FAR Background
Bio of FAR
Dr. Tim Coffey, Associate Professor of Kinesiology has been at Longwood since 2015, first as a Visiting Professor and then in 2016 joining the faculty full time as an Assistant Professor. He has served as the FAR since 2018. Prior to Longwood, he worked for 15 years in a variety of roles within Student Affairs at both Virginia Commonwealth University, and Texas Tech University. Dr. Coffey holds an Associate’s degree from Simon’s Rock College of Bard, a Bachelor of Science in Interdisciplinary Studies (Mechanical Engineering and Biology) from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, a Master of Science in Biomechanics from Texas Tech University, and a Ph.D. in Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Dr. Coffey’s primary teaching responsibility is Biomechanics and oversight of the Biomechanics Lab. He has also created a CTZN 110 course on Civic engagement through sport and exercise, and a CTZN 410 on Youth sports specialization: The breaking of bodies, bank accounts, and community. Previous research has focused on the staffing and certification of high school strength and conditioning facilities, ACL injury risk screening of collegiate basketball athletes, as well as examining impacts on postural stability (mascot attire and dance training). Recent efforts have focused on understanding the use of wearable and performance technology with collegiate athletes and how the recorded data is utilized.
In his time as FAR at Longwood, Dr. Coffey has been highly involved with the Big South Conference (BSC) as well as the NCAA. He served as chair of the BSC Council of FARs from 2022 to 2025 and has served on a number of conference committees from strategic planning to awards to the conference basketball tournament committee.
In June of 2022, Dr. Coffey was selected to represent the Big South Conference on the NCAA DI Council, which is comprised of one representative from each of the 32 DI conferences. In conjunction with this appointment, he joined the NCAA DI Strategic Vision and Planning committee (SVPC) and took on the role of chair in 2024. During his time on the DI Council, Dr. Coffey has also served on the Council Coordination Committee, which functions as the administrative committee for the DI Council. Additionally, Dr. Coffey serves as the DI governance representative on the NCAA Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspect of Sport Committee (CSMAS) and the CSMAS Research subcommittee.
In addition to his committee service, Dr. Coffey has chaired two different NCAA subgroups focused creating topic specific NCAA legislation. The first was a Health and Safety subgroup that wrote multiple new DI health and safety requirements for institutions, introduced the legislation to the DI Council, and obtained approval for implementation. The other subgroup addressed the reclassification process for institutions moving from Divisions II or III to Division I. The subgroup created a metric based process that reduced the reclassification timeline by a year and provided clarity around the process. The new metric based process was approved by the DI Council in January 2025 and was implemented immediately.