Women in Sport and Exercise (WISE) Conference 2021

Registration

Registration for the conference has now closed.  All registrants have been emailed Zoom webinar registration links for the conference. 

Programme and Abstracts

The conference programme and abstracts can be viewed here. 

Opening of the Conference - Welcome and Introductions

Conference Address

Clare Balding OBE 

Clare Balding is an award winning broadcaster and author. She has worked on every Olympic Games since 1996 and on every Paralympics since 2000. Clare won BAFTA’s Special Award for her work on London 2012 and continues to present major events in sport, factual documentaries and Royal events, including the wedding between Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  A passionate campaigner for equality and women’s sport, Clare is also a best-selling author of two memoirs and three novels for children. Her latest book, Heroic Animals, was published in Autumn 2020 and Clare’s first non-fiction children’s book, Fall Off, Get Back On, Keep Going, will be released in April 2021

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Conference Welcome

Professor David Green CBE 

Professor David Green CBE has been Vice Chancellor at the University of Worcester for the past 18 years, during which time he has transformed what was a small university college into a thriving engine of opportunity with a genuinely global reputation for inclusion and innovation.

It was Professor Green's foresight and values which brought about the creation of the University of Worcester Arena, Britain's first major indoor sports arena specifically designed for wheelchair athletes, and The Hive, the first completely integrated university and public library in Europe. Both have been nationally and internationally recognised as shining examples of the outstanding public benefit that an imaginative university can bring to society.

Professor Green was made a CBE in the 2019 Queen's New Year's Honours in recognition of services to higher education and the county of Worcestershire. Driven by a profound sense of fairness, championing rights and opportunities for students and campaigning for academic freedom, Professor Green has helped to transform not only the University but also the City of Worcester, providing regeneration, jobs and opportunities.

In the last five years, Worcester has been shortlisted 3 times as the Times Higher Education’s University of the Year, twice for the UK Social Mobility Awards’ University of the Year and in 2019 was named Sustainability Institution of the Year in the Green Gown Awards.

Keynote Speakers 

  

Day 1 Evening Keynote: Digital platforms and women’s sport: implications for gender equity

Kim Toffoletti

Associate professor of Sociology in the Faculty of Arts and Education at Deakin University, Australia.

Her research applies feminist and sociological paradigms to understanding women’s experiences of sport and physical activity amidst a rapidly changing gender and sport landscape. Her research has advanced novel theoretical and conceptual frameworks for addressing new challenges arising from the increased attention on women's sport and leisure activities. Her books include Women Sport Fans: Identification, Representation, Participation (2017, Routledge) and the co-edited collections New Sporting Femininities: Embodied Politics in Postfeminist Times (2018, Palgrave) and Sport and Its Female Fans (2012, Routledge).

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Day 4 Afternoon Keynote: An interview with Mark Bullingham

Mark Bullingham 

Chief Executive Officer, The FA 

Mark became CEO of The FA on 1 August 2019, heading up the team of 900 and taking full responsibility for the National Governing Body.  The FA has a broad range of responsibilities across football in England, including the 28 national teams, FA Cups, the FA Women’s Super League, all grass roots football, all rules and regulations and the running of English football.  It has an annual turnover of £440m. 
 
He joined The FA in August 2016 as Chief Commercial and Football Development Officer where he was responsible for the commercial, marketing, digital and participation functions at the organisation.  These include responsibility for all revenue streams across The FA and Wembley, such as broadcast, sponsorship, licensing, hospitality, and diversified revenue streams.  In his time annual revenue at The FA rose by over £100m.  Mark was also responsible for all marketing output across the organisation, including award winning campaigns for the England football teams.   
 
Mark has received wide industry recognition including being recognised as one of the 100 most influential marketers by the Global Marketing Congress in 2015, the Drum Digerati 2018 and UK Sponsorship Personality of the Year in 2015.  
 
He previously held the position of CEO EMEA for Fuse Sports & Entertainment, responsible for running one of the fastest growing businesses in the sector.  During his five years of leadership the team grew from 18 people to 245 across 17 offices with an annual fee income of over €30m.  The client portfolio included 10 of the top 30 global brands. 
 
Mark joined Fuse in 2011 from his position as Director of Marketing for the America’s Cup Event Authority in San Francisco, where he helped transform the global event.   
 
Mark has negotiated over $2bn of partnerships across a variety of platforms in sports, arts and music.  He has an MBA with a track in International Marketing from ESLSCA in Paris where he became the first person to record a summa cum laude for an MBA. 

