Dr. Joe Baker is a professor in University of Toronto’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education where he is the Tanenbaum Research Chair in Sport Science, Data Modelling and Sport Analytics. His research considers the varying influences on optimal human development, ranging from issues affecting athlete development and skill acquisition to barriers and facilitators of successful aging. Joe is Past President of the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology and the author/editor of 13 books and over 300 scientific publications. www.bakerlab.kpe.utoronto.ca

Luke Bornn is a sports executive, former co-owner of Toulouse FC, co-founder of Zelus Analytics—now Teamworks Intelligence—and former professor of statistics at Harvard University. His work focuses on sports analytics, organizational strategy, and decision-making in professional sports.

Dr. Michael Catapano is a Sports Medicine Physiatrist specializing in ultrasound guided interventions, orthobiologics, and the non operative management of musculoskeletal injuries. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and works with elite athletes and professional sports organizations, with clinical and research interests in injury management and return to sport.

Jonathan Charest is a sleep researcher and consultant specializing in sleep, recovery, and athletic performance. He has authored multiple peer-reviewed publications on sleep and sport. His work focuses on the impact of sleep on performance, recovery, injury risk, mental health, and travel in athletes. Jonathan regularly collaborates with healthcare professionals, sports organizations, and elite performers to translate sleep science into practical strategies.

Dr. Davenport is a University of Alberta Professor and Director of the Program for Pregnancy and Postpartum Health. She chaired the 2019/2025 Canadian guidelines and 2026 IOC Consensus Statement for Athletes during and following pregnancy.  With over 200 publications, she collaborates globally with organizations like FIFA, WHO, and the IOC.

Professor Wayne Derman is a specialist Sports and Exercise Medicine Physician, Head of the Division of Sport and Exercise Medicine at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and Medical Director of the International Paralympic Committee. He has published over 350 peer-reviewed articles on athlete health, and served as Chief Medical Officer at multiple Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Dr. Giersch received her PhD from the University of Connecticut in 2020 and completed a postdoc with the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine from 2020-2022. Since then has worked in the field of heat and hydration research, with a specific emphasis on the female-specific response. She has authored over 50 publications in this area and has led multiple human subjects investigations.

Dr. Gretchen Kerr is a full professor and Dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at the University of Toronto, with responsibilities for both the Faculty’s academic and research activities as well as the sport and recreation programs that serve the university and surrounding communities. As an expert on gender-based violence in sport, Dr. Kerr is frequently commissioned to inform decision-makers in the high-performance sports community about her research which focuses on athletes’ experiences of maltreatment in sport, and the systemic changes needed to advance safe, healthy, inclusive and welcoming sport. The current public and political attention to maltreatment in sport was presaged by years of empirical evidence accumulated in the published research of Dr. Kerr and her graduate students.

Ron Maughan has spent much of his career trying to understand the physiological and metabolic responses to exercise and the nature of fatigue, but has included many digressions along the way. He has published extensively in the scientific literature and is author or editor of a number of books on sports nutrition and exercise biochemistry.

Marcus Mazzucco is an Adjunct Lecturer of Sports Law in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto, as well as Senior Counsel for the Ontario Ministry of Health. His research and advocacy efforts focus on athletes’ rights in the Olympic movement and anti-doping system.

Dr. William C. Meyers has spent over 40 years pioneering the diagnosis and treatment of core muscle injuries. He founded Vincera Institute in 2010 and has treated more than 50,000 patients. A Harvard, Columbia, and Wharton graduate, he is widely recognized as the leading authority in this field.

Dr. Mottola was co-lead author on the 2019 Canadian Guideline for Physical Activity throughout Pregnancy and helped develop the Get Active Questionnaire for Pregnancy and for Health Care Providers. Dr. Mottola assisted in developing the 2025 Canadian Guideline for Physical Activity, Sedentary Behaviour and Sleep throughout the First Year Postpartum and the companion Get Active Questionnaire for Postpartum.

Clare Padmore is a native of Toronto and is in her third season with the Toronto Blue Jays where she serves as their Biomechanist. In her current role, Padmore drives player performance and health research to provide evidence-based recommendations to key stakeholders within the Blue Jays Organization.

