Our school boasts a dedicated faculty and staff who invest a significant amount of time and effort in conducting groundbreaking research. This page aims to showcase some of our exceptional faculty and staff members’ outstanding research.
Amy L. Dagley, Ph.D.
Research Interests: constitutional and statutory law and policy implications for P-22 public schools; constitutional rights of public P-22 students and employees; ethical leadership; school finance
Methodological Interest/Expertise: Qualitative methodology: historical/legal-historical, document-based multiple case (i.e., case brief method), phenomenology, critical discourse analysis, content analysis, thematic analysis, case study, grounded theory, ethnography; Mixed-methods: exploratory sequential, explanatory sequential
Dr. Dagley’s research intersects educational theory, policy, and education law. She is dedicated to examining how legal, political, and systemic frameworks shape K-12 and higher education environments. This can be seen in the three pillars of her research agenda. First, for seventeen years her research in federal and state legislation provided the education law field with an understanding of national trends and the related impacts on educational outcomes. Second, her ongoing research in case law focuses on informing education law attorneys and professors, as well as educational leadership practitioners. She is especially interested in constitutional aspects of school law, such as First Amendment rights of both public school employees and students. Her research in education law has extended to other areas, for example, privacy issues, morality standards, public forums, and academic freedom. Her third pillar of research has extended education law and policy principles into state-level financial allocations and legislative mandates for P-22 schools in the states of Alabama and Alaska. A chapter she co-authored on Alaska for the second edition of Funding Public Schools in the United States, Indian Country, and US Territories was recently requested for use by the Alaska Association of School Business Officials (ALASBO) for their member training. These three pillars of Dr. Dagley’s research are informed by, and grounded in, her work in ethical leadership. Among other positions she holds, she is a Distinguished Research and Practice Fellow and member of the board of trustees for the National Education Finance Academy, and a member of the author’s committee for West’s Education Law Reporter.
Highlighted Publications:
Dagley, D., Turner, H., & Dagley, A. (2026, in press). Federal and state legislation 2024. In C.J. Russo & J.C. Sun (Eds), The yearbook of education law 2025 (pp. ). Education Law Association.
Simon, C., & Dagley, A.L. (2026). Alaska. Journal of Education Human Resources, 44(1), 9-13.
Dagley, A. L., Kiracofe, C., Weiler, S.C. (2025). Pronouns and preferred titles as speech: Wood v. Florida Department of Education. West’s Education Law Reporter, 438, 1-14.
Dagley, A.L. (2024). An examination of student clubs with benefits. West’s Education Law Reporter, 421, 1-18.
Dagley, A. & Lujan, A. (2023). Alaska. In P. Westbrook, E.A. Houck, R.C. Wood & D. Thompson (Eds.), Funding public schools in the United States, Indian Country, and the US Territories (2nd ed., pp. 19-32). Information Age.
Dagley, A. & Westbrook, P. (2023). Alabama. In P. Westbrook, E.A. Houck, R.C. Wood & D. Thompson (Eds.), Funding public schools in the United States, Indian Country, and the US Territories (2nd ed., pp. 3-18). Information Age.
Check out Dr. Dagley's Scholar Page for more information
Gordon Fisher, Ph.D., FACSM
Research Focus: The overall goal of my research is to identify novel modes of exercise that can improve cardiometabolic health and improve exercise adherence in individuals with obesity, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, and spinal cord injury. My lab is specifically interested in understanding the interactions between diet and exercise for improving cardiometabolic health and identifying the mechanisms in which they may work synergistically or independently to improve health outcomes.
Dr. Fisher is a Professor and Graduate Program Director in Exercise Physiology in the School of Education and Human Sciences at UAB. He is currently the President-Elect for the Southeast Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine and serves on the Board of Trustees for the Basic and Applied Sciences for the American College of Sports Medicine. His laboratory is specifically interested in identifying dietary and exercise interventions that can reduce or prevent pathophysiological processes associated with chronic cardiometabolic diseases, with a specific focus on better understanding the role of reactive oxygen species, mitochondrial dysfunction, and markers of inflammation in the pathogenesis of these diseases. For the past 16 years he has conducted a number of clinical RCT’s ranging from understanding the effects of diet with or without exercise for improving body composition and metabolic health in overweight women, identifying the optimal dose of combined aerobic and resistance training for improving cardiometabolic health and functional capacity in older adults, determining the effects of exercise intensity on energy expenditure and insulin sensitivity, and more recently assessing the effects of low volume high intensity interval training (HIIT) on cardiometabolic health in obese males. His lab has shown remarkable improvements in cardiometabolic health following dietary and exercise treatments in a number of different populations. Most recently research he has shown the powerful and time-efficient effects that low volume high intensity interval training has for improving glucose homeostasis, body composition, and blood lipids in obese males and individuals with long standing spinal cord injury, despite only require 20% of the overall time commitment. He recently completed NIH funded research assessing a home-based high intensity exercise for improving cardiometabolic health in spinal cord injury. Additionally, his lab has completed a series of studies assessing the effects of dietary nitrate on exercise capacity in obese men and women, and the effects of dietary nitrate for improving glucose tolerance and vascular health in individuals with type 2 diabetes.
