Women in Sport and Exercise Academic Network Annual Conference 2026

In the coming months as we build up to an epic two days for WiSEAN 2026, we will be announcing our spotlight sessions. Scroll through to see our first two spotlight sessions…

Spotlight session 1

Presented and supported by the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences‘ Celebration of 50 Years of Sport Science at Loughborough University.

This session will be given by the United States based Director, Co-founder, and President of the Women’s Health and Performance Institute (WHSP) who is travelling to Loughborough to deliver an inspiring session that will set the tone for striking with purpose!

Biography:

Kathryn (Kate) Ackerman, MD, MPH, FACSM is the co-founder and Director of WHSP Medical, WHSP Institute, and the Biennial International Female Athlete Conference, as well as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She also founded and formerly directed the Female Athlete Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

  • She earned her BA from Cornell University, MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her sports medicine fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital, endocrinology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as further research training in the Neuroendocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital.
  • She chairs the USRowing Medical Committee, co-chairs the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee Women’s Health Task Force, is a member of the World Rowing Medical Commission and the Women’s Tennis Association Women’s Health Taskforce, and is a Deputy Editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
  • Her research focuses on female athlete health and the various aspects of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). She has authored/co-authored over 175 articles and book chapters related to sports medicine, endocrinology, rowing, bone health, and female athletes, including position statements with the International Olympic Committee.
  • Athletically, Dr. Ackerman represented the US as a lightweight rower at the World Championships, having taken up rowing as a walk-on at Cornell. She has multiple National Championships titles and still competes with her teammates for life as a masters athlete. In 2020 she became a member of the National Leadership Council for the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a $220M initiative to improve health and performance globally. Dr. Ackerman leads the Alliance’s focus on scientific advancements for women.

Find out more about Dr. Ackerman here: https://whspinstitute.org/

Spotlight session 2

Presented and support by the Women’s Sport Collective as part of their ongoing efforts to be an inclusive, collaborative community of all women working in – or wanting to work in – sport.

This session will be given by the acclaimed United States based Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport who is travelling to Loughborough to deliver an masterful session that will demonstrate how to consistently and collaboratively strike with purpose!

Biography:

Nicole M. LaVoi, Ph.D. is a Senior Lecturer of social and behavioral sciences in the School of Kinesiology at the University of Minnesota and the Director of the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. Through action-oriented collaborative research, she translates data and answers critical questions that can make a difference in the lives of girls and women. 

As a leading scholar on gender, leadership and women coaches, Dr. LaVoi has published 100+ book chapters, research reports and peer-reviewed articles in top-rated journals. Her Outstanding Academic Title award-winning book Women in Sports Coaching, the annual Women in College Coaching Report Card™ and Emmy-nominated documentary GAME ON: Women Can Coach help inform countless stakeholders who changing the system for women sport coaches. She is the founder of Coaching HER®, and co-creator of Body Confident Sport, free tools to upskill coaches to more effectively coach girls.

As a public scholar she consults with a variety of stakeholder groups, works with industry partners, speaks around the world, fields media requests, provides thought leadership, and serves on mission-driven advisory boards. She is an award-winning athlete, coach, scholar, and distinguished teacher, 2013 regional Emmy winner for Best Sport Documentary, three-time Hall of Fame inductee and was named a 2023 USTA Champion of Equality for her work in gender and sport. LaVoi played collegiate tennis at Gustavus Adolphus College winning a NCAA-III National Team Championship where she currently serves on the Board of Trustees. Prior to her career in higher education, she was a USPTA Teaching Pro and head tennis coach at Wellesley College. In her free time, she enjoys being outdoors, biking, hiking, golf, painting and soaking up the sun.