About Me

After the Rio Olympics, Great Britain was described as a ‘sporting superpower’, finishing 2nd in the medal table and winning more medals than ever before.  Behind this exceptional feat, I had the privilege and challenge of leading the sports scientists who supported our best athletes.

In my role as Head of Physiology at the English Institute of Sport, I developed and led a groundbreaking campaign to improve support of female athletes within the high performance system. Through the SmartHER programme I worked to empower coaches, athletes and sports practitioners to better understand the exercising female, and how to capitalise and cope with her physiology and psychology in the context of sport.  I am on a mission to smash the stigma and tackle the taboo’s that exist within sport, as they do within wider society, about topics such as periods and the menstrual cycle, breast health, pelvic floor health and women’s mental health.

I went on to launch ‘Thrive Revolution’ after realising that if our most successful athletes do not have the body literacy that helps them understand how female specific factors can affect their performance (for better or worse), then it is unsurprising that girls and women everywhere are crying out for a better understanding of what’s happening in their body, to empower them to pursue their own high performance, whether that be in sport, exercise, work or family life. Across the lifespan, from puberty to post-menopause better education is needed for everybody, to give women the confidence to be architects of their own wellbeing and health, and for parents, partners and healthcare professionals to do the very best in supporting these women to Thrive.

My background as educator, researcher and scientist

I am a science communicator at heart, having spent the first part of my career teaching physiology to sports science, physiotherapy and medical students. I hold a first class degree in Sports Science, a Masters in Sport and Exercise Physiology and a PhD in Exercise Neurophysiology. I also have a post graduate certificate in Teaching in Higher Education and taught as a University lecturer for over 10 years. I have published over 30 peer reviewed scientific publications, am an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Brighton and an Honorary Lecturer at The University of Kent. I was delighted to be awarded a Fellowship of the British Association of Sport and Exercise Science in 2015.

I utilise 20 years  experience of teaching and researching human physiology, and a decade of working in high performance sport supporting some of the world’s best athletes, to help people understand how female specific factors can present powers and pitfalls for achieving high performance – whether that be in work, in sport and exercise or in family life.