Jackie Oncescu
Associate Professor
PhD
KIN 307
Fredericton
Research interests
- Belonging, social inclusion and dignity in community sport and recreation provisions
- Human-centred and system design approaches in community sport and recreation
- Rural community development and resilience
- Community development
Biography
Dr. Oncescu is an associate professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology at UNB. She has a BRM (Bachelor of Recreation Management) from Acadia University, a MA in Recreation Management from Acadia University, and a PhD in Human Kinetics (concentration in Community Recreation) from the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Oncescu is a researcher, creative thinker, and change maker with a deep commitment to social change. Her work bridges theory, participatory action research, and human-centred and systems design to reimagine and transform community physical activity, sport, and recreation provisions. Jackie has worked extensively across diverse communities and settings—urban, rural, remote, and marginalized—building trust and fostering collaborative relationships.
These experiences have shaped her understanding of the systemic barriers that limit access and inclusion in community provisions. Her research interrogates these exclusionary mechanisms and seeks to dismantle them through co-designed, culturally relevant, and dignified opportunities to support a sense of belonging. Her participatory approach aims to co-create transformative models of service delivery.
Whether working with municipal or provincial government departments, grassroots organizations, or policy networks, Jackie champions community-led innovation and equity-driven systems change. Her work is not only academic—it is deeply practical, aiming to support communities in shaping the conditions of their well-being.
Current research projects
Conflicting Logics in a Sport System: A Case Study of Rural Community Sport Club Working Towards Inclusion
This research aims to explore how rural community sports organizations can serve as a change agent that disrupts traditional sport systems, fosters inclusivity, and promotes long-term sustainability.
Through a case study design, this study aims to understand how grassroots organizations in rural settings can reimagine the delivery of sport to better serve equity-deserving populations.
Reimagining Sport, Recreation and Leisure
This project is dedicated to understanding where exclusionary mechanisms exist in sport, recreation, and leisure provisions, and how to redesign and reimagine access provisions to better support the participation of equity-owed residents.
A SSHRC Partnership Development grant funded this research, the GNB's Economic Social Inclusion Corporation and GNB's Tourism, Heritage and Culture Sport & Recreation branch. Through community participatory action research, human-centred design and co-design, this project worked collaboratively with equity-owed residents and sport and recreation providers to co-create dignified access and a sense of belonging. View project
Recent publications
Oncescu, J., Frigault, J., Headley, D., Maitland, J., & Whalen, M. (2025). Building bridges: codesigning & sense of belonging. Leisure/Loisir, 1–27.
Oncescu, J., Maitland, J., & Balcom Raleigh, M. (2024). Blending human-centred design and community-based participatory action research approaches: Designing community sport and recreation provisions for equity-owed communities. The Canadian Journal of Action Research, 24(3), 127-151.
Oncescu, J., Fortune, M., Fisher, L., Sweatman, M., & Frigault, J. (2023). Supporting rural low-income families: a municipal recreation department’s response to community crisis. Annals of Leisure Research, 27(5), 681–702.
Oncescu, J., & Fortune, M. (2022). Neoliberalism’s influence on recreation access provisions: Municipal recreation practitioners’ perspectives. Journal of Leisure Research, 54(1), 89–108.
