StepChange 2026
From paper to pitch: speakers
16–20 November 2026 | Online | Free to attend
Meet the researchers, safeguarding specialists, football practitioners, player care professionals and lived-experience voices contributing to Project StepChange: from paper to pitch..
Bringing research, practice and football experience together
Project StepChange: from paper to pitch will bring together a range of contributors working across safeguarding, football, research, player care and athlete welfare.
Across the event series, speakers and contributors will explore how safeguarding can be strengthened across the elite player pathway, from academy environments and member association responsibilities to survivor voice, young people’s perspectives, proactive protection and player care.
The programme is designed to support shared learning and practical reflection, helping participants consider how research-informed approaches can be translated into safer football environments.
Meet the speakers
The event features contributions from people working across research, safeguarding, football governance, player care, lived experience, youth voice and international football contexts.
Dr Jon Brain is a Safe Sport researcher at Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, whose work brings together safeguarding research and applied sport psychology to better understand and support safer, healthier performance environments.
Jon coordinates Safe Football Allies, a four-year project funded by the Oak Foundation that is developing and evaluating a season-long safeguarding education programme for elite youth football in Belgium. Building on the evidence-informed Safe Sport Allies bystander intervention, the project works collaboratively with the Royal Belgian Football Association, Voetbal Vlaanderen, Football Francophone Amateur, the Belgian Sport Ministries, Ghent University and Sportieq to embed safeguarding into everyday academy practice and contribute to sustainable cultural change within Belgian football.
Jon brings a distinctive practitioner–researcher perspective to his work. He is a registered Practitioner Psychologist with the UK Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and holds a Professional Doctorate in Sport and Exercise Psychology from the University of Portsmouth.
Beyond safeguarding, Jon’s research spans sport psychology professional practice and development, cultural sport psychology, and esports psychology.
Nicole Johnson
Director of League Safety, National Women’s Soccer League
Nicole Johnson is the Director of League Safety for the National Women’s Soccer League where she leads player wellbeing, league safety, and systemic integrity initiatives across the NWSL’s 16 clubs. Nicole brings a decade of experience shaping athlete-centered policies across global sport systems.
Nicole’s work has ranged from leading safeguarding policy overhauls, creating national coach education programs completed by more than 3 million people, hosting international best practice sharing workshops, and organizing inclusive sport programs across West Africa. Her work consistently bridges local impact with international best practices.
Prior to her role at the National Women’s Soccer League, Nicole started the safeguarding department at the Colorado Rapids Major League Soccer club—the first comprehensive safeguarding team in United States professional sport.
Nicole has worked across continents to implement inclusive sport policies, contribute to high-impact research at leading labs, and design safeguarding strategies for youth and elite athletes alike.
Dr. Paul Stewart
CEO, The Safeguarding Union
Paul Stewart is a former Premier League footballer who played for Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, and Liverpool, and earned three caps for England. In 2016, he publicly waived his anonymity to speak out about the severe physical and sexual abuse he suffered as a 10-year-old youth player in Manchester.
Today, Paul travels internationally to raise safeguarding awareness and educate organizations on protecting young people. Working extensively across sport and education, he supports schools, universities, governing bodies, and professional clubs. He collaborates with the EFL Life Skills team, The FA, SFA, FAW, and Premier League clubs, delivering workshops to coaches, parents, players, and safeguarding professionals. His presentations blend a unique survivor’s perspective with practical insights for building safer environments.
His dedication has earned major recognition, including an honorary doctorate from the University of Salford and the 2024 Contribution to League Football Award for his impact on safeguarding in football. In 2025, The FA honored him with the prestigious Sir Bobby Charlton Award.
Beyond public speaking, Paul drives systemic change through several key initiatives. He created the Safeguarding in Sport online course and a dedicated safeguarding quality mark through his company, Safeguarding Fundamentals. He is also the founder and Executive Chairman of The Safeguarding Union.
Norman Brook, MBE
Brook Sport Consulting
Norman Brook is a global advocate for safeguarding in sport and author of the Safe Sport Storyline Substack newsletter. Based in Cape Town, he first became involved in sfeguarding in sport in the United Kingdom in the early 1990s.
A former UK National Athletics Coach and Technical Director for Endurance Events, he later served as CEO of the British Triathlon Federation and as a member of the British National Olympic Committee.
He now advises organisations including FIFA, CAF, Rugby Africa, SASCOC, and the African Union Sports Council on safeguarding in sport.
Subash Neupane
Founder Director, Football Yatri
Subash is a sports management and safeguarding professional with extensive experience across football development, competition management and player welfare in Nepal and the wider Asian football context.
He is a member of the Survivor’s Advisory Group at YourSide and serves as teaching faculty on the Master’s Degree in Sports Science at Tribhuvan University in Nepal. He also holds the AFC Football Management Diploma and the FIFA Guardians Safeguarding in Football Award.