Prior to joining the Blue Jays, Padmore completed a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering with a focus in Biomechanics and a specialization in Collaborative Training Program in Musculoskeletal Health Research and M.Eng. in Mechanical and Materials Engineering with a focus in Medicine at Western University. Padmore’s Ph.D. research focused on upper limb injury biomechanics, and during her time she authored fifteen peer-reviewed journal articles.

Padmore also played Division I Collegiate Ice Hockey for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute while she completed her B.Sc. in Civil Engineering. In addition, from 2009-2011 she was a member of Team Canada Women’s Ball Hockey who won Gold (2009) and Silver (2011) in back-to-back World Ball Hockey Championships.

Padmore currently serves as an associate coach with North Halton Girls Hockey Associate and is a long-standing volunteer with Toronto Leaside Girls Hockey Association and Withrow Park Ball Hockey Association.

Devin is the Senior Director of Research and Development for Team Operations at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, with leadership roles in both the Sport Performance Lab and SportsX programs. These groups are tasked with executing strategic research initiatives to develop competitive advantage for MLSE teams on the court, field, and ice.

Before joining MLSE, Devin worked for Opta Sports, Major League Soccer, and as a soccer coach. Devin has a technical background in both Computer Science and Goalkeeping and is a regular contributor to the sports analytics community.

Dr. Zoë Poucher is a sport psychology researcher specializing in athlete mental health, wellbeing, and high-performance sport systems. Her research on elite and Olympic athletes has been widely published in leading journals. She now appies her expertise at EA, to help enhance social interactions and player experiences.

Dr. David Radke is a Senior Research Scientist with the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL. His group focuses on research at the frontier of artificial intelligence (AI) and ice hockey to better understand and improve player evaluation, roster construction, and in-game strategy. Dr. Radke holds a PhD in Artificial Intelligence from the University of Waterloo where he also served as an assistant captain of the USports men’s ice hockey team for two seasons. During his undergraduate education, he played NCAA Division I ice hockey at Colorado College.

Andreas Serner is FIFA’s Research Lead, guiding global scientific efforts to improve player health and reduce research waste in football. Formerly a clinician‑researcher at Aspetar, he is internationally recognized for his expertise in groin pain and has treated and advised elite athletes and professional teams across multiple sports and continents.

Dr. Alex Hutchinson is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist and Outside’s Sweat Science columnist, covering the latest research on endurance and outdoor sports. His most recent book is the New York Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance. Before becoming a journalist, he completed a PhD in physics at the University of Cambridge and worked as a researcher in the National Security Agency’s Quantum Computing group. He also competed for the Canadian national team in track, cross-country, road, and mountain running. He lives (and runs) in Toronto.

Michael Hutchison oversees the clinical and research activities related to sport concussion at the David L. MacIntosh Sport Medicine Clinic, University of Toronto. He holds a PhD in Rehabilitation Science from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine and specializes in sport-related concussion research in various populations, including adolescent students, university level students, and professional athletes.

Dr. Jacobs was the inaugural Director of the Tanenbaum Institute for Science in Sport. A Professor Emeritus, he recently completed 11 years as the Dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education at the University of Toronto. He previously served as the Chair of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science at York University in Toronto.

Dr. Jacobs has over 25 years of experience as a federal government scientist, having held progressively increasing scientific and executive level appointments within Defence Research & Development Canada (DRDC). He received his doctorate from the Department of Clinical Physiology at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, where he specialized in skeletal muscle metabolism. For the next 25 years he carried out extensive applied human physiology research and was appointed to roles with increasing leadership responsibilities at the Canadian federal government’s human sciences research centre operated by the Department of National Defence, where he attained the position of centre Chief Scientist. During that period, he received scientific research awards for his initiation and leadership of a unique international research group of physiologists and physicians who provided physiological support and advice about physiological, nutritional and pharmacological strategies to sustain and enhance the performance of military personnel. He has published over 200 scientific articles, reports and book chapters about his research interests, which include: performance enhancement through physiological, pharmacological and nutritional manipulation of metabolism, the physiological responses to physical exertion in environmental extremes, and energy metabolism.