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Day 3 Evening Keynote: “How can we redress the gender (im)balance in sports coaching?” 

Professor Leanne Norman  

Director of the Research Centre for Social Justice in Sport and Society, Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University, UK. 

Leanne is an internationally recognised researcher for her research and writing within the area of gender equality and issues of diversity related to sports coaching, sports leadership, and organisations. Her work is driven towards improving the participation, performance, and leadership pathways for diverse social groups, principally, different groups of women. Leanne has written for academic and practitioner textbooks, written educational resources for coaches, and has published widely in academic journals related to sport and social issues. She has led national and international research projects as well as acted as academic expert and consultant for research funded by sport councils, governing bodies, and charities. Leanne utilises such research as the evidence for impactful engagement activities including leading the delivery of programmes towards supporting women to enhance their experience of sports coaching as a credible and valuable profession, as well as working with organisations to support them towards creating diverse leadership and coaching workforces. 

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Day 4 Morning Keynote - Creating a winning mindset

Maggie Alphonsi MBE

Maggie is the face of international women’s rugby and arguably one of the most well-known names in women’s team sports on the planet. 

Before announcing her international retirement in 2014, she represented her country an impressive 74 times, scored 28 tries, and helped England win a record breaking seven consecutive Six Nations crowns. She was also a crucial member of the team that won the 2014 Rugby World Cup for the first time in 20 years and was part of the team that was crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality Team of the Year. 

Through her England rugby career she has become a household name but also a media professional, and since retiring she has commentated on live rugby matches for SKY Sports, BT Sport and the BBC. In 2015 she became the first ever former female player to commentate on men’s international rugby when she was signed up by ITV for the Rugby World Cup, and she continues to work with ITV Sport across their rugby coverage. 

Maggie is also the first ever former female player to become a columnist for a national newspaper, and you can regularly read her thoughts and opinions in The Telegraph. In 2016, Maggie made history by becoming the first England Women’s player to be elected as a National Member of the Rugby Football Union’s Council. She is one of just four females on the 56-strong Council and her role is to be a person of experience and influence in the Game, which includes a leading role in the Diversity & Inclusion steering Group. 

Maggie is also an excellent speaker, and is well qualified to share her experiences. Certainly when she shares those experiences, you don’t need to be a rugby, or even a sports fan, to be interested or inspired by how she has become a prominent figure in the challenging world of a male dominated sport. From South East London, Maggie has taken her education as seriously as her rugby obtaining a MSc in Sports & Exercise at Roehampton University, a BSc in the same subjects at De Montfort University and a BTEC National Diploma in Leisure Studies at Hertford Regional College. Additionally, she has been awarded a Honorary Doctor of Arts from the University of Bedfordshire. 

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Day 4 Afternoon Keynote: You Cannot be Neutral  – addressing issues of gender equity in sport for future generations 

Håvard B. Øvregård

Senior Adviser in The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, Norway 

Håvard has worked for the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) since 2007. He started as Project manager for “With Sports Against Homophobia” 2007-2010, and has since the end of this project been adviser on NIFs LGBTIQ-related work. From 2011 he has been responsible for NIFs work to prevent and handle sexual harassment and abuse, and since 2013 he has also worked with diversity, equality and safeguarding in general, including gender equality and gender based violence / gender harassment in Norwegian sport. He has been part of establishing the “Gender Barometer” in 2017, an annual report by NIF on gender equality in the leadership of organised sport in Norway.  

 Starting at age 19 as President of the Norwegian School-Student Union in 1995, he has had numerous responsibilities in youth and student organisations at national and international level. As board member of The Norwegian Children and Youth Council 1996-1998 and the European Youth Forum 1998-2002, as well as adviser for The Norwegian Ombudsperson for Children 1997-1998, he was especially occupied with children and youth’s participation in society. After being Bureau Member responsible for Equality and Human Rights in the European Youth Forum 1998-2000, this interest developed into a general interest in the mechanisms of inequality, discrimination and exclusion, and how organisations can work to counter these mechanisms.  

 Håvard has extensive experience from roles and responsibilities at international level, including UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, UN Special Session on Children, UN Expert Group Meeting on Global Priorities for Youth, the Pool of European Experts on Sexual Violence in Sports, and as speaker at numerous events on the topics of gender equality, LGBTIQ and sexual harassment and abuse in sport, including the IOC Athlete Safeguarding webinar series for International Federations and the IOC Gender Equality webinars for International Federations. 