From 2019 to 2024, he worked as Women’s Football and Competition Manager at the Football Association in Nepal, supporting the development and delivery of women’s football and national competition structures. He has also served as a Match Commissioner and Local General Coordinator across a range of national and international football competitions, including the FIFA World Cup 2026 Asian Qualifiers, Women’s Football Olympic Qualifiers and AFC Asian Qualifiers.
He is also the founder of Football Yatri, a non-profit organisation that works to motivate children and young people to participate in football and other sports, while exploring and promoting football across different parts of Nepal.
Simon Russell
CEO of Wiltshire FA
Simon is the CEO and Senior Safeguarding Lead for Wiltshire FA. For The FA, he also supports Coach Education and Coach Mentoring.
In affiliated football in Wiltshire, there are over 22,000 registered players, plus thousands of coaches and club and league officials – in both paid and voluntary roles.
As well as supporting all of these participants, the team that Simon leads are also responsible for the development and wellbeing of nearly 400 match officials.
Aligned with national priorities, the focus is to make involvement in football in any context safe, inclusive, and a positive experience.
In the last few years, this has been extended to work with partners like FearFree, using the reach of football to more proactively address issues like abuse whether they impact people in a football setting or in any other part of their lives.
Prior to working in football, Simon worked in communication, public affairs, and policy engagement roles for commercial businesses, not-for-profit organisations, and a leading UK university.
He is a Board Trustee for an Active Partnership – an organisation that inspires and supports people to be more active, and also a regional charity that supports people with sight loss to lead more independent lives.
Annabel Timmins
Safeguarding Consultant
Annabel Timmins is a registered social worker with a background in safeguarding across health, education and sport. A former Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO), she has extensive experience of safeguarding leadership, governance and risk management.
More recently, Annabel has worked within the sport sector at director level, supporting organisations to strengthen safeguarding practice, drive culture change and create safer environments for participants at all levels of sport.
Annabel currently serves as Chair of the UK Athletics and RFU Case Management Groups, Board Safeguarding Lead for British Gymnastics and Somerset County Cricket Club and Chair of the Cricket Regulator’s Lived Experience Advisory Group. She brings significant expertise in safeguarding governance, organisational culture and participant welfare, supporting organisations to place safety and wellbeing at the heart of decision-making.
Vicky Conde Sancho
Creator of FIX IT! – The sports integrity and values game; Member of the SAG at YourSide
Creator of FIX IT!. Former football player and coach. Educator. Vicky Conde Sancho holds a BSc in Sports Science and Physical Activity from the University of Alcalá (Spain) and a BS in Exercise Science from Southern Connecticut State University (US). Vicky earned a Master’s in Education (University of Alcalá) and a Master’s in Sports Ethics and Integrity (KU Leuven University).
Vicky has been working in football for development for over five years, supporting disadvantaged groups through football worldwide. She created FIX IT!, a card game designed to foster safer and more inclusive spaces in sport and education, supporting coaches, educators, athletes, and families in their safeguarding efforts while having fun.
Kim Shore
Advocate and Founder, Project SafeKids
Kim Shore is an internationally recognized advocate transforming conversations about athlete safety, child protection, and human rights. A former elite athlete and sport abuse survivor, she has become a fearless champion for survivors. In 2022, she co-founded Gymnasts for Change Canada, igniting national calls for reform.
Her advocacy, published articles, testifying before Parliament, advising international sport leaders, and contributions to Canada’s Future of Sport Commission, positions the survivor voice as a catalyst for systemic change. As a Trustee of Safe Sport International and founder of Project Safe Kids, she is part of a global collective driving change to the culture and governance of youth sport worldwide.
Tiago Braz
Certification Coordinator / Portuguese Football Federation
Tiago Braz is a football development and quality assurance professional with more than 20 years of experience in Portuguese football. He currently serves as Coordinator of the Club Academy Quality Certification Program at the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), leading the national certification process for over 1,500 academy assessments annually and working closely with clubs, evaluators, and regional football associations to promote excellence in youth development.
Throughout his career, Tiago has held roles in coach education, team management, football operations, and strategic project coordination. His work focuses on improving standards in academy management, governance, player welfare, safeguarding, infrastructure, and talent development.
A strong advocate for safe and positive sporting environments, he has been actively involved in safeguarding initiatives within football and has contributed to national and international discussions on player welfare and child protection in sport. His experience includes collaborating with UEFA, FIFA, football associations, clubs, and external stakeholders to foster environments where young athletes can develop safely and reach their full potential.
Tiago is passionate about translating policy into practice, ensuring that safeguarding principles are embedded in the day-to-day reality of clubs and academies. Through certification and continuous improvement processes, he works to strengthen the quality, sustainability, and social responsibility of football organizations across Portugal.
