Women in Sport Business Speaker Series
She Leads the Game: Women Shaping Sport Business
Join us in celebrating 50 Years of Women’s Varsity Sport at Saint Mary’s University by tuning in to our free online speaker series. Women with expertise in the field of sport business will share their insights on one Tuesday a month, highlighting their important roles in the sport industry.
| Date | Time | Speaker | Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024 | 7:00pm (Atlantic) | Lorraine Lafrenière | Strategies to Foster a Holistic View for Life and Career |
| Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024 | 7:00pm (Atlantic) | Shireen Ahmed | Maintaining Authenticity |
| Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 | 7:00pm (Atlantic) | Ann Pegoraro |
Busting Myths about Women in Sport: What the Research Tells Us |
| Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025 | 7:00pm (Atlantic) | Cheryl MacDonald |
Transitioning from academia to industry |
| Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 | 7:00pm (Atlantic) | Isabelle Germain | Life after competitive sports: from athlete to behind the scenes |
| Tuesday, Mar. 18, 2025 | 7:00pm (Atlantic) | Lindsay MacPhee | The benefits of floatation therapy and holistic wellness for athletes |
| Tuesday, Apr. 15, 2025 | 7:00pm (Atlantic) | Melissa Burns | Unlocking Potential: The Evolving Landscape of Esports |
Speaker Series Organized By:
| Headshot | Biography |
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Quinn MacDonald graduated from Saint Mary's University in 2024, completing her Honours in Psychology and Certificate in Health, Wellness and Sport in Society. Her Honours thesis project investigated the relationship of team identity, adaptive performance strategies and well-being among student athletes. She is currently working at the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health located at Saint Mary's University as the Operations Specialist. Outside of work, Quinn is an Open Championship level Irish Dancer and throughout her dance career she has qualified and competed on the Regional, Canadian National, North American National and World stage in both solo and team performances. |
Speaker Series Facilitated By:
| Headshot | Biography |
|---|---|
| Dr. Augie Westhaver, Academic Director of the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health. |
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Jacob Glover has a background in ancient philosophy, contemporary continental philosophy, law, and restorative justice. For the past few years, Jacob has focused on creating more meaningful justice experiences in sport as well as centering wellbeing in the delivery and governance of Canadian sport. He is currently working at the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health located at Saint Mary's University as the Managing Director. Jacob has a BAH from the University of King's College, a MA, JD and LLM from Dalhousie University, and is a NCCP Certified Competition Development Coach for Weightlifting. |
Speaker Biographies:
| Headshot | Biography |
|---|---|
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Lorriane Lafrenière is CEO of the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), Lorriane leads Canada's Coaching Education Partnership with the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) which is complemented by initiatives in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, Safe Sport along with the profession of coaching. Her career spans more than 30 years within the national sport system which includes roles as CEO of Canoe Kayak Canada, Cycling Canada as well as leadership roles with the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canadian Paralympic Committee. Lorraine’s belief in the Canadian Sport System has led her to engage in the Federal, Provincial-Territorial Governments (FPT) by sitting on various FPT Sport Committees and working groups focused on Good Governance, Safety and Coaching. In addition, she was part of the Minister’s Gender Equity in Sport advisory in 2018. She is currently an external advisory member for the Tannenbaum Institute for Science in Sport (University of Toronto). Internationally, Lorraine is a Board Member of the International Council for Coaching Excellence where she Chairs the Ethics Committee, and she also sits on the Education Commission for Panam Sports. She is also a member of the Singapore’s CoachSG Safe Sport Advisory Panel. |
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Shireen Ahmed is an award-winning, multi-platform Senior Contributor with CBC Sports, a TEDx speaker, a valued mentor, and an internationally recognized sports activist who focuses on the intersection of racism and misogyny in sports, She is a global expert on Muslim women in sport, and is the National Ambassador of Sakeenah Canada. Shireen is the co-creator and co-host of the "Burn It All Down" feminist sports podcast team, and teaches Journalism and Sports Media at Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto, Canada. She is happily married, has four amazing kids and a phenomenal cat. She drinks coffee as a tool of resistance. |
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Ann Pegoraro is the Lang Chair in Sport Management in the Gordon S. Lang School of Business and Economics and the Director of the International Institute for Sport Business and Leadership, an industry focused research centre at the University of Guelph. A holder of a BA, MBA, and PhD degrees, Ann is an active researcher, who has presented at international conferences and published in the areas of marketing, communications, digital media, gender equity and sport management. Her research primarily focuses on gender, marketing and communication. Ann is also a life-long sports enthusiast, transitioning from playing to coaching and now teaching and sharing her knowledge and experience where possible. She is a board member of True Sport Foundation and Ontario Soccer and has consulted with amateur sport organizations in Canada and abroad. Ann is passionate about contributing to sport in Canada and ensuring access for future generations. |
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Cheryl MacDonald is CEO of Sport New Brunswick and a research associate at the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health at Saint Mary’s University. She has studied gender and ice hockey for fifteen years and can regularly be seen in local media discussing gender equality in sport. MacDonald is an avid volunteer in the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia sport communities with experience organizing and producing events such as national university hockey and basketball championships and celebrity hockey and golf tournaments. In 2021, she was named to a list of leading social change advocates by The Hockey News Magazine. The same year, she co-edited a book titled Overcoming the Neutral Zone Trap: Hockey’s Agents of Change. |
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Isabelle Germain was born and raised in Ontario, and moved to Halifax for university and hockey, playing the sport competitively for 20 years before a concussion led her to step back. Since then, she has had the privilege of breaking barriers in sports broadcasting, becoming the first female play-by-play announcer for a men's university hockey game and the first female PA announcer at the World Junior Championship. She has also done play-by-play for the Halifax Mooseheads and served as a PA announcer at the Women's World Championship. She was the first Director of Hockey Operations for PWHL Boston and has organized hockey camps, golf tournaments and summits for renowned Olympic athletes like Jill Saulnier, Blayre Turnbull, Sarah Nurse, and Hillary Knight. |
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Lindsay MacPhee (she/her) is a goofy, open-book who loves that she works in a space where she can encourage others to be themselves and come as they are. She spends her days doing her best to gently encourage others to meditate, be kind, have fun and live a life in service. A former chemical engineer turned happiness enabler, she digs spinning the yarn with folks about what they're doing to elevate their quality of life! Lindsay continues to bumble her way through this whole entrepreneurship gig while finding harmony in her own self-care and health sovereignty. She founded the Floatation Centre Health and Wellness in 2015 and has been sharing the benefits of floatation therapy, meditation and mindfulness far and wide since. Outside of TFC, she is a new co-owner of Dee Dee's Ice Cream where she brings joy to others through homemade tasty treats! |
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Melissa Burns is a national award-winning educator and the founder and CEO of Esports Canada, a federally registered not-for-profit and the national governing body for Canadian esports. A recognized leader in integrating esports into education, Melissa is a sought-after speaker and consultant, known for developing strategies that empower young learners worldwide through esports. Her dedication to equity, diversity, inclusion, accessibility (EDIA) drivers her efforts to create opportunities for equity-deserving students to gain visibility, develop skills, and access STEAM career pathways. Melissa serves on the executive committee of the Pan-American Esports Coalition (PEC) and contributes to the academic study of esports as a guest lecturer and published author. |