Round Table Discussion

Day 2 Evening Invited panel: “Making our mark...” 

The Day 2 evening session will be a discussion with leaders in their field of sport as they highlight how they have made their mark in sport.  Key themes being explored are the challenges of structural and leadership inequalities and negotiating identities to fit the environment.  Joining us will be: 

 

Dr Claire-Marie Roberts

Twitter: @robertscm 

Claire-Marie Roberts is a former international swimmer and footballer for Swindon Town Ladies' and laterally Aston Villa Ladies' FC. She has two undergraduate degrees, along with a Masters and PhD. For years she worked as a chartered psychologist supporting athletes and teams across a number of Professional, Olympic, Paralympic and Commonwealth sports, alongside an academic career in sport psychology research, and teaching. In addition to being a chartered psychologist and BASES Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist, Claire-Marie has expertise in Cognitive Behavioural and Rational Emotive Behavioural approaches to mentoring and coaching. She previously mentored academics in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects. She is a mentor for the Moving Women and Women in Sport initiatives.   Claire-Marie is a co-editor of the book "The Exercising Female: Science and Application". She has also authored over 30 peer-reviewed research publications and 10 textbook chapters. She currently works for the Premier League, developing the professional footballing workforce and leading equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives in football coaching and leadership. Claire-Marie holds a Non-Executive Board Director position at UK Anti-Doping, and is a special advisor to Nike on female athletes, an Advisory Board Member for the Active Pregnancy Foundation and a co-founder of the Women in Sport Academic Network.   

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Jo Yapp

Twitter: @Joyapp9 

Organisation Twitter: @WorcsWarriors 

Since 2019 Jo Yapp is the Director of Rugby Worcester Warriors Women team. Before this she worked as a Head Coach of England Women's U20's and was also a Director of Women's Rugby at Exeter University, having a successful career in coaching.  Prior to this she played rugby at a high-level representing England Women's Rugby Elite Squad from 1998 until 2009, during this time she played for the England Women's Rugby team in 3 World cups and nine 6 nations. Jo also captained the England Women's Rugby team from 2005 until 2006, winning 6 Nations titles and 1 Grand Slam. After that she represented the England Women's Rugby 7s team from 2007 until 2009. She is known to be concerned with her players on and off the pitch which leads to her coaching philosophy supporting the person as well as the player in order to create better rugby players.  

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Josie Janz-Dawson  

Twitter: @Josiejanz 

Organisation Twitter: @WirraFoundation 

Josie Janz-Dawson is a netball player who competed for both Australian and English teams. She represented West Coast Fever in the ANZ Championships as an elite netball player from 2008 to 2016, before joining Severn Stars and Team Bath in the UK Netball Super League. Josie also took part in the Australian U21 squad and Demons Premier League Netball team. Also, from 2003 until 2011 she has had a Scholarship for the Western Australian Institute of Sport and in 2010 was awarded with Female Sportsperson of the year on the Deadly annual awards. Josie is currently a board member of the Western Australian Institute of Sport and is passionate about providing talented female athletes across Western Australia with pathways and support to excel at the highest levels of sport. Because of her passion for helping children and inspiring positive role models in girls, she has now become the Executive Leader of Education Programs at Wirrpanda Foundation. Here she leads the implementation of programs that empower and enable Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islands youths to lead positive and healthy lifestyles and stay in school.  

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Marieanne Spacey-Cale 

Twitter: @marieannespacey  

Organisation Twitter: @SouthamptonFC 

Marieanne Spacey-Cale is a graduate from the University of Worcester with an MSc in Sports Coaching in 2016. The same year she completed the UEFA Pro licence.  Since 2018 Marieanne has been with Southampton FC as head of girls and women's football technical department since 2018. Before that Marieanne was working for the FA as part of their coaching staff for 11 years. During her working days with the FA she has been a head coach for the Women’s U23 team, Head of Girls and Women’s Football and Head Coach of the Women’s 1^st Team and her last position there was as "England Women's player and coach developer". She is an ex-England International Footballer with 91 caps and Introduced into the Football Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2015 she was part of the staff when England Women won the bronze medal at the World Cup in Canada and in 2016 was awarded an MBE for Service to Women's Football.  