He is a past President of the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology, and was awarded its highest award for his career research achievements. He is an inducted Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, the American College of Sports Medicine, and the US National Academy of Kinesiology. He received the Canadian Peacekeeping Service medal from the Government of Canada for his work as a United Nations biological weapons inspector 1995-1998.

His senior leadership roles have been in the government, academic and business/industrial sectors and have included managerial, administrative, and fiduciary responsibilities and accountabilities for large numbers of scientific, technical, administrative, and academic staff. He has also applied his expertise and knowledge in human physiology as a consultant to private, Canadian, and international government agencies.

Dr. Gretchen Kerr is a full professor and Dean of the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education at the University of Toronto, with responsibilities for both the Faculty’s academic and research activities as well as the sport and recreation programs that serve the university and surrounding communities. As an expert on gender-based violence in sport, Dr. Kerr is frequently commissioned to inform decision-makers in the high-performance sports community about her research which focuses on athletes’ experiences of maltreatment in sport, and the systemic changes needed to advance safe, healthy, inclusive and welcoming sport. The current public and political attention to maltreatment in sport was presaged by years of empirical evidence accumulated in the published research of Dr. Kerr and her graduate students.

An elite athlete for most of her life, Anne Merklinger was a member of Canada's national swim team from 1977–1981. Anne earned a silver medal at the 1979 World University Games in the 200‐metre breaststroke.

After a distinguished swimming career, Anne focused on curling and since the early 1980's she competed with distinction at every major event she entered. She was consistently ranked as one of Canada's foremost curlers, winning the Ontario Women’s Curling Championships in 1993, 1994, 1998 and 2000. She has twice led her team to the final of the Scott Tournament of Hearts (1998 and 2000).

A passionate, creative, and inspiring leader, Anne has more than 35 years of management experience with national sport organizations. Prior to becoming CEO, Anne held the position of Director, Summer Sports with Own the Podium. She previously worked with CanoeKayak Canada in the role of Director General, and has also worked with the Commission for Inclusion of Athletes with a Disability and the Canadian Federation of Sport Organization for the Disabled.

Anne’s life‐long experience in sport as an athlete and professional is complemented by extensive volunteer experience with a number of organizations including the Sandra Schmirler Foundation, Women’s Tour of Curling, Women and Sport, and Special Olympics Canada.

Devin is the Senior Director of Research and Development for Team Operations at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, with leadership roles in both the Sport Performance Lab and SportsX programs. These groups are tasked with executing strategic research initiatives to develop competitive advantage for MLSE teams on the court, field, and ice.

Before joining MLSE, Devin worked for Opta Sports, Major League Soccer, and as a soccer coach. Devin has a technical background in both Computer Science and Goalkeeping and is a regular contributor to the sports analytics community.

Dr. Daniel (Danny) Whelan earned his Medical Degree at Memorial University, completed orthopaedic residency training at the University of Toronto and subsequently completed an MSc in epidemiology at the University of Western Ontario concurrent with a clinical fellowship at the Fowler-Kennedy Sport medicine clinic. He returned to Toronto for a staff position at St. Michael’s Hospital and is currently an associate professor at the University of Toronto and a scientist at the Keenan Research Centre of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute.

He currently serves as the Head of the University of Toronto Orthopaedic Sport Medicine Program (UTOSM) and is the holder of the Professorship in Orthopaedic Sport Medicine with the Tannenbaum Institute for Sport Science. In his role at St. Mike’s, a level I trauma centre, Dr. Whelan’s clinical interest lies somewhere between trauma and sports medicine and he has developed an extensive experience in the treatment of knee dislocations and multi ligament knee injuries.

Dr. Whelan is currently involved in several national and international multi-centre clinical trials in orthopaedic sport medicine, with ongoing investigations on multi-ligament knee injuries, arthroscopic surgery for femoro acetabular impingement and lateral extra articular tenodesis in ACL reconstruction. Dr. Whelan’s other research interests include joint instability, particularly of the knee and shoulder, hip pain in the young adult, and randomized trials in surgery.