Dr Britta Sorensen is a researcher specialising in female athletes’ pain experiences through holistic, biopsychosocial approaches. Her PhD examined how female ultra-endurance athletes perceive and manage pain, combining retrospective, longitudinal, and real-time methodologies. With 19 years in sport science teaching and management, an MPhil in Sport Performance Psychology, and soft tissue therapist experience supporting athletes from club to Olympic and Paralympic level, Britta brings diverse expertise to WiSEAN. Her research advocates for interdisciplinary support networks and personalised pain-coping strategies that balance physical performance with psychological wellbeing, contributing both academic rigour and practical experience to advancing women's representation in sport.

Topics covered:

• New role as podcast host, supplementing current podcasts. Plans for guests, considering personal interests and background.
• PhD work and publications from this.
• Work as applied practitioner, e.g., therapist, applied work with endurance athletes, and how research has informed this.
• Involvement, to date, at WiSEAN, e.g., conference presentations.
• Future research/workplans.

Dr Tegan Hartmann

Tegan is a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science at Charles Sturt University. Her research is focussed on women’s health, particularly examining the links between physical activity, mental wellbeing and complex health conditions. She is passionate about addressing conditions such as endometriosis, pregnancy loss and other under-researched areas that significantly impact women’s quality of life. Through her work, she advocates for greater awareness, education and strategies to support women across the lifespan. Dr Hartmann also mentors students and early career researchers, encouraging innovation, compassion and evidence-based practice in the exercise sciences.

Dr Danielle Girard

Dani is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director of the Clinical Exercise Physiology degree within the Allied Health & Human Performance Unit at the University of South Australia. She is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist with Exercise & Sports Science Australia and currently serves as Vice President of the Council of Heads of Exercise, Sport and Movement Sciences (CHESMS), Australia. Her research focusses on exercise-based interventions for the prevention and management of cancer, mental illness and cardiovascular disease, with a particular emphasis on women’s health conditions such as pregnancy loss, endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Themes:

• Introduction to guests' physical location, e.g., University, location.
• How/why their varied backgrounds have progressed into doing research on women’s health, such as pregnancy loss, endometriosis, PCOS and exercise?
• Future research plans/direction in this area.
• Role for WiSEAN, and how they became aware of WiSEAN.
• Aims for volunteer role for WiSEAN in the next 12 months/mentoring.
• Typical academic/researcher pathway in Australia.
• Research culture on women’s sport and exercise in Australia and pertinent/hot topics.
• Opportunities for work in Australia.

Dr Tegan Hartmann

Tegan is a Senior Lecturer in Exercise Science at Charles Sturt University. Her research is focussed on women’s health, particularly examining the links between physical activity, mental wellbeing and complex health conditions. She is passionate about addressing conditions such as endometriosis, pregnancy loss and other under-researched areas that significantly impact women’s quality of life. Through her work, she advocates for greater awareness, education and strategies to support women across the lifespan. Dr Hartmann also mentors students and early career researchers, encouraging innovation, compassion and evidence-based practice in the exercise sciences.

Dr Danielle GirardDani is a Senior Lecturer and Program Director of the Clinical Exercise Physiology degree within the Allied Health & Human Performance Unit at the University of South Australia. She is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist with Exercise & Sports Science Australia and currently serves as Vice President of the Council of Heads of Exercise, Sport and Movement Sciences (CHESMS), Australia. Her research focusses on exercise-based interventions for the prevention and management of cancer, mental illness and cardiovascular disease, with a particular emphasis on women’s health conditions such as pregnancy loss, endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Themes:

• Introduction to guests' physical location, e.g., University, location.
• How/why their varied backgrounds have progressed into doing research on women’s health, such as pregnancy loss, endometriosis, PCOS and exercise?
• Future research plans/direction in this area.
• Role for WiSEAN, and how they became aware of WiSEAN.
• Aims for volunteer role for WiSEAN in the next 12 months/mentoring.
• Typical academic/researcher pathway in Australia.
• Research culture on women’s sport and exercise in Australia and pertinent/hot topics.
• Opportunities for work in Australia.

Dr Ross Julian: Researching Performance in Women’s Football (video version)

Dr Ross Julian is the International Study Programme Coordinator, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Münster (Germany). His work focuses on advancing understanding of women’s health and performance in sport, with particular emphasis on sex-specific physiological responses and evidence-based training approaches for female athletes.Ross has previously worked closely with elite female footballers and is recognised as one of the early researchers to investigate the effects of the menstrual cycle on performance in elite women's football. He is passionate about improving sex-specific training strategies and exploring how menstrual cycle-related hormonal fluctuations may influence performance outcomes and injury risk.In addition to his work in Münster, Dr Julian is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire, where he mentors early-career researchers and supports menstrual cycle research initiatives, helping to address common methodological challenges and limitations in this complex and under-researched field.Themes talked about:      

• Reasons for initial interest in doing research on the effects (or perceived effects) ofmenstrual cycle on football performance.

