Safer sport driven by SSI researchers

Supporting researchers, research activity, and research networks in safeguarding and safe sport.

The SSI Research Committee provides expert input that strengthens SSI’s knowledge mobilisation, standards, influencing, consultancy and events work. Members are researchers and research-informed practitioners with expertise in safe sport, safeguarding in sport, athlete welfare and related fields, bringing diverse disciplines, regions and perspectives together to strengthen evidence-led safe sport practice globally.

Connection

We provide a forum for leading researchers in any area connected to safeguarding and safe sport to connect and contribute to advancing safe sport together.

Partnerships

We strengthen partnerships between SSI, universities, research centres and emerging researchers.

Visibility

We strengthen the visibility, accessibility and practical application of safe sport research globally, including research from underrepresented regions and communities.

Collaboration

We facilitate and encourage opportunities for joint bids, mentoring and collaborative projects.

Interested in joining the SSI Research Committee?

Read the Terms of Reference (Aug 26 DRAFT) to learn more about the Group’s purpose, membership expectations and ways of working.  Joining the Research Committee offers an opportunity to connect with others committed to advancing safe and inclusive sport, strengthen research collaboration and knowledge mobilisation, and help ensure robust evidence informs SSI’s work worldwide.

Join us if you are committed to strengthening the visibility, accessibility and practical application of safe sport research and able to commit to four to six meetings per year, plus follow-up and contribution to agreed Committee activities between meetings.

Complete the SSI Volunteer Form

Professor Dikaia Chatziefstathiou

  • Chair of SSI Research Committee.
  • Professor of Applied Olympic Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.
  • Founder and Director of the Olympic Studies Research Centre for Safe Sport & Human Rights in Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.
  • Associate Dean of Research, Enterprise and Knowledge Mobilisation (Capacity) of School of SPACES.
  • Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship at the Regional Development Institute of the Panteion University in Athens, Greece (2013-2015) to examine “An Evaluation of the Legacies of the Sporting Mega Events on Social Capital in Greece”
  • Vice-Chair of the Education, Youth and Culture Commission of the Global Esports Federation
  • LinkedIn profile

Professor Daniel Rhind

  • Chartered Psychologist and a Professor in Psychology at Loughborough University.
  • Daniel’s research focuses on the realisation of human rights in, around and through sport.
  • His research was fundamental in the development of the International Safeguards for Children in Sport. The Safeguards are now endorsed by over 400 organisations which collectively work with over 50 million children worldwide.
  • He also managed Project CARE which involved a global census of elite athletes’ experiences regarding how their rights were realised or violated as children in sport.
  • Daniel has an on-going collaboration with the NSPCC Child Protection in Sport Unit to collate and analyse safeguarding case data.

Yetsa Tuakli-Wosornu, MD, MPH​

  • Associate Professor and Founding Director of the Stanford Center for Sports Equity.

  • Board-certified Physiatrist (Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician).

  • Founder and director of the Sports Equity Lab.

  • Member, International Olympic Committee Working Group for the Prevention of Harassment and Abuse in Sport (rep. International Paralympic Committee)

  • Welfare Officer, 2016 Rio Paralympic Games

  • Previous professional track and field athlete (women’s long jump, Ghana).

  • Chair, International Society for Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM) Task Force on Physical Activity for Persons with Disabilities

Neal Anderson, MSc, MUKCP

  • Chief Operating Officer of Safe Sport International (SSI).
  • Associate Lecturer at the University of Cumbria, UK.
  • UKCP Registered Psychotherapist and Clinical Supervisor.
  • Applied researcher in the field of therapeutic use of nature and outdoor adventurous sports, including co-author of Outdoor Mental Health Interventions Model and Sustainability Indicators when utilising Nature for Mental Health.
  • Represents SSI on advisory groups of the International Safeguards for Children in Sport, the Centre for Sport and Human Rights, and the Global Observatory for Gender Equality in Sport.