Alex Hepton
Director, the playWELL Learning Academy
Alex supports professional football and other sports organisations at world, national and Club level. He has a keen interest in helping organisations to create environments that improve trust, safety and performance through better understanding and support of people, and their behaviour, in the context of their experiences – in particular, trauma, adversity and neurodivergence.
Alex is a champion of children’s rights in sport and supports organisations to create opportunities where young people can co-create their environment using meaningful approaches to hearing young people’s voices.
He has established the playWELL Learning Academy based on the trauma and neurodivergence informed playWELL Performance Wellbeing Model. The Academy offers online, hybrid and in person learning experiences for people working in performance sport.
Alex has previously worked across the voluntary, public and private sectors as a coach, project manager, youth worker and safeguarding lead. Most recently, he led Arsenal Academy’s safeguarding provision and their approach to creating a culture of challenge and care.
Lee Richardson
Founder Director AIM FOR
Lee is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with an uncommon combination of lived expereince in elite playing, coaching, management, psychological practice and business leadership.
Following 450 professional football appearances, Lee completed the UEFA Pro Licence and managed 110 first-team games as a Manager, before establishing a career in performance psychology and becoming a fully Chartered Professional. His consultancy has included three Premier League clubs, international youth football, professional cricket and long-standing work with the Professional Footballers’ Association.
Most recently Lee was the Head of Psychology at Liverpool FC from 2019 to 2026. He brings credibility inside high-performance environments and the clinical, behavioural and organisational insight to influence individuals, teams and leaders.
Lee has publised research on Psychological Skills development through online courses (Richardson et,al, 2021) in the Scandanavian Journal of SPort & Excercise Psychology.
Lee is also the Founder of Achievement In Mind Ltd (AIM) in 2010 and AIM FOR SOLUTION LTD in 2013, translating applied psychology into scalable support for performance, development and mental health across professional and grassroots sport.
Lee’s Academic qualifcations include BSc Hons in Psychology, MSc in Sport & Exercise Psychology, full Stage 2 Training as Sport & Excercise Psychologist, and a PG Diploma in Neuroscience & Psychology of Mental Health.
Dr. Catalina Melendro Blanco
Research Associate
Catalina Melendro Blanco (Colombia) is a former elite athlete, gender equality and sport governance consultant, and researcher working at the intersection of athlete rights, safeguarding, gender equality and sport governance. Her work is grounded in both lived experience within sport and a commitment to strengthening systems that protect and empower most marginalised athletes and vulnerable participants.
Catalina is currently a researcher on the STEP Change (Safeguarding the Elite Football Pathway) project at Loughborough University and contributes to Generation 2026: Advancing Safer Youth-Inclusive Sports with the Centre for Sport and Human Rights. She is also a member of the Olympic Studies Research Centre for Safe Sport and Human Rights at Canterbury Christ Church University and the Colombian Olympic Academy.
Her perspective is shaped by experience across multiple levels of the sport system, as an international athlete and coach, university lecturer, national sport official and member of the Colombian National Olympic Academy. This experience informs her focus on the gap between sport policies and athletes’ lived realities, and on how governance, safeguarding and equality systems can become more measurable, accountable, meaningful, participatory and responsive.
Catalina’s professional and research work includes designing and implementing safeguarding and gender equality initiatives, including national policy tools, education programmes and policy guidance. Her research draws on intersectional feminist, decolonial and Global South-informed approaches to athlete safeguarding, with particular attention to structural inequalities, marginalised groups and the conditions that shape athletes’ ability to speak up, participate safely and exercise their rights. She is particularly interested in moving beyond performative safeguarding towards meaningful, context-responsive and athlete-centred change.
Michelle Mills
Sport for Development Researcher, UNICEF Innocenti
Michelle Mills is a qualitative researcher with UNICEF Innocenti, where she leads and contributes to multi-country, applied research on children, their rights and systems change. Her work focuses on understanding how policies and systems are experienced in practice, particularly in settings where responsibility for children’s well-being is shared across institutions and actors.
Her current research examines residential sport academies, with a particular focus on football pathways in which children and adolescents live away from parental care for sustained periods in pursuit of talent-based training. She is exploring these settings not only as skill-development environments, but also as places that assume significant responsibility for children’s everyday care, safety and well-being.
Michelle’s research combines evidence synthesis with qualitative investigation aimed at capturing lived experiences and perspectives across sport, safeguarding and athlete welfare. Drawing on comparative learning from multiple sports, she examines the diversity of residential academy models, governance and legal responsibility, reporting systems, gendered experiences, family relationships, and the support available when young people leave these pathways.
At StepChange 2026, Michelle will present emerging findings from this ongoing research and consider what they mean for the standards, oversight and systems needed to protect and support children’s rights in residential sport academies.
