Winter 2023: Christy Baker
Christy is a fifth year Psychology student completing an Experiential Learning placement at the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health. She is a student in HWSS with an interest in health promotion. During her placement, she will be doing web design for the Centre, including TerminalFour training, information management, and updating current content.

2022-2023: Ève LeBlanc 
Ève worked as a SMUWorks student, namely assisting with research and outreach. She assisted with qualitative coding for project on the development of women’s professional hockey, helped organize a film screening and panel presentation with Oscar winner Ben Proudfoot, and also organized a session on athlete mental health with former national hockey program member Kendra Fisher.

Summer 2022: Erin Denny
Erin was a member of the consultation group for the Indigenous U SPORTS transitions research project led by Ryan Francis and Cheryl MacDonald. An Indigenous athlete herself and member of the SMU Huskies women's hockey team, Erin has joined the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health as a research assistant working on the project design.

2019-2020: Morgan Wolfe
Morgan worked at the McCain McLean Centre in a SMUWorks position. A former member of the SMU women's rugby team and a leader in the SMU TedX Talks initiative, Morgan provided support with research, social media, event organization and execution, and other odd jobs at the Centre in collaboration with Cheryl MacDonald and Heidi Weigand. 

2018-2019: Brent Martindale
Under the guidance of Heidi Weigand, Brent developed the Open Doors, Open Minds initiative, a peer-led mentorship program housed in the McCain McLean Centre. As a SMU men's basketball athlete and a mental health advocate, Brent believed in the value of athletes having opportunities to connect with others in a safe and welcoming space on campus. 

Senior Research Associates:

Dr. Brian Kennedy 

Senior Research Associate

Best-selling author Dr. Brian Kennedy continues to be a frequent visitor at the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health. A Canadian working at Pasadena City College in California, Brian has visited SMU for the purposes of research on his books about hockey and for conferences. He has been a Senior Research associate with the McCain McLean Centre since 2019 and participates regularly in its conferences, symposiums, and book launches. In 2023 he hosted the former McCain McLean Director Dr. Cheryl MacDonald in California and they travelled to Las Vegas to present on hockey at the annual meeting of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport. Brian attended the 2024 EIHL playoffs in Nottingham, England and wrote an article that included an interview with former SMU Men's Hockey Husky Mitchell Balmas.

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Dr. Cheryl MacDonald

Senior Research Associate

Dr. Cheryl MacDonald is a Saint Mary’s alumna and former Director of the McCain McLean Centre. She holds a PhD in Social & Cultural Analysis from Concordia University, is currently completing a second master’s degree (in Sport & Recreation Studies) and now works as the CEO of Sport New Brunswick. She is in her first term as a Research Associate during which we will continue her research on the development of women’s professional ice hockey, First Nation university athlete wellbeing, and university athlete support and development programming. Dr. MacDonald is also currently leading an edited collection on athlete safety and wellbeing in Canada.

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Dr. Heidi Weigand

Senior Research Associate 

Dr. Weigand holds two degrees from Saint Mary's and was previously the Director of Community Programming at the McCain McLean Centre. She was instrumental in developing leadership programming for university athletes on campus. Her latest research connected to the Centre focuses on the ways in which Generation Z and Millennials engage with the workforce (the most recent branch of the study is on kindness). 

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Visitors and Affiliates:

Carly Adams
University of Lethbridge
Dr. Adams has been a visitor at the McCain McLean Centre several times. She completed a six-week visit in 2012 to undertake research for her book on women’s hockey in Canada. At the end of her stay she was an active participant in the Hockey Conference. While on sabbatical, Dr. Adams returned to the McCain McLean Centre for a three-month stay in 2015 to continue her research on women’s hockey in Atlantic Canada. Her most recent visit was in Winter 2023 for seven weeks and featured a talk in the History Department’s Seminar Series about digital storytelling and community histories. 

Eileen Angelini
SUNY Empire State College
One of the most active of the McCain McLean Centre visiting research associates, Dr. Angelini came to Halifax as a Fulbright scholar in 2011 and has returned regularly since then as she continues her work on Maurice Richard and on French language pedagogy. She is also a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Palmes Académiques.

Lori Dithurbide
Dalhousie University
A Saint Mary’s graduate, Dr. Dithurbide returned to campus as a postdoctoral scholar at the McCain McLean Centre for the 2011 fall term. She was an active member of the 2012 Hockey Conference organizing team and, along with Dr. Howell. co-edited the proceedings volume. She is also on the 2020 Hockey Conference (2021 edition) organizing committee.

Russell Field
University of Manitoba
Dr. Field was a visiting researcher at the McCain McLean Centre in 2013-14 undertaking research on his “Peoples History of Canadian Sport” project. While here Dr. Field focused on the history of sport in Africville and more broadly on people of colour in Nova Scotia. Dr. Field is also interested in the history of sporting events as sites of resistance and protest.