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Dr Don Vinson

Twitter: @donaldvinson

Don's specialist areas are sports coaching and Coach Development.  He is driven by balancing his roles as teacher, researcher and practitioner, applying his expertise in learning and pedagogic theory to all areas of his work.  Don has conducted research into coach learning with a large number of National Governing Bodies (NGBs) including the Football Association, British Cycling, British Gymnastics, British Rowing and the British Equestrian Federation.  Don has also consulted for many influential bodies within the sport sector such as UK Sport, UK Coaching and the League Managers’ Association.  Don will convene TGfU2022: Inclusion, Integration and Implementation - the 7th International Teaching Games for Understanding conference at the University of Worcester in July 2022.  Don is currently part of the coaching team for the England U16 girls’ hockey squad and he is also part of the England Hockey Coach Developer Workforce. Don has coached hockey in the Women's National Premier League and Indoor Premier League. Don is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

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Di Lewis

Twitter: @DiLewis25

Organisation Twitter (England and Wales Cricket board): @ECB_cricket 

Di Lewis is the National Talent Manager for the Women's and Girl's Pathway with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) since 2017. Her role in this organisation provides strategic direction to ensure a game-wide approach to talent development, influencing high-quality player development programmes. She plays a key leadership role in managing relationships across talent development stakeholders within the women's and girls's game, driving collaboration across the cricket network to develop inspirational talent pathways. Di studied a BSc (Hons) in Sport Science and Social Science at Loughborough University. After leaving the university she joined the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) and left her role there as an Assistant Director. Before becoming the National Talent Manager for the Women's and Girl's Pathway with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).  She also worked as the Performance Pathway Manager in England Netball. Apart from working within the sport management field, back in the day, Di was also a talented athlete who represented Wales in the U21 netball team as well as athletics as a hammer thrower.  

 

 

Images of Research

The competition aims to showcase the work being done from both a practitioner and research perspective on Women in Sport & Exercise.  Images should inform, engage and intrigue offering a visual perspective of the work that you do.  Participants are asked to submit a unique image, along with a short caption (no more than 100 words) describing how the image reflects their work.  

Competition guidelines: 

• Images must be focusing on any type of work in and around Women in Sport & Exercise. 
• Each participant can submit only one image.  

• Each participant should submit a research image accompanied by a short caption that explains what the image shows and how it relates to their work.  

• Please send your image as a JPEG or PNG file.  We may reject entries that do not meet these specifications. 

• After the submission deadline, a preliminary shortlisting will take place. If your image is shortlisted it will be entered into the competition.

• Please note if shortlisted, your photo may be used to promote the Women in Sport & Exercise Conference and the Women in Sport & Exercise Academic Network now and in the future. 

• You must be the sole and exclusive owner of your submitted image, and you must have written permission from any identifiable persons (or their legal guardians) contained within the image. 

 

All shortlisted photos will be judged by a selected panel based on the following criteria: 

• Adherence to Theme
• Originality 
• Clarity of Expression
• Humour
• Creativity 
• Innovative Means of Delivering Message 
• Entertainment Quality 
• Visual Design 
• Overall Artistic Impression 
• Composition  
• Acumen of Caption 

Winners announced during the Women in Sport & Exercise Conference closing ceremony under the following categories:  

– Panel’s Choice  
– People’s Choice  

 
All entries will be displayed during the conference.  All entries will also be exhibited throughout by the Conference Twitter account at: @wiseconf 

How to enter: 

The competition is for anyone attending the conference between 19th and 22nd April 2021.  Please send your image of research to wise@worc.ac.uk with your caption of no more than 100 words by 12 noon on Saturday 17th April 2021. 

Joining Instructions

All registrants will have received an email from WISE@worc.ac.uk with Zoom webinar registration links.  Please select the links for the sessions you wish to attend and follow the steps to register.  Further information on each session can be found in the Conference Programme and Abstracts above. 

Once registered, you will receive a confirmation email with the webinar joining link.  A reminder email will also be sent the day before your chosen session(s). 

Gender Equality Toolkit for Generation Z (GETZ) Conference - Thursday 22nd April 2021

This online event will be run 10am-6.30pm on Thursday 22nd April 2021 and will run parallel to the WISE 2021 conference. 

The project entitled the Gender Equality Toolkit for Generation Z (an educational online resource via a MOOC) aims to educate Generation Z in issues of equity in sport with the aim of increasing the number of women and girls in all forms of sport leadership and management.  The impact and implications for practice from this three-year project will be shared along with key research studies focusing on gender perceptions, communication and GenerationZ. 