Isabel Fuchs Laurito
Especialista em Salvaguarda
Isabel Fuchs Laurito é ex-jogadora de futebol, com passagens pelo Brasil e pela 2. Frauen-Bundesliga, na Alemanha, e conhece o ambiente do futebol por dentro. Hoje é profissional de salvaguarda e proteção. Como Gerente de Salvaguarda em um clube da primeira divisão brasileira, parte de um grupo multiclubes global, desenhou e implementou a primeira política de salvaguarda do futebol brasileiro, conduzindo sua implementação nas categorias de base do clube. Também traz experiência em proteção de crianças em contextos de emergência humanitária.
(Isabel Fuchs Laurito is a former footballer who played in Brazil and in Germany’s 2. Frauen-Bundesliga, and knows football environments from the inside. Today she is a safeguarding and protection professional. As Safeguarding Manager at a top-flight Brazilian club within a global multi-club group, she designed and implemented the first safeguarding policy in Brazilian football, leading its rollout across the club’s youth pathway. She also brings experience in child protection in humanitarian emergency settings.)
Chris Thurston
Director – Performance Wellbeing Services
Chris Thurston is a performance wellbeing and player care specialist and Director of Performance Wellbeing Services. Having experienced the academy pathway as a player himself, Chris brings both personal and professional insight into the opportunities and challenges faced by young people in elite football.
Chris supports organisations to develop person-centred approaches to wellbeing, player care, safeguarding and personal development. His professional experience spans education and football, including working across the academy environments at Arsenal and Watford Football Clubs, where he supported young players and their families across education, welfare, personal development and the transitions associated with the elite pathway.
Chris also works as a consultant with Performance Wellbeing & Safeguarding Ltd, supporting the development and delivery of the playWELL Academy and contributing to work that strengthens approaches to performance wellbeing, player care and safeguarding.
His experience across education and high-performance sport gives Chris a particular interest in connecting policy and practice, helping organisations develop environments where young people feel supported, safe and able to develop both as players and individuals.
Katie Hanna
Former Head of North America, Centre for Sport and Human Rights
Katie Hanna led the Centre for Sport and Human Rights’ Generation 2026 initiative from 2022 to September 2026, serving as Head of North America. She brings two decades of experience in sexual abuse prevention, youth protection, and public policy, with a focus on child safeguarding in sports.
She has held leadership roles across the government, civil society, and sports sectors, serving on national and international advisory groups.
Dr. Cheryl-Ann Boodram
Lecturer, Department of Behavioural Sciences, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine
Dr. Cheryl-Ann Boodram is a Lecturer and Practicum Coordinator in the Social Work Programme at The University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine Campus.
Dr. Boodram’s is a sport social worker and educator, research and scholar-practitoner. Her work focuses on safeguarding, athlete wellbeing and the psychosocial support of young athletes in the Caribbean. She is Co-Chair of the UWI/TTFA Safeguarding Steering Committee and in this role, her work centers on the rapidly evolving intersections of safeguarding in sport, social work, and governance.
Her current research looks at the mental health and wellness of athletes, the role of safeguarding in promoting inclusion of women and girls in football and psychosocial support for youth athletes during athlete transitions.
She is also editing an interdisciplinary volume on Safeguarding in the Caribbean: Practice, Policy and Perspectives.
At Safe Sport 2026, Dr. Boodram will present on the role of Member Associations in supporting safeguarding. Drawing on the Caribbean experience, she will look at how national associations can turn global safeguarding standards into local structures, partnerships and practice.
Areas of expertise
The speaker programme will bring together insight across key areas including:
Safeguarding in football academies
Exploring how safer environments can be developed across elite player pathways.
Player care and wellbeing
Considering how young players can be supported throughout development, transition and change.
Survivor voice and lived experience
Learning from those with direct experience of harm and safeguarding systems.
Young voices in football
Ensuring young people’s perspectives inform safer practice.
Member association responsibility
Examining the role of football bodies in supporting safeguarding and player care.
Women and girls’ football
Recognising specific safeguarding considerations across women’s and girls’ pathways.
Responding to concerns
Building trusted, trauma-informed and accountable response systems.
International perspectives
Supporting access and shared learning through sessions delivered in English, Spanish and Portuguese.
Why contributors matter
From individual expertise to shared responsibility
Safeguarding the elite player pathway requires more than one perspective.
It depends on collaboration between researchers, safeguarding leads, football organisations, player care teams, coaches, member associations, survivor advocates and young people themselves.
The contributors to Project StepChange: from paper to pitch will help connect evidence with experience, and policy with the everyday realities of football environments.
Join the conversation
Project StepChange: from paper to pitch is a free online event series for people and organisations committed to safer football pathways.
16–20 November 2026 | Online | Free to attend