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CORVALLIS - An Oregon State University faculty member will receive a special award on Wednesday, April 8, from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education.

Barbara Ewens Cusimano, an associate professor of exercise and sport science at OSU, will receive the organization's "Joy of Effort" award, given to educators who encourage participation in sport and physical education.

Also honored at the ceremony will be Peter Vidmar, winner of three medals in the gymnastics competition at the 1984 Olympics, who will join the organization's Hall of Fame; elementary, middle school and high school teachers named as the organization's Physical Education Teachers of the Year; and the organization's Athletic Director of the Year.

Cusimano was cited for her work in coordinating OSU's Master of Arts in Teaching program in exercise and sport science - a program she helped create in 1990. Since the fifth-year teacher preparation program has been in place, 94 percent of its graduates have been hired to teach physical education in schools. Seventy percent of those graduates have stayed in Oregon.

Cusimano has received several awards for teaching, including the university's Burlington Resources Foundation faculty achievement award in 1993.