Presentations

Articles

  • , 110(1), 58-61
  • , Volume 6; Issue 2; Article 5
  • , 13(2), 102-118

Publications

  • , 8(2)
  • , 35 (S1), S218
  • , 28 (suppl), S36
  • , 28 (suppl), S35
  • , 26 (Suppl), S37

Editing and Reviews

Presentations

Research and Scholarship

Research and Scholarship Interests

  • My research interests include trust in higher education, health equity, quality improvement, health promoting schools, and teaching and learning in higher education. My desire is to expand my research to recognize the cultural components that are present in our interconnected world.

Current Research Projects

    • A phenomenological exploration of what it means to experience a culture of trust in education.
    • Case Study in Using Value Stream Mapping in Higher Education.
    • Interdisciplinary Leadership Practices in Graduate Leadership Education Programs.

Grant Funding Received

  • Community Initiatives Fund, Physical Activity Grant, in motion Healthy Workplace Evaluation, Saskatoon Health Region - $32,000
  • Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport and Physical Activity (CAAWS), Saskatoon Newcomers On The Move - $8,000
  • JumpStart Canadian Tire, Physical Activity equipment for 8 Health Promoting Schools worth approximately $6,000
  • RBC Grant,Heart Healthy Children & Youth - $5,000
  • SaskTel TelCare, Heart Healthy Children & Youth - -$5,000
  • Eli Lily Grant, February is Heart Month - $5,000
  • Canada Summer Jobs, Practicum student salary - $6,000
  • New Faculty Scholarship Recipient, College of Kinesiology, University of Saskatchewan - 18,000 per year doctoral scholarship
  • College of Graduate Studies & Research Travel Award (University of Saskatchewan)- $500
  • College of Kinesiology Travel Grant (University of Saskatchewan)- $500
  • Kansas State University Travel Grant recipient- $150
  • Kansas State University Travel Grant recipient- $200
  • Office for Academic Excellence and Assessment, Creighton University, Faculty Development Grant, “Changing the Candidacy Process in the Interdisciplinary Ed.D. Program in Leadership to Assessment for Learning”
  • Center for Undergraduate Research and Scholarship (CURAS) Faculty Research Fund, “A Phenomenological Exploration of What It Means to Experience a Culture of Trust in Sport”
  • Dr. George F. Haddix President’s Faculty Research Fund, Creighton University, Interdisciplinary Collaboration (with Dr. James R. Martin), “A Phenomenological Exploration of What It Means to Experience a Culture of Trust”

Awards and Honors

  • Organizational Behavior, 2019
  • What Does It Mean To Experience A Culture of Trust, 2018
  • Overview Health Promoting Schools Program and Evaluation, 2015
  • Bravo Award, Saskatoon Health Region, 2014
  • Bravo Award, Saskatoon Health Region, 2014
  • Travel Award, Canadian Cancer Society, 2014
  • Saskatchewan Future 40 Under 40, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), 2014
  • Health Promotion Theory and Practice, 2014
  • Images and Messages in Sport Media, 2009
  • Exploring Dffirences in Physical Activity and Sport Participation, 2009
  • What I Wish I'd Known Before I Started Teaching, 2009
  • What is Kinesiology: Exploring "Difference" in Physical Activity, 2008
  • What I Wish I'd Known Before I Started Teaching, 2008
  • Wat do you believe your job is as a graduate student teacher?, 2008
  • Powerpoint and Giving Presentations Workshop, 2007
  • Navigating Excel, 2006
  • Platoon Leader, U.S.Army, 2001