 

More information about this project can found on the GETZ website 

GETZ Project Coordinator

 

Vanessa Jones,  University of Worcester

Vanessa is the Project Coordinator for the Erasmus + Collaborative Sport Project Gender Equity Toolkit for generation Z (GETZ), involving seven European partners. She is Director of Academic Partnerships and Principal Lecturer in the School of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Worcester where she also heads up the Women in Sport and Exercise Science (W.I.S.E.) Strategy Group. She has presented and published work nationally and internationally, primarily in the area of Physical Education. Aspects of her work in this area include lecturing, consultancy to a role for a time as Vice-President Western Europe for the International Federation of Physical Education (FIEP). Her research is now more focused on women in sport with a specific interest in sport leadership. She was part of team investigating the culture of coach education in the UK from the perspective of females, coaches with a disability and people from black and ethnic minorities (BME). The aim of this research was explore how to support and promote inclusive coach education culminating in making recommendations to National Governing Bodies of sport (NGBs) and sports coach UK to redress the lack of coaches from these under-represented groups. Two papers were produced: Vinson, D., Christian, Polly., Jones, V., and Williams, C., and Peters, D.M. (2016) Exploring How Well UK Coach Education Meets the Needs of Women Sports Coaches. International Sport Coaching Journal, 3 (3). pp. 287-302.; and Vinson,D. Christian,P. Jones,V. Peters,D(2015) Investigating the culture of coach education structures in the UK: Implications for the development of under-represented groups. Sport Coach UK (SCUK).

A keen sports person Vanessa was instrumental in the establishment of the Severn Stars Vitality Netball Superleague franchise (England Netball) and continues to work with the Management Team, particularly in the area of sponsorship.

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Keynote Speakers

 

Morning Keynote - Creating a winning mindset

Maggie Alphonsi MBE

Maggie is the face of international women’s rugby and arguably one of the most well-known names in women’s team sports on the planet. 

Before announcing her international retirement in 2014, she represented her country an impressive 74 times, scored 28 tries, and helped England win a record breaking seven consecutive Six Nations crowns. She was also a crucial member of the team that won the 2014 Rugby World Cup for the first time in 20 years and was part of the team that was crowned the BBC’s Sports Personality Team of the Year. 

Through her England rugby career she has become a household name but also a media professional, and since retiring she has commentated on live rugby matches for SKY Sports, BT Sport and the BBC. In 2015 she became the first ever former female player to commentate on men’s international rugby when she was signed up by ITV for the Rugby World Cup, and she continues to work with ITV Sport across their rugby coverage. 

Maggie is also the first ever former female player to become a columnist for a national newspaper, and you can regularly read her thoughts and opinions in The Telegraph. In 2016, Maggie made history by becoming the first England Women’s player to be elected as a National Member of the Rugby Football Union’s Council. She is one of just four females on the 56-strong Council and her role is to be a person of experience and influence in the Game, which includes a leading role in the Diversity & Inclusion steering Group. 

Maggie is also an excellent speaker, and is well qualified to share her experiences. Certainly when she shares those experiences, you don’t need to be a rugby, or even a sports fan, to be interested or inspired by how she has become a prominent figure in the challenging world of a male dominated sport. From South East London, Maggie has taken her education as seriously as her rugby obtaining a MSc in Sports & Exercise at Roehampton University, a BSc in the same subjects at De Montfort University and a BTEC National Diploma in Leisure Studies at Hertford Regional College. Additionally, she has been awarded a Honorary Doctor of Arts from the University of Bedfordshire. 

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Afternoon Keynote: You Cannot be Neutral  – addressing issues of gender equity in sport for future generations 

Håvard B. Øvregård

Senior Adviser in The Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports, Norway 

Håvard has worked for the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports (NIF) since 2007. He started as Project manager for “With Sports Against Homophobia” 2007-2010, and has since the end of this project been adviser on NIFs LGBTIQ-related work. From 2011 he has been responsible for NIFs work to prevent and handle sexual harassment and abuse, and since 2013 he has also worked with diversity, equality and safeguarding in general, including gender equality and gender based violence / gender harassment in Norwegian sport. He has been part of establishing the “Gender Barometer” in 2017, an annual report by NIF on gender equality in the leadership of organised sport in Norway.  

 Starting at age 19 as President of the Norwegian School-Student Union in 1995, he has had numerous responsibilities in youth and student organisations at national and international level. As board member of The Norwegian Children and Youth Council 1996-1998 and the European Youth Forum 1998-2002, as well as adviser for The Norwegian Ombudsperson for Children 1997-1998, he was especially occupied with children and youth’s participation in society. After being Bureau Member responsible for Equality and Human Rights in the European Youth Forum 1998-2000, this interest developed into a general interest in the mechanisms of inequality, discrimination and exclusion, and how organisations can work to counter these mechanisms.  

