Julie Stevens, Ph.D.
Director, Centre for Sport Capacity
Full Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Julie Stevens is a Full Professor in the Department of Sport Management at Brock University and the Director of the Centre for Sport Capacity. Dr. Stevens conducts research in change management, organizational capacity, and social, cultural and managerial issues in sport, specifically hockey. Dr. Stevens examines change and change dynamics within sport organizations according to various organization theories, types of capacity and capacity-building strategies within several different sport contexts and organizations, as well as contemporary/historical issues in hockey with a strong emphasis upon the female game both within Canada and around the world.
Michele Donnelly, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Centre for Sport Capacity
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Donnelly is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Dr. Donnelly has three lines of inquiry that inform both her research and teaching:
- Social inequality; Ongoing projects in this area focus on gender equality in the Olympic Movement and at the Olympic Games, as well as in the governance of provincial, national, and international sport organizations. In addition, she studies athlete governance, particularly in emerging sports such as roller derby.
- Alternative sports and subcultures; Ongoing projects in this area focus on girls and women onlyness, and particularly the organization and production of girls and women onlyness in sport and physical activity organizations such as girls-only skateboarding groups.
- Qualitative research methods; She not only uses qualitative methods in her research, but she also studies research ethics and the politics of research with respect to qualitative methods. She also serves on Brock University’s Social Sciences Research Ethics Board.
She is a co-founder, and now serves on the Advisory Board of the Girls on Track Foundation whose mission is, “to foster important life skills in girls, through participation in roller derby as skaters and decision makers”.
Taylor McKee, Ph.D.
Co-Director, Centre for Sport Capacity
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
A trained historian, multidisciplinary researcher, and Managing Editor of the Journal of Emerging Sport Studies, Dr. Taylor McKee is committed to providing new pathways for knowledge dissemination in the field of sport studies. Dr. McKee has published in the fields of: Olympic History, Sport and Residential Schools, Hockey History, Monuments and Historical Memory, and Masculinity in Hockey while working as digital curator at www.IndigenousSportHistory.ca, a research assistant at www.CrossingTheRedline.ca (The Story of the Sioux Lookout Blackhawks), and researcher at the Indigenous Hockey Research Network (www.IndigenousHockeyCanada.com).
Additionally, Dr. McKee has developed podcasts, digital symposia, radio shows, critical commentary platforms, and created an open-access manuscript publishing platform, all stemming from his experience as co-founding editor of the Journal of Emerging Sport Studies. The Journal of Emerging Sport Studies is guided by the earnest belief that innovative, high quality, open-access platforms must be easily accessible to scholars, institutions, and community members.
Grace Nelson
Coordinator, Centre for Sport Capacity
Grace started working at the centre in October 2022, and she is now the Centre Coordinator. Grace isGrace works with and assists members in project planning, coordination and delivery of events, as well as industry report writing.
Sarah Ane, BSM
Associate Director, Recreation and Culture – Town of Lincoln
Sarah has worked as a parks and recreation professional for the last 15 years including in her current role with the Town of Lincoln as Associate Director, Recreation and Culture. Sarah graduated from Brock University where she earned a Bachelor of Sport Management. After completing her undergraduate degree, Sarah continued her studies in the same discipline earning a post-graduate diploma from Algonquin College while working for the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and Canadian Olympic Committee. Sarah is a member of the Active Niagara Network, a group of parks and recreation leaders who share information and coordinate actions to support the evolving nature of the sector locally. Additionally, Sarah currently holds a position on the Parks and Recreation Ontario board of directors.
Martha Barnes, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Recreation and Leisure Studies
Dr. Martha Barnes is an Associate Professor with the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University. Dr. Barnes’ research focuses on understanding collaborations across sectors in community recreation and sport. Barnes explores the way in which inter-organizational relationships can facilitate and/or hinder collaboration, using a social network theory and analytical framework.
Corliss Bean, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Recreation and Leisure Studies
Dr. Bean is an Assistant Professor within the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies. Her research is grounded in Sport Psychology, where she examines how positive youth development can be facilitated in the context of sport. Specifically, she works with community organizations at local and national levels to development, implement and evaluate programming with the goal of fostering youth psychosocial development.