Jeffrey Gherson
University of Massachusetts at Lowell
Dr. Gerson came to the McCain McLean Centre in June, 2013 to do work on intercollegiate women’s hockey in Canada as part of his book on college hockey in North America. While here he interviewed a number of people involved in women’s hockey. Dr. Gerson also takes an interest in the study of coaching.

Stephen Hardy
University of New Hampshire
One of North America’s leading sport scholars, Dr. Hardy has been a regular visitor to the McCain McLean Centre and is a member of its international advisory board. He completed a history of hockey in its international context along with Dr. Andrew Holman entitled Hockey: A Global History.

Jason Laurendeau
University of Lethbridge
A sport sociologist with an interest in sport and risk behaviour, Dr. Laurendeau undertook a six-week research project in association with the Department of Search and Rescue in Nova Scotia while at the McCain McLean Centre. He returned to the McCain McLean Centre for a three-month stay in 2015 to continue his work on risk behavior in sport and again in 2023 for seven weeks. During his last stay, Jay consulted on the planning of an Indigenous sport and physical activity symposium, namely on the communications side. He will return briefly in July 2023 when he volunteers at the North American Indigenous Games. 

Daryl Leeworthy
The Open University
Dr. Leeworthy was a research associate at the McCain McLean Centre in the summer of 2009 working with Dr. Howell. Over the years they have collaborated on a number of borderlands projects. Dr. Leeworthy returned in 2012 and 2013 to present papers at conferences hosted by the McCain McLean Centre and again in 2017 to speak at the Fall Lecture Series.

David McNeil
Dalhousie University
Dr. McNeil is a retired member of Dalhousie University's English department. He has frequently visited and collaborated with the McCain McLean Centre, most recently as a guest speaker in the 2019 Fall speaker series on hockey. He is also a member of the organizing committee for the 2020 Hockey Conference (2021 edition). 

Sean O’Neill
Texas Christian University
Dr. O’Neil has been a visiting research associate at the McCain McLean Centre since 2017. He is working on the intersection of religion, sport and disability. He has been a regular visitor to the Centre for a number of years and given a number of public lectures and seminars. His sole-authored manuscript on the role of religion in the lives of athletes who have suffered tragic and disabling injuries is set to be published by the University of Tennessee Press in the near future.

John Reid
Retired from Saint Mary’s University
Dr. Reid became a member of the History department at Saint Mary's University in 1985 and held the position of Senior Research Fellow at the Gorsebrook Research Institute on campus. He retired from teaching in 2023. His principal teaching and research interests included the history of early modern northeastern North America (focusing especially on imperial-Indigenous relations), the history of Atlantic Canada, the history of higher education, and the history of sport.

Erik Tiley Lyman
A Sociologist and R3 European Commission level Research Fellow
Erik Tiley Lyman completed his postdoctoral equivalent research habilitation in 2013 during Dr. Howell's active tenure with the Centre. He is a UK Lecturer level academic having his Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh's School of Social and Political Science (SSPS) in Scotland translating to knowledge production value involving a Sociology of Culture and Qualitative Sociology/Methodology with specific expertise pronunciations involving the Polish Peasant Study (visual emphasis). One characteristic of his McCain McLean Centre fellowship was a Sociology of Sport research trajectory for future book length work on the Olympic Games.

Peter Tingling
Simon Fraser University
While on sabbatical from SFU, Dr. Tingling taught at Saint Mary’s in the Department of Management and joined the McCain McLean Centre as a visiting research associate. Dr. Tingling undertook research on the selection and management processes related to the hockey draft, and presented his findings at the Putting it on Ice Conference in 2012.

Peter L. Twohig 
Saint Mary's University
Dr. Twohig is a Full Professor in the Department of History and the Atlantic Canada Studies program at Saint Mary’s University. From 2003-2013, he held a Tier II Canada Research Chair. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists in 2014, received the President’s Award for Research Excellence, Fall 2017, and served as the President of the Canadian Society for the History of Medicine (2017-2019). His research has been funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation, SSHRC, and the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women.

Alexander Soucy
Saint Mary’s University
Dr. Soucy is an anthropologist and chair of the Religious Studies Department at Saint Mary’s. In 2019 he formed the Halifax Bike Lab with Dr. Sara Kirk (Dalhousie University). The project is looking at the connection between building safe bicycle infrastructure and the development of a bicycle culture in the Halifax Regional Municipality that normalizes the use of cycling for transportation and commuting. To date we have undertaken research projects in collaboration with the Halifax Cycling Coalition, the Ecology Action Centre, and Vélo Canada Bikes.

