There is much to see and do while at WISC2026 including not to be missed social and cultural events such as Welcome to Country, welcome drinks, event gala dinner to be held on International Women’s Day, networking over meal breaks and browsing posters, as well as interacting with our event exhibitors and sponsors.
Gretel Bueta is a long-term Suncorp Ambassador and highly credentialed Australian netballer including 47 caps for the Diamonds. She was the 2022 MVP for the Australian Diamonds at the Commonwealth Games where the team won gold.
Laura is one of the most recognised and regarded female role models in Australian sport. Laura retired from netball in 2018, having established herself as one of Australia’s greatest players. Geitz competed in two successful Netball World Cup campaigns, won a Commonwealth Games gold and silver medal and led the Queensland Firebirds to domestic Championship titles in 2011, 2015 and 2016.
Now a mum to four, Laura loves being authentic to her country roots and raising a family appreciative of values-based living, community and the little things in life. While Laura’s heart will always belong to the bush, she is passionate about roles where she can make a difference anywhere throughout Australia. Laura brings the same passion and commitment to any project she undertakes as she famously brought to the netball court.
She enjoys working with her corporate partners, whose values are reflective of her healthy lifestyle, love of netball, the great outdoors and family. Laura’s depth of knowledge, popularity and charisma have secured her commentator roles with Netball Australia and Channel 9.
Pip is a former professional triathlete and AIS and NSWIS scholarship athlete and has a diverse background with a career spanning senior government positions and influential roles within premier sports organisations including the AFL. She has transitioned into impactful leadership and strategic roles where she thrives in tackling complex issues with a people-first approach.
In her roles as Vice President and Director of the Board for Sports Dietitians Australia, and as the founding Chair of the AFL Sports Dietitians Association, she has led nationwide programs aimed at fostering community, knowledge exchange, and improving athlete health and performance outcomes.
Pip has worked as a consultant for the Australian Institute of Sport including work in the coach development space, where she has actively contributed to initiatives promoting women in high-performance coaching roles.
Kirsty completed her undergraduate degree and PhD [Exercise Physiology] at Liverpool John Moores University. Her PhD examined the effects of female reproductive hormones on muscle strength and since then her work has primarily focused on female athletes. She worked as a Lecturer at Brunel University and the University of Brighton, before undertaking a four-year Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship at Kings College London.
Kirsty joined Nottingham Trent University in 2009 as a Senior Lecturer (Assistant Professor) and worked there until 2022, having been promoted to Reader (Associate Professor) in 2018 and Professor in 2021. She joined the Institute of Sport at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2022 as a Professor of Female Endocrinology and Exercise Physiology. In addition to her research on female athletes, which includes the menstrual cycle, hormonal contraceptives, the Female Athlete Triad and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport, her work in recent years has involved designing and implementing exercise interventions during and following pregnancy in a variety of populations including servicewomen (i.e., military personnel), athletes, and women with obesity.
She has co-authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, expert statements, and editorials on/for sportswomen. In addition, she works with many organisations such as the English Institute of Sport, the Football Association, The International Olympic Committee, UEFA, The European Club Association, and The Wu Tsai Performance Alliance and is on several special interest groups and advisory boards related to female athletes.
Sophia Nimphius, PhD, GAICD, is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Sport) and Professor of Human Performance at Edith Cowan University and member of the Sport Integrity Australia Advisory Council.
Her past industry roles include Sports Science Manager for Surfing Australia, High Performance Women’s Sport Science Coordinator for Softball Australia and is a current consultant for Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She has more than two decades of experience working, influencing, and leading in sport.
Sophia is an active researcher and significant contributor to both academic and practitioner resources. She applies a cross and multi-disciplinary research approach to understanding athletic performance, athlete health, and injury risk with a particular focus on women and the sporting system. Her discipline expertise is in strength and conditioning, biomechanics and with a sociology lens to merge for a motor behavioural approach to understanding movement.
Professor Shona Halson is the Deputy Director of the SPRINT Research Centre at ACU’s School of Behavioural and Health Sciences. Prior to this she was the Head Recovery Physiologist at the Australian Institute of Sport for more than 15 years and has led the Recovery team at three Olympic campaigns with the Australian Olympic Committee.