Recent Publications:
Weight Loss Improves Predicted 10-Year MACE and Type 2 Diabetes Risk, but Benefits Partially Rebound at 1 Year. Elshakankiry AM, Hunter GR, Martins C, Fisher G, Garvey WT, Howell CR.Obesity (Silver Spring). 2026 Aug 23. doi: 10.1002/oby.70291. Online ahead of print.PMID: 42634098
Frequency-dependent adaptations in energy expenditure, strength, mood, and inflammation following 16 to 32 weeks of combined aerobic and resistance training in older women. Elshakankiry AM, Hunter GR, Martins C, Fisher G.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2026 Jul;126(7):3763-3774. doi: 10.1007/s00421-026-06161-5. Epub 2026 Mar 24.PMID: 41874666 Free PMC article.
Feasibility and Preliminary Response of a Novel Training Program on Mobility Parameters in Adolescents with Movement Disorders. Quach PTM, Fisher G, Lai B, Modlesky CM, Hurt CP, Bowersock CD, Boolani A, Singh H.Healthcare (Basel). 2025 Dec 11;13(24):3251. doi: 10.3390/healthcare13243251.PMID: 41464320 Free PMC article.
Mitochondrial coupling efficiency and myofiber type related to blood pressure 22 h after high-intensity exercise in premenopausal women. Hunter GR, Fisher G, Carter SJ, Moellering DR.Eur J Appl Physiol. 2025 Oct;125(10):2951-2961. doi: 10.1007/s00421-025-05805-2. Epub 2025 May 10.PMID: 40347253 Free PMC article.
Association Between Antioxidant Capacity and Vascular Hemodynamics in Premenopausal Women Following Exercise Training. Fisher G, Tamhane A, Moellering DR, Behrens CE, Hunter GR.J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2025 Apr;27(4):e70046. doi: 10.1111/jch.70046.PMID: 40285505 Free PMC article. Clinical Trial.
Cardiometabolic Health Intervention Using Music and Exercise (CHIME) Delivered via Telehealth to Wheelchair Users: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial. Kim Y, Rimmer JH, Lai B, Oster R, Cowan R, Young HJ, Fisher G, Kim Y, Giannone J, Wilroy JD.JMIR Res Protoc. 2025 Jan 15;14:e57423. doi: 10.2196/57423.PMID: 39814364 Free PMC article.
The Effects of Acute Beetroot Juice Intake on Glycemic and Blood Pressure Responses When Controlling for Medication in Individuals with Type 2 Diabetes: A Pilot Study. Tyler AP, Linder BA, Ricart K, Behrens CE Jr, Ovalle F, Patel RP, Fisher G.Nutrients. 2024 Aug 10;16(16):2636. doi: 10.3390/nu16162636.PMID: 39203773 Free PMC article.
Evaluation of the Effectiveness of ROTC Army Cadet Exercise Training for the Army Combat Fitness Test. Cannon SA, Mintz JA, Roberts BM, Rushing KA, Jenkins GW, Fisher G, Plaisance EP, Morris CE.Int J Exerc Sci. 2024 Jan 1;17(4):172-182. doi: 10.70252/EDCO2358. eCollection 2024.PMID: 38665851 Free PMC article.
Telehealth Movement-to-Music With Arm-Based Sprint-Intensity Interval Training to Improve Cardiometabolic Health and Cardiorespiratory Fitness in Children With Cerebral Palsy: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. Lai B, Oster RA, Davis D, Bright L, Fisher G, Wilroy J, Kim Y, Young R, Wright A, Sinha T, Rimmer JH.JMIR Res Protoc. 2024 Mar 5;13:e56499. doi: 10.2196/56499.PMID: 38441939 Free PMC article.
Skeletal effects of eccentric strengthening exercise: a scoping review. Singh H, Moore BA, Rathore R, Reed WR, Thompson WR, Fisher G, Lein DH, Hunter GR.BMC Musculoskelet Disord. 2023 Jul 25;24(1):611. doi: 10.1186/s12891-023-06739-6.PMID: 37491261 Free PMC article.
Check out Dr. Fisher's Scholar Page for more information