Dr. Bean is also a member of Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange’s Provincial Academic Network, where she works to make research evidence and evaluation practices accessible and relevant to the grassroots youth sector through capacity building and knowledge mobilization. She is also certified as a Credentialed Evaluator through the Canadian Evaluation Society.
Chris Charlebois, MA
President, C2C Sports & Entertainment Inc.
Chief Operating Officer, Sport-Travel
Chris Charlebois is the President of C2C Sports & Entertainment Inc. and the Chief Operating Officer for Sport-Travel. Charlebois is a seasoned event professional, having coordinated many large scale single and multi-sport events and conferences. His goal is to build an ecosystem of products and services for sport and entertainment organizations across the globe.
Ryan Clutterbuck, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Clutterbuck is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Dr. Clutterbuck teaches and conducts research in the areas of organizational behaviour, organizational theory (e.g., organizational capacity and capacity building), coaching, and leadership in sport development and sport for development organizations across Canada.
Dr. Clutterbuck is also the head coach for the Canadian Senior Women’s National Team that will compete at the 2021 International Federation of American Football World Championships.
Laura Cousens, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Cousens is an Associate Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Over the last 20 years, Dr. Cousens’ program of research has evolved from focus on network forms of organization in the areas of community sport, sport councils, and sport for development to enhance our understanding of the role of sport development in communities in Canada and abroad, and inter-organizational relationships. Dr. Cousens has also investigated networks of community sport providers using both qualitative and quantitative approaches.
Hilary Findlay, LLB, Ph.D.
Retired Associate Professor, Sport Management
Founding Partner, Sport Law & Strategy Group
Hilary Findlay has spent her professional career working within the Canadian sport system as a lawyer, an advocate, a teacher and a researcher. Hilary’s work largely focused on athlete and participatory rights and obligations in the regulation of sport, including organizational fairness and responsibility in the provision of a safe sport environment. Although recently retiring from the Department of Sport Management, Brock University, Hilary continues to stay engaged through the Centre for Sport Capacity, writing articles and is busy with an up-date of a previously authored textbook on sport and the law.
Caroline Hummell
PhD Student, Recreation and Leisure Studies
Caroline Hummell is a first year PhD student within the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University. With a background in sport psychology, she has a vested interest in how relationships with key social agents in sport affect positive youth development. For her thesis, she plans to explore the role of mentorship in the life skill development of youth female athletes. Caroline’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Mount St. Mary’s University (US) and Master of Science in Kinesiology and Health Studies from Queen’s University.
Caroline also works as a research assistant for the Youth Research and Evaluation eXchange where she oversees their online certificate programs and assists with the development of evaluation capacity enhancing resources for youth-serving Ontario organizations. As a former NCAA Division 1 basketball player and university coach with a passion for research and knowledge mobilization, she is excited to join the Centre for Sport Capacity
Shannon Kerwin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Kerwin is an Associate Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Dr. Kerwin teaches and conducts research in the areas of organizational behaviour and human resource management in sport. Specifically, Dr. Kerwin has looked at how personal and organizational values align to enhance important organizational outcomes, the role of conflict in the effectiveness of volunteer boards of directors, and how leadership is developed and fostered within the context of team and organizational culture. She also volunteers at local small scale sport events and has coached her seven year old daughter’s youth soccer team for two seasons.
Dr. Changwook Kim, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Changwook Kim is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. His primary research interests lie in the area of spatial analytics and econometrics for promoting healthy and vibrant community development through the allocation of various sport-related resources by public, semipublic, or private sports agencies. His research also extends to sport industry development and community resilience, drawing on interdisciplinary approaches such as sport management, marketing, spatial econometrics, geography, and community science.
Currently, Dr. Kim is actively collaborating with esteemed colleagues on a series of projects. These projects specifically focus on examining the spatial effects of the sport industry on public health and well-being within communities, employing advanced spatial machine-learning techniques. The ultimate goal is to provide policymakers with a comprehensive and location-specific policy portfolio that can effectively guide sport industry development initiatives.