Her research focuses on sleep, recovery and fatigue and she has published more than 170 peer-reviewed articles and multiple book chapters. Shona provides consultancy services to the Australian Open Tennis Tournament, FIFA and Nike as well as a number of national and international professional sporting teams.
Tracey Holmes has focused her career on the geopolitical and cultural aspects of sport with a deep understanding on how the sector impacts our societies and communities. She has worked for global organisations such as CNN and CGTN and is recognised in Australia for her work on the ABC, SBS, Foxtel and Channel 7.
Her work has twice won the prestigious international gold trophy presented by the International Sports Press Association and in 2023 she was awarded a lifetime achievement award by the Australian Sports Commission.
Holmes has covered women’s sport in Australia since the late 1980s, at a time when nobody else was doing so, and has been credited with starting a podcast genre that examines the politics of sport with her unrivalled knowledge and experience of some of the biggest sports events and organisations in the world, such as the International Olympic Committee and football’s world governing body, FIFA.
Xanne has recently moved to Griffith University to take on an academic role in Exercise Science focusing on Women in Sport. Her main area of research expertise is the unique physiology of women and how this affects exercise. Xanne studied Exercise Physiology at the VU University Amsterdam in the Netherlands and then moved to Australia to complete her PhD on the effects of the menstrual cycle on exercise performance at The University of Sydney. Her initial menstrual cycle research topics included temperature regulation, endurance performance, aerobic performance and muscle function. Xanne has since focused more on muscle function, as well as on whether the ‘trainability’ of women is affected by hormone fluctuations. Her research includes the effects of endogenous hormone fluctuations, as well as exogenous female hormones, such as in oral contraceptives.
In her first review on effects of the menstrual cycle on exercise performance published in 2003, Xanne emphasised the importance of thorough verification of menstrual cycle phases to ensure quality research outcomes. Since then, she has continued her female hormone research, as well as her focus on methodological recommendations for research in women. Xanne has also collaborated on applied sport science research with several sporting organisations, including Judo Australia and the Union of European Football Associations.
Lauren Soderberg has a background in high performance sport spanning more than 15 years. An athlete turned coach, Lauren established herself on the world stage professionally taking the Pacific Island nation Vanuatu from no world ranking in 2008 to securing multiple podium finishes, the country’s first FIVB gold medal and a top 10 result at the 2015 World Volleyball Championships.
Since then, Lauren has gone on to become an FIVB international Coaching Instructor and Coach Developer with an impressive 23 international coaching medals accumulated throughout her career. Lauren became the first woman to coach at Olympic level in her sport of beach volleyball in 2016 when she qualified her U23 World Championship winning Australian team into the Rio Olympic Games after five successive podium finishes on the Asian Beach Volleyball Tour. She then went on to manage Volleyball Australia’s Asia / Pacific Partnership program working closely with the Australian DFAT to deliver sport for development projects in the Asia Pacific region.
Lauren returned to a high performance in Europe, working in Denmark with the Copenhagen Beach Elite Men’s and Women’s Program as both the Technical Head Coach and Coach Developer. Most recently Lauren has worked as Director of an international NGO utilising the power of sport for positive social impact and assisting in the achievement of the UNSG’s.
Lauren is currently employed as Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement Manager for Squash Australia/Australian Institute of Sport. She is passionate about using her expertise to achieve meaningful goals through the incorporation of high performance and sport development.
Naroa has a PhD in Sports Physiology and Performance and a Masters in Exercise Physiology. She is the discipline lead of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Canberra. Naroa is an ESSA Level II Accredited Sport Scientist and her research focus areas are Triathlon performance, developing female athletes and training and competition readiness.
Kerry is the current lead for the NSW Government’s Women in Sport Strategy – Her Sport Her Way, which has been the catalyst for change across the sector. She has been a driving force for vast changes in women’s sport that are levelling the playing field for female athletes, participants, coaches, and leaders.
She is a multi-award winning project manager, innovator and strategist, and has been the architect and lead for initiatives that promote sport for all and wellbeing in the community like the NSW Sport Rage Prevention and Finish with the Right Stuff campaigns, and Water Polo Australia’s Think.Act.Play program.
Kerry has a Bachelor of Applied Science Human Movement from the University of Wollongong and has over 30 years’ experience working across Australian sport, including board and advisory roles in sport and Government at state and national levels, and is a current member of the AFL National Women’s Leadership Advisory Group and Sport NSW Women’s Advisory Council.