• Three chapters in the Women’s Football book (Women’s Football: From Science to High Performance), with the lead one on menstrual cycle monitoring, application and implementation: How can stakeholders be convinced to invest in menstrual cycle monitoring, using key performance effects.
• Future utopia for physiological and physical profiling of women footballers, given optimal resources.
• More recent publication, ‘Sex differences in cognitive performance persist into your80s’. Overview of findings and interest.
• Differences in approach to research/academia in Germany versus UK.
• Future research plans.

Dr Ross Julian: Researching Performance in Women’s Football

Dr Ross Julian is the International Study Programme Coordinator, researcher, and lecturer at the University of Münster (Germany). His work focuses on advancing understanding of women’s health and performance in sport, with particular emphasis on sex-specific physiological responses and evidence-based training approaches for female athletes.
Ross has previously worked closely with elite female footballers and is recognised as one of the early researchers to investigate the effects of the menstrual cycle on performance in elite women's football. He is passionate about improving sex-specific training strategies and exploring how menstrual cycle-related hormonal fluctuations may influence performance outcomes and injury risk.
In addition to his work in Münster, Dr Julian is a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Gloucestershire, where he mentors early-career researchers and supports menstrual cycle research initiatives, helping to address common methodological challenges and limitations in this complex and under-researched field.We talked about:

• Reasons for initial interest in doing research on the effects (or perceived effects) of menstrual cycle on football performance.
• Three chapters in the Women’s Football book (Women’s Football: From Science to HighPerformance), with the lead one on menstrual cycle monitoring, application andimplementation: How can stakeholders be convinced to invest in menstrual cyclemonitoring, using key performance effects.
• Future utopia for physiological and physical profiling of women footballers, givenoptimal resources.
• More recent publication, ‘Sex differences in cognitive performance persist into your80s’. Overview of findings and interest.
• Differences in approach to research/academia in Germany versus UK.
• Future research plans.

Charlie is a Professor of Applied Sports and Exercise Science at St Mary's in the Faculty of Sport, Technology and Health Sciences. Charlie also has several consultancy roles outside of St Mary’s and is currently Chief Science Officer at Orreco, a sports bioanalytics compancy and creator of the FitrWoman app. He previously held positions at the British Olympic Association and the English Institute of Sport, and has worked with some of the best athletes in the world, often female. Charlie is an experienced research leader and has held the position of Academic Director of Research at St Mary’s University. In 2016 and 2017 Charlie undertook a 2-year research sabbatical at the Cardiovascular Performance Program and Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School), conducting research into the cardiovascular adaptations to marathon running. Predominantly, Charlie's research funding has come from the Sport and Exercise Science and Medicine Industry, including the Royal Ballet, FIFA, the Ministry of Defence. He is passionate about genuinely applied research that yields tools and guidance to those working with athletes and other high performing individuals.

Topics

• Early career with the British Olympic Association and the English Institute of Sport. How these came about. Advice to others to get foot on the ladder. How informed rest of career.

• We fast forward through several years as a physiologist with the EIS to a two-year professional sabbatical at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston: How this happened; what he learnt from the experience. How research came to include women.
• Past research involving women: Research on low iron among female athletes, reasons for this and what can be done about it. PhD research on sleep and acclimatisation and whether sex differences were focussed on.

• Current work as Chief Science Officer at Orreco – what Orreco is and does and how Fitrwoman was established as part of that, and how more women athletes are accessing Orreco’s services.
• Direction of Orreco for athletes in the future, specifically on women.
• Collaboration/funding and how business/working with professional athletes can work symbiotically with research.
• Future ideas for research that use case studies to inform projects.

Aoife is Head of Department of Sport and Health Sciences in Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) Athlone, lead of the SHE Research Centre and co-founder of míde (an all island consortium for research on women in sport, exercise and physical activity). Aoife supervises PhD projects on sex and gender influences on sport and physical activity, many in the context of Gaelic games. Aoife is also a member of Sport Ireland’s Women in Sport Committee.

Topics covered:

• Míde research: More about this consortium, e.g., how started, aims, mission, development, what next; advice for others.
• Aoife's initial research on community-based physical activity and how this has evolved into more of a focus on sex and gender influences on sport and physical activity.
• Context of Gaelic games: Explanation and explanation of context, e.g., cultural context, community.
• Head of Department role and Sport Health and Exercise role. How Aoife combines/manages/finds time for all activities.
• Future research activities/goals.

Professor Elizabeth Pike has worked at the Universityof Hertfordshire since August 2017, where she is Professor and Head of the Institute of Sport, having previously worked at St Mary's University and the University of Chichester.

