she/her

University of Bath

Charlie is a Sports Management and Coaching student at the University of Bath and a research assistant at FSL, exploring gender equity in sport. As a member of Bath Women’s Football 1st team, she is passionate about using feminist perspectives to create a more inclusive environment for both athletes and coaches, allowing them to thrive.

she/her

University of Bath

Sophie is on her placement year as a Research Assistant at the FSL as part of her BSc Sport and Exercise Science degree at the University of Bath. She is a former GB Performance Development Academy athlete and is passionate about breaking down participation barriers and creating inclusion and access for all in sport. 

Professor, Laval University

Full professor at Laval University, Guylaine Demers (she/her) has been promoting gender equality and inclusion in sport for most of her life. Over the years, she has become a leading advocate on LGBTQ+ issues in Quebec and Canadian sport. Dr. Demers is a recipient of the IOC women and sport award for the Americas that acknowledge her tremendous contribution to the advancement of women in sport. She is now directing the first Quebec research lab for the advancement of women in sport, the lab PROFEMS. 

Researcher, Leeds Beckett University

Dr. Christina Le (she/her) is a post-doctoral researcher in the Carnegie School of Sport at Leeds Beckett University. In collaboration with FIFPRO, the Professional Footballers Association, and Nike, she is working on Project ACL that aims to reduce ACL injuries in professional women’s football. As a physiotherapist and researcher, she advocates for equity in sport and health, aiming to improve outcomes for athletes and patients from diverse backgrounds.

Sports Medicine Physician; University of Colorado

Dr. Karin VanBaak (she/her) is a sports medicine physician and researcher who specialises in care of female athletes and active women. After 10 years as a clinician, team physician, and faculty at the University of Colorado, she has relocated to the UK with her family. She is currently doing independent consulting in Interdisciplinary Sports Medicine Programming, and pursuing her masters’ in clinical research. Her research interests are in examining the physiological and sociocultural aspects of female athlete health from a mixed methods lens. 

PhD Student & Research Assistant, University of Minnesota

Anna Goorevich (she/her) is a doctoral student pursuing a PhD in Kinesiology/Sport Sociology at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, where she also serves as a Research Assistant in the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Previously, she was the 2021-2022 US-UK Fulbright Postgraduate Scholar at the University of Stirling in Scotland. Goorevich’s research interests revolve around menstrual health and sport, the gendering of coaching and sport leadership, and gender identity and sport participation.

Assistant Professor, Florida State University

Dr. Anna Posbergh (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Department of Sport Management (Sport Media & Culture Studies) at Florida State University. She is a critical feminist researcher whose work broadly examines the governance and representation of women athletes, particularly through media and policies. Her work in policy, which constitutes the bulk of her research, considers the politics of policymaking processes, such as which types of evidence are selected and how they are interpreted into policy.

Professor, University of Waikato

Dr Holly Thorpe (she/her) is a Professor in the School of Sport and Human Performance at the University of Waikato, New Zealand. She is an award-winning feminist sociologist of sport, physical culture and gender who has published widely on these topics. A concern for issues of equity and inclusion are central to her work.

Professor Emerita, University of Toronto

A researcher and activist on sport issues since 1980, Helen Jefferson Lenskyj (she/ her) has written and edited more than 15 books addressing gender and sexualities in sport, as well as developing in depth critiques of the Olympic industry.  Her 2025 book, to be published by Emerald, is titled The Quest for Justice in Sport: Challenging binaries, celebrating difference, achieving inclusion.

Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology

Dr Ryan Storr (he/him) is a Research Fellow and Lecturer in the Sport Innovation Research Group. He is a multi-disciplinary researcher and his research interests focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion across sport and movement settings. His work is industry focused and often collaborates with key stakeholders across the sport sector, to devise solutions focused applied research. He is also co-founder of Proud2Play, the peak organisation for LGBTIQA+ sport and active recreation in Victoria.