 Håvard has extensive experience from roles and responsibilities at international level, including UN World Summit on Sustainable Development, UN Special Session on Children, UN Expert Group Meeting on Global Priorities for Youth, the Pool of European Experts on Sexual Violence in Sports, and as speaker at numerous events on the topics of gender equality, LGBTIQ and sexual harassment and abuse in sport, including the IOC Athlete Safeguarding webinar series for International Federations and the IOC Gender Equality webinars for International Federations. 

GETZ Student Seminar Panel Discussion - Thursday 22nd April 2021

Generation Z -  exploring the issues of gender equality in sport: navigating the landscape of leadership, governance and equity of opportunity

 

 

Oskar Solenes (Chair)

Oskar is associate professor in Sport Management at Molde University College, Norway. His field of expertise is children’s sport.  

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Anna Edes 

Anna has been involved in the European University Sports Association since 2012, starting as a volunteer on EUSA events and joining the EUSA Office through the European Voluntary Service for a one-year internship, where she had the chance to get familiar with the organisation, its projects and activities in greater detail. Gender equality has been a topic she always had special interest in. Since 2015 she is the EUSA Student Commission. Through her studies in Sports Management and in Olympic Studies, she had the opportunity to explore different aspects of gender equality in sport. The main focus during her studies was on sports events, and has volunteered on several international sports events, including Olympic Games, Youth Olympic Games and UEFA EURO as well. Ms Edes works as Event Manager for the Hungarian Ice Hockey Federation and for major international sports events. 

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Anthony Vrij

Anthony is a final year student for the bachelor programme - Sport, Management and Business at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS). He has a background in Sport and recreation, helping children in their physical development as a sport instructor. Right now he is following a internship at WICE B.V. This is a Company who guide their clients in terms of an online business, finance and their mindset. Anthony is responsible for the sales, marketing and content creation. Furthermore Anthony has completed the GETZ project as part of his university course.  

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Beth Burgess

Beth is the GETZ Research Assistant and Technician and has provided insight as a member of Generation Z. With a passion for equality, she is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Worcester where she aims to contribute to research concerning marginalised groups within sport, with a focus on sexuality, and gender. Beth has been active within the creation and maintenance of the Massive Open Online Course and has contributed widely to the research conducted and presented within the GETZ project. 

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Maria Hendar

Maria Hendar is a  student representative in the GETZ Project from Umeå University in Sweden. Her role has included some  project coordination and dissemination activities including presenting to different sport organisations and academic groups in Sweden for SISU in Västerbotten. She is studying a bachelor degree in Sport science with focus on strategic leadership and development.  

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Nika Jukić 

Nika graduated from Faculty of Kinesiology, University of Zagreb in 2020, and received a Master Diploma in education and physical conditioning of athletes. During studying in University, after graduating she continued with athletic career as a member of Croatian National karate Team, and competed at the highest sport competitions such as European and World Championships and has become a first category athlete of the Croatian Olympic Committee. Nika has tried to develop as many different experiences and knowledge as possible to grow as a person and has joined large European project We Care, with a goal to establish National Care and Development Center for athletes, has learned how  learned how to be a leader, but also experienced what it means to be a woman in top level sport.  

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Seada Šaldić 

Seada has been working as a Research Assistant for the GETZ project and contributed with the monitoring and reporting of the project. Having recently graduated with a MSc in Sport Management from Molde University College, Seada has a wide range of knowledge in the field of sports, with a special interest in Gender and Equality Issues. Based in Norway, she is currently working with grassroots gymnastics and sport as a tool for integration and social inclusion.

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Tiphaine Clerincx  

Tiphaine is a master’s student studying Clinical Psychology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Applied Psychology (Thomas More, 2019). Her thesis focused on sexual abuse in sport. As part of the Psychology and Educative Honours Programme at the VUB she assists with research about feeling authentic, and also tutor undergraduates. Tiphaine completed the GETZ MOOC as part of her undergraduate course last academic year and had a particular interest in topic governance and law. She has a specific interest, as a woman, in aspiring to help abolish violence in sports through the development of laws and rules. Her research interests and beliefs center around protecting the integrity of all athletes, that all athletes should have a voice and been listened to, and that there should be representation at each level and that this starts with gender equality across the board. In her spare time Tiphaine trains for marathons.