Bob Dawson
Sportswriter, Diversity Management Consultant, and Black Hockey Historian
Born in Dartmouth, NS, Bob Dawson, an all-round athlete, excelled in baseball, basketball and hockey. On the latter, he was the “first black” in 1967 to play in what was then the Atlantic Intercollegiate Hockey League with Saint Mary’s University. Bob went on to Dalhousie University where he graduated in 1973 with a Masters Degree in Social Work. After graduating, he joined the federal Public Service of Canada where he worked for 37 years in human resources management. Bob continuously supports the Scott McCain & Leslie McLean Centre for Sport, Business and Health, most recently as a speaker in the 2021 Hockey Conference. In 2023 he received an honorary doctorate from the university. Visit Bob's website.

Jarvis Googoo
SMU Indigenous Advisory Council member, athlete, advocate 
Raised in We'koqma'q, NS, Jarvis Googo holds degrees from Saint Mary's University and Dalhousie Law School. He has spoken extensively about Mi'kmaw history and culture, treaty education, and Truth and Reconciliation and is a non-practicing member of the Nova Scotia Barristers' Society. In his capacity as an athlete, Jarvis was the first member of his community to run the Boston Marathon and he sits on the Board of Directors for the Bluenose Marathon in Halifax. In addition to sitting on the Saint Mary's University Indigenous Advisory Council, Jarvis collaborates with the McCain McLean Centre through activities such as hosting events and consulting on research all relating to Indigenous sport participation. Visit Jarvis' website. 

Ryan Francis
Visiting Indigenous Scholar (2020-2023)
Ryan Francis holds an Undergraduate degree in Science (Sport Management) and a Master's degree in Physical Education (Administration, Curriculum and Supervision). He is a member of Acadia First Nation who currently works as the Manager of Provincial Outreach & Coordination for the Nova Scotia Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage, in its Communities, Sport, and Recreation Division. Ryan led and contributed to several academic and community-related projects at the McCain McLean Centre leading up to the 2023 North American Indigenous Games (NAIG) in Halifax. These included organizing Indigenous Sport Week on campus, conducting research on First Nations U SPORTS athletes' transitions to university, and organized the development of a Brave Space for Indigenous athletes during NAIG, and is now in the early stages of creating a children's book.

Julie Naugler
Former Marketing & Promotions Specialist (2023-2024)
Julie Naugler is an MBA graduate and former varsity student athlete at Saint Mary's University. With a passion for the intersection of sport and business, Julie specializes in project management, sales, and consulting. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Certificate in Health, Wellness and Sport in Society, becoming the first student at Saint Mary's to earn the distinction. Outside of her professional work, she serves as a provincial and university-level rugby coach and is deeply committed to promoting sport participation and inclusion, particularly among women, girls, and minority communities.

Micah Brown
Community Ambassador (2023-2024)
Micah Brown, renowned for excellence in sports training and community development, is the visionary owner of BATLX, a leader in football-specific training. With a background marked by resilience and dedication, Micah's journey from a promising athlete to a well-rounded professional began on the football fields of his youth. Facing career-altering challenges from his professional playing days, Micah transformed setbacks into opportunities. This led to a passion for athletic development, culminating in the creation of BATLX. Micah's educational pursuits include a Master’s degree and two Bachelor’s degrees, providing a solid foundation in sports science and business. BATLX represents his vision to revolutionize sports training, emphasizing holistic development and community engagement. Despite initial skepticism, Micah's commitment to inclusivity and community development prevailed. He navigated constraints through strategic partnerships, collaborations, and securing funding, turning challenges into opportunities for refinement. Today, BATLX is not just a training facility; it's a community hub fostering personal and leadership development. Programs like ELITE 8 showcase Micah's dedication to accessible, quality training with a focus on community and belonging. Micah Brown's story is one of turning adversity into advantage, reflecting the belief that sports can transform lives and inspire communities. His commitment to pushing boundaries, fostering inclusivity, and creating lasting community impact sets him apart as a leader, mentor, and the driving force behind BATLX's success.

Dr. Charlene Weaving
Community Collaborator (2023-2024)
Charlene Weaving is a Professor and current Chair of the Human Kinetics Department at St. Francis Xavier University. Weaving is a past President of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport (IAPS). Weaving’s research involves feminist sport philosophical analyses of gender in sport and, has published research on objectification (i.e. athletes posing nude, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, & ESPN Body Issue), and equity (i.e. women body checking in hockey, USports lack of women coaches, uniform regulations & pregnant athletes). Weaving was awarded the Faculty of Science Outstanding Teaching Award in 2007; and the Heather Reid Distinguished Service Award for Outstanding Contributions in the service of Philosophy of Sport in 2013.