Elizabeth’s work takes as its focus issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in and through sport. She has published widely on these topics and has been an invited speaker, researcherand advisor at many Universities and conferences across the globe, including numerous media appearances. Her expertise has been recognised in her election to the Presidency of the International Sociology ofSport Association (ISSA), serving as a voluntary Executive Board member from 2008-2019.  During hertenure as President, she established the ISSA as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. In 2019 she was awarded Fellowship of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), in 2021 she was awarded the inaugural Life and Medical Sciences Athena Swan Award for her work to promote equality, in2023 she was identified by the Women in Sport and Exercise Academic Network (WiSEAN) as one of the top 10 individuals who have made a significant contribution to women's/girls’ sport and exercise and whoare inspirational in their field, and she is the 2024 Global Winner of the International Olympic Committee’s Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award.  She serves on theeditorial board of the journals International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Fisica and Ciencias, Olimpianos, and Frontiers.

Elizabeth has particular expertise in the area of gender and sport.  She is the co-founder of the AnitaWhite Foundation (AWF) and served as Chair of the AWF from 2011-2017.  During this time, she established partnerships with the Tanzanian National Sports Council to support women leaders in Tanzania, and with Females Achieving Brilliance to develop the Women’s Sports Leadership Academy which was shortlisted for the 2019 Beyond Sport Award for Gender Equality.  Since 2019, she has chaired the Management Group for the Women in Sport HighPerformance pathway (WISH), which is supported by Olympic Solidarity.  Elizabeth has published widely ontopics related to women and sport, is currently editing the Routledge book series on Women, Sport and PhysicalActivity, and was part of theresearch team that was commissioned to produce the 2014 and 2018 Progress Reports for the International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG).  She is the ResearchLead for the IWG UK Secretariat 2022-2026, leading the Anita White Fund and serving as a member of the European Non-Government Sport Organisation's EQUIP (Equalityin Practice) Expert Advisory Panel in a voluntary capacity.

Elizabeth is also a leading academic in the sociological understanding of physical activity andageing.  She is Head of the Sport and Social InclusionResearch Group (SSIRG) which includes an international research team, policy-makers and practitioners, andformer Associate Editor of the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity.  She has been awarded ESRC grants to deliver research projects investigating physical activity for older women in the UK and Japan, and physical activityfor people living with dementia.  She was an invited member of the international research team that produced a Consensus Statement on Physical Activity and Ageing, and a member of the Alzheimer's Society Physical Activity Expert Advisory Group.

Topics discussed

• Research lead position for IWG: When/how first involved. Current developments.
• The IWG Insight Hub and how to get involved with the IWG.
• Anita White Foundation/International Women of Sport Movement origins/Women’s SportsLeadership Academy/Women in Sport High Performance Programme and impact.
• Research beginnings.
• Global projects and learning from the Global South.
• Balancing work – advice for others.
• Future goals and legacy.

Dr Malika Felton is a Senior Lecturer in Health and ExercisePhysiology within the Centre for Midwifery and Women’s Health at Bournemouth University. She completed herpost-doc at University of Exeter as part of the Moving Through Motherhood research group, running co-design workshops on supporting physical activity during and after pregnancy. This research won her the Early Career Researcher Award at the WiSEAN conference in 2023, and in 2024 she won the Best Oral Presentation for the SwimHer Research Network work on recommendations for cold water swimming and pregnancy. Malika also supports the Maternal and Infant Health Equity Research Centre (MIHERC) as partof the NIHR Challenge: Maternity Disparities Consortium.

• Possible reasons for winning WiSEAN conference awards. Advice for others.
• PhD: Summary of key findings and application.
• SwimHER research network and other networks (e.g., This Mum Moves/Active Pregnancy/MIHERC): How these came about/got involved.
• Menopause and physical activity (research from PhD student)

• Where next.

Melissa Lodge, MS

Melissa Lodge is an Interdisciplinary Health Sciences PhD candidate and graduate assistant at the University of Rhode Island. Her research focusses on female athlete physiology, particularly under conditions of low energy availability (LEA), such as Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) and its associated impact on health and performance across thelifespan. She has presented her work at several regional, national and international conferences featuring work in female athletes on LEA outcomes. Melissa is interested in exploring intervention-based models, such as education, to improve outcomes for female athletes and girls in sports in the future. She is passionate about translating research to the athletic population and also runs the social media account @FED_collaborative on female athlete physiology, LEA/REDs, and eating disorders/disordered eating.

What we talked about:    

• FED collaborative – purpose, successes.
• Work forWiSEAN overview; personal usefulness.
• Publication,“Where are the girls, women, and female athletes in relative energy deficiencyin sport research?” Explanation of content.
• Publication(Risk of Low Energy Availability, Disordered Eating, Eating Disorders, and BoneStress Injuries in United States Female Track and Field: Original Research) keyfindings.
• Currentintervention programmes – knowledge and physiology.
• Dreamjob/goals following PhD success.