Dr Seamus Byrne

  • Reader in Law at Manchester Law School. He is currently the Faculty Lead for the Faculty of Business and Law for the Institute for Children’s Futures at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Professor Stiliani Chroni PhD

  • Professor of Sport Psychology, Pedagogy, & Sport Coaching, University of Inland Norway, Department of Sport and Physical Education

Dr Suzanne Everley

  • Reader in the Sociology of Physical Education and Activity at Chichester University.
  • Founder and Chair of the Association of Child Protection Professionals’ Special Interest Group in Safeguarding in Sport and an associate editor for the Child Abuse Review.

Professor Kari Fasting, PhD

  • Professor Emerita Norwegian School of Sports Sciences.
  • Past president of the International Association for Sociology of Sport
  • Founding member and past President of WomenSport International (WSI), and represents this organisation in the International Working Group for Women in Sport (IWG). 

Dr Emma Kavanagh

  • Associate Professor of Sport Psychology and Safe Sport at Bournemouth University and an HCPC-Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist.

Yoon Jin Kim, PhD

  • Assistant Professor in Sport Pedagogy, University of Birmingham, School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences.
  • Former elite swimmer representing South Korea and secondary school Physical Education teacher in Seoul.
  • Completed two IOC-funded projects on safeguarding in high-performance sport.
  • Research focuses on abuse issues in coaching environments.

Sandra Kirby, PhD

  • Professor Emerita at the University of Winnipeg and past Associate Vice-President (Academic), and Dean of Graduate Studies.
  • Former Olympic rower (1976), competitive cross-country skier, a masters rowing coach and was a FISA international umpire for rowing until the end of 2014.
  • Completed the first national quantitative survey of sexual harassment and abuse amongst Canadian Olympic and high performance athletes (1996).
  • Founding member of the WomenSport International Task Force on Sexual Harassment and Abuse (Chaired by Celia Brackenridge).

Professor Mike Hartill

  • Professor in the Sociology of Sport, Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Edge Hill University, Ormskirk, Lancashire, UK.
  • Director of the Centre for Child Protection and Safeguarding in Sport (CPSS) at Edge Hill University where he has lectured on the sociology of sport since 2002.
  • Has conducted research into sexual abuse in sport for the past twenty years as well as conducting some of the first research into child protection policy and procedures in sport.

Joanna Maranhão

  • Brazilian Olympian, survivor, advocate and researcher, and the coordinator of the SRA Athletes Network for Safer Sports.
  • Former professional swimmer, participating in four Olympic Games.
  • Joanna led the campaign to expand Brazil’s statutes of limitation to allow survivors of child sexual abuse more time to report and seek justice, succeeding in establishing a new law, which bears her name (the Joanna Maranhão Law).
  • Master of Sports Ethics and Integrity from the University of Leuven in Belgium, and a Bachelor in Physical Education from Faculdade Maurício de Nassau in Brazil. Joanna speaks Portuguese, English and Spanish.

Professor Katsumi Mori

  • Professor at National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Kanoya which is only national university in Japan specialising in sports.

Dr Lombe Mwambwa

  • Research Director at the Global Observatory for Gender Equality and Sport and a Post-Doctoral Researcher in the University of Lausanne (UNIL) Institute of Sport Sciences.

Professor Dr. Bettina Rulofs

  • Professor in the Sociology of Sport in the Department of Human and Social Sciences at the University of Wuppertal in Germany.

  • Main areas of research are gender and diversity studies, social inequality, child protection and prevention of sexual violence in sport.

  • Member of the National Working Group on Child Protection in Sport in Germany (since 2010)

  • From 2016-2018 lead the EU-funded project VOICE, which focused on the reports of those who have been affected by sexual violence in sport.

Minhyeok Tak PhD

  • Senior Lecturer in Sport Management at the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at Loughborough University.
  • Research focus on integrity issues in sport, including athlete safeguarding, competition manipulation from a political sociology perspective.
  • Completed an IOC-funded project on Safe Sport policy development and attendant challenges in South Korea.