Cole McClean, M.A.
Solutions Analyst, IMI International & SponsorPulse
Cole McClean completed his M.A. at Brock University in 2017, with a focus on program delivery and outcomes of the Sport Management internship experiences of fourth year students. Since completion, Cole has transitioned into a member role, initially serving as the CSC Coordinator, working with and assisting members with project planning, coordination and delivery as well as academic and industry report writing. Further, Cole has worked on, or continues to be involved in a variety of research projects on topics including: gender equality and women in leadership positions in sport, sport event impact, community sport capacity, decision-making, experiential education opportunities and benefits, and local sport tourism. He also remains involved with Brock-Canada Games Academic, providing overall support related to data organization and metrics tracking related to initiatives and activity on-campus.
Brad Millington, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Millington is an Associate Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. His research is focused on sport and related practices, such as fitness, physical activity, and health promotion. His more specific interests lie in two areas: sport and environmental sustainability; and sport media and technology.
Dr. Millington’s key projects include research on the history and current-day significance of corporate environmentalism in golf, the role of bicycles in development initiatives, the promotion and use of wearable fitness technologies, and performance analysis in sport.
Rob Millington, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Kinesiology
Dr. Millington is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Kinesiology at Brock University. His two main bodies of research are concerned with how sport is positioned as an agent of social change and social justice in an international development context, and how sport is understood to contribute to sustainable development and environmental protection and remediation. His most recent projects explore the history of sport for development and peace (SDP) within the United Nations, and the role of sport in contributing to environmental sustainability in both domestic and international contexts. Dr. Millington is also an affiliate with the Social Justice Research Institute at Brock University and the Canada Games Council Sustainability Advisory Group.
Patrick Reid, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Sessional Instructor, Sport Management
Dr. Reid is a sessional instructor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Dr. Reid has a unique combination of 40 years of sports management experience, highlighted as the former vice president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association/Hockey Canada; former Director-General of the Sports Medicine & Science Council of Canada; and 17 years as a high-performance sports consultant with Sport Canada. Professor Reid is also an internationally certified high-performance coach (athletics), a Charter Professional Coach (ChPC), and has attended 13 Summer and Winter Olympic Games. Dr. Reid has been a head coach at the Olympics, Pan American, Commonwealth, & Francophone Games, and was recently announced as one of the coaches of Team Ontario for the 2022 Jeux Canada Games. His sports management research interests include sports marketing, the history of women’s international hockey, Indigenous sports achievement, and high-performance coaching.
Kyle Rich, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Recreation and Leisure Studies
Dr. Rich is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies at Brock University. He teaches courses on the intersection of recreation and leisure with sociology, health, community, and administration. His research focuses on social inclusion and exclusion, community development, and rural communities.
Dr. Rich is also a Certified Personal Trainer with the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology and an Instructor Trainer for the Canadian Red Cross and Lifesaving Society.
Kirsty Spence, Ph.D.
Associate Dean, Teaching and Undergraduate Studies
Associate Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Kirsty Spence is an Associate Dean, Teaching and Undergraduate Studies, as well as an Associate Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Dr. Spence’s teaching and research expertise extends to organizational behaviour and leadership topics, with specific interest and passion related to leaders’ development and the processes that promote such development (e.g., experiential learning, mindfulness, leadership coaching).
Dr. Ashley Thompson, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Ashley Thompson is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Dr. Thompson’s research focuses on the interplay between governance, strategy, and organizational change in nonprofit sport organizations. Dr. Thompson also brings a wealth of professional experience to her role, having worked with various sport organizations, including her previous position as Vice-President of the Ottawa Valley Golf Association.
Michael Van Bussel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Sport Management
Dr. Van Bussel is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Sport Management at Brock University. Dr. Van Bussel has over 18 years of academic, administrative, and service experience in sport management. His educational background includes a PhD focusing on Sport Law and Policy Studies from Western University. He has won awards in teaching and coaching and was named OUA (USPORT) Provincial Coach of the Year on two separate occasions with the Western University Women’s Soccer Program. His research interests include Sport Law, Risk Management, Governance and Policy, and Coach and Athlete Communication.