Lecturer, University of Brighton

Dr Abby Barras (she/her) is a psychology lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Science at the University of Brighton. Abby’s research interests focus on gendered inequalities in sport/exercise, LGBTQ+ youth and community, and improving inclusion for trans and non-binary people in grassroots sport. Her first book, 'Transgender and Non-Binary People in Everyday Sport: a trans feminist approach to improving inclusion', is out now (Routledge, 2024).

Assistant Professor, Northumbria University

Nonhlanhla (Noe) Mkumbuzi (she/her) is sports clinician, researcher, and consultant for FIFA’s Women’s Football Department and the Confederation of African Football (CAF). Her academic work at Northumbria University (UK), Nelson Mandela University (South Africa), and Midlands State University (Zimbabwe) is in marginalised athletes such as women and girls of colour, and those from low- and middle-income settings such as in Africa. Her research focuses on the intersection of biology, ethnicity, gender, society and culture, and economics in athletic participation, performance, injury rehabilitation, and sports medicine policy.

Professor, St Francis Xavier University

Charlene Weaving (she/her) is Full Professor and Chair of the Human Kinetics Department at St. Francis Xavier University. Weaving is a feminist sport philosopher who writes about objectification (i.e. athletes posing nude), and bodily capabilities and stereotypes (i.e., lack of body checking in women’s hockey, menstruation, breasts & pregnancy). She has also published on sex verification and gender binaries.

Athlete; LGBTQ+ Sports Advocate

Verity (he/him) is Mermaids' Youth Engagement manager. Verity is a gay trans man and has a disability. He played elite women's rugby for a number of years and now plays in the wheelchair rugby UK super league for the Leeds Rhinos. He has also supported D&I for the International Gay Rugby and World Gay Games.  Verity believes that all young people should have access to sport, believing in education, not discrimination. Verity has recently won the Emma Goldman Snowball Award for their work on inclusion for trans women and girls and inclusion within the trans community in sport. He has also started Tribe inclusion Web app  and has some new projects in the pipeline.

European Gay and Lesbian Sport Federation

Sarah Townsend (she/her) works on gender equality in sport at a local and European level through various organisations. She was one of the 15 experts of the European Commission High Level Group on Gender Equality in Sport* and is a member of the ENGSO Equality Within Sport committee that advises the Executive Committee on equality matters. Sarah is active in the LGBTQI sporting landscape in Europe working with EGLSF (European Gay & Lesbian Sports Federation), where she is a former co president and long-time Board member. She is co- founder of Activ’Elles, France advocating for women's rights in sport guided by the principles of intersectionality and sport-for-all.

Assistant Professor, Durham University

Dr. Simona Capisani (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Durham University. She brings a background in political, environmental, and feminist philosophy together with interdisciplinary social science methods to address a range of contemporary justice-based challenges. These range from issues of climate governance and environmental politics to the intersection of social justice, gender, and migration in a changing world. She is a former Division 1 football (soccer) player and multi-sport athlete. 

Lecturer, University of Liverpool

Dr Charlotte Branchu (she/her) is a Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Liverpool. Her work specialises in embodied inequalities and the production, circulation and negotiation of value in society. Her ethnographic monograph Tackling Stereotypes: Corporeal Reflexivity and Politics of Play in Women's Rugby (2023) explores issues of legitimacy, recognition and politics of gender in the context of grassroots women's rugby in the UK.

Author and Professor

Professor Jean Williams (she/her) is a visiting Professor at the Institute for Education University of Reading, specialising in feminist critiques of sport in both historical and contemporary writing. The cofounder of Femorabilia, a feminist fan-wear project, Jean has published widely in academia, broadcast journalism and popular history, also curating major exhibitions and installations with key events such as the women's Euros 2022. Her forthcoming memoir, Radicalised by FIFA: football, history and feminism is out with Fair Play books in 2025. 

Senior Researcher, University of Lausanne

Athlete

Professor, University of Manitoba

Athlete

Associate Professor, University of Tennessee

Researcher, Asser Institute

Centre for Sport and Human Rights

Professor, University of Bath

Director, Humans of Sport

Associate Professor, Brock University

Research Associate, Manchester Metropolitan University