Raul Rosales Zavaleta
Director of Sports Business and Administration, Peruvian University of Applied Sciences
Raul Rosales Zavaleta is from Lima, Peru. He participated in the Visiting International Scholar (VIS) program in the Sport Management department from May 2023 to April 2024. During this time, he had the chance to be part of the CSC activities as a participant and then as a member.
He has been involved in the academic field since 2008 when he started as a Full-time faculty in the School of Business of the Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC). At that moment, he was teaching International Business courses, but his interest was the sport management field. In 2010, his institution designated him as the lead coordinator of Peru´s first sport management undergraduate program: Business Administration and Sport Business. They started the new program in 2011 and in 2012, he became the chair.
His main research interest is to contribute to the understanding of how sport could contribute to having a better world. Topics such as the governance of the sport that is related to the board role and activities, life skills development through the sport coaches’ activities, and sport volunteer behaviors are some of the research projects with which he is currently involved.
Graduate Student Members
Joseph Dick
Graduate Student, Sport Management
Joseph Dick is a second-year master’s student in the department of sport management at Brock University. Joseph specializes in sport consumer behaviour, his current master’s thesis looks at the impacts of LIV Golf and the announced merger with the PGA Tour on golf fans thoughts, feelings, and behaviour.
More broadly, his current research interests surround the psychological and sociological antecedents to sport consumer behaviour within sport marketing. In this regard, his research currently focuses on how sport consumers navigate adverse events. Of importance here is how sport organization may leverage strategies for to garner and retain support. From a business perspective, he is fascinated by exploring what factors drive growth in fandom and consumption. Translated to application, this means to provide accurate and targeted marketing/communication practices for driving growth in revenue.
In the past, Joseph has worked with the Niagara River Lions, conducting a survey, and providing recommendations on how to improve fan support by increasing in-group connectedness. Looking forward, he hopes to utilize his research and business background to undertake similar research projects in this space understanding how industry partners can create fandom for their offerings.
After his MA, Joseph plans to pursue a PhD in an adjacent research area. He hopes to continue to develop his work translating knowledge into the industry, while bolstering his research skills going forward.
Nick Lacoste
Undergraduate Student, Sport Management
Nick Lacoste (BSM ‘23) currently works in multiple sport fields, including analytics, sports agency, research, writing, safe sport, communications, Indigenous sport, and more. Nick will begin a Master of Arts (MA) program with a Sport Management specialization in Fall 2024, with a research focus on Indigenous hockey players. Nick currently writes for Flames Nation (Calgary Flames) and Blackout Dallas (Dallas Stars) websites and also has his own newsletter, “The StatStrat Newsletter”, which focuses on translating elite hockey strategy into actionable youth habits and answering relevant hockey analytics/media questions. Previously, Nick was the Director of Analytics for the Fort Erie Meteors Jr. B Hockey Club, a Sports and Strategy intern for EthincityMatters, and a Statistician for BrockTV.
Nick aspires to work in a managerial role as part of a Hockey Operations staff in a high-level hockey organization to help aspiring professional hockey players become better athletes, teammates, professionals, and people. Nick hopes to promote Indigenous hockey successes through the CSC and enlighten others on the varying organizational infrastructure opportunities for Indigenous youth hockey athletes compared to those who come from settler families like himself.
Lucas Rotondo
Undergraduate Student, Sport Management
Lucas Rotondo is a fourth year Sport Management student at Brock University with a passion for sports. He plans to pursue a “Master of Arts in Applied Health Sciences, Sport Management” with Brock in 2025. In this program, his focus will be on researching the practices, execution, broader impact, and cultural significance of major Indigenous sporting events, exploring the intersection between Indigenous sport and sport events. Lucas has experience as a Sports & Strategy Intern at Ethnicity Matters and as an Advisory Board Member at Hockey Indigenous. His journey includes roles as a Project Manager with the Indigenous Hockey Research Network, a Research & Events Assistant with the Manitoba Aboriginal Sports and Recreation Council, and a National Events and League Programs Intern with the Canadian Hockey League.