Kerry is a former World Champion who played 108 test caps for Australia in water polo across five World Cups and two World Swimming Championships.
Associate Professor Helen Brown is a behavioural epidemiologist with a comprehensive program of research focused on promoting equity and diversity in sport and active recreation. Her research and teaching focuses on developing sport coaches as ‘change makers’ to foster inclusivity in sporting environments, providing greater participation and performance opportunities for all. She is involved in several studies that explore women and girl’s experiences in sport across a range of roles including as participant and coach, using qualitative methodology to give voice to those whose views are often not heard.
Helen also has specific expertise in Implementation Science (and knowledge translation) and its application in a sporting context. This field of science, extensively used in health care settings, is now recognised in sport as a way to systematically close the gap between what we know and what we do by identifying and addressing factors that can slow the uptake of new strategies and evidence based practice. Helen is using this expertise to support a variety of sporting organisations to progress the implementation of new evidence into practice, particularly towards the promotion of women and girl’s participation in sport.
Julie is the Head of School (Rehabilitation & Exercise Sciences), and the Discipline Lead of Sport and Exercise Science at the University of Canberra. She has a PhD and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD) and Fellow of the Australian Sports Medicine Federation (FASMF). Julie is also the Director of the Australian Biology Olympiad Program – Australian Science Innovations.
Naomi is the Manager Sports Engagement and Program Lead at Griffith Sports College. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors course and has a Bachelor of Science (Env). Naomi is a dual Olympian and won gold in Water Polo at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. She was an AIS scholarship athlete from 1993 – 2004.
Shane has a Doctor of Philosophy (Health Sciences) and Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) from University of Sydney. He is a Professional Level 2 Strength and Conditioning Coach with the Australian Strength and Conditioning Association.
Shane is the Health Professions Education Lead (Exercise and Sport Science) at the University of Sydney and the Lead Strength and Conditioning Coach at Sydney University Football Club (Rugby). He is also a member of the Network Leadership Group for the Sport and Physical Activity Teaching and Research Group (SPARTAN), University of Sydney.
Kotryna has a Doctor of Philosophy (Education) and MSc Performance Psychology from The University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She is a lecturer in Sport Sciences (Psychology) at the University of Sydney and Chair to BASES Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Group.
Kotryna is also a ‘Girls on Track’ Champion with Motorsport Australia.
Dixie Marshall was Australia’s first woman AFL football commentator, and the first woman to co-host a national sports program. She is an award winning journalist, and former Channel 9 Perth senior newsreader.
She is currently Chief Growth Officer of Marketforce, Western Australia’s oldest advertising agency, and deputy chair of WA Football Commission, which governs AFL in the state. She is also a non-executive director of two ASX listed clean energy companies.
Ms Marshall brings a wealth of experience in media, strategic communications, marketing and governance.
Louise has a PhD, is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and a Sports Dietitians Australia Fellow. She is the current Chair of Sports Nutrition at Australian Catholic University (2014-) and was a contributor to the IOC Working Group on Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (2014, 2018, 2023). Her previous roles have included Head of Sports Nutrition at AIS (1990-2020).
Amelia has a PhD (Australian Institute of Sport and University of Western Australia) and a Bachelor of Science (First-Class Honours), University of Western Australia. Her current roles include Senior Lecturer, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University and Expert Panel Member at the Gatorade Sport Science Institute.
Amelia’s previous roles include Human Performance Scientist with the Australian Defence Force, visiting Post-Doctoral Researcher, Swedish Winter Sport Research Centre, and Mid-Sweden University and graduate of the Australian Institute of Sport PhD program.
Severine has a BSc in Biology (2003, University of Fribourg, Switzerland), a MSc in Molecular Biology (2005, University of Fribourg, Switzerland), and a PhD in Life Sciences (2010, University of Lausanne, Switzerland).
She is an Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, the National Secretary of the Australian Physiological Society, and used to be an ARC DECRA Fellow (2015-2017), a Victorian Fellow (2016) and a Swiss National Science Foundation Early Career Research Fellow (2010-2012).
Her current research program focuses on female muscle physiology, and how the female muscle adapts to exercise and disease conditions at the epigenetic, molecular, cellular, and functional level.
Jessica Skinner is a proud Barkindji (Aboriginal) and Maori woman, who is the current Assistant Coach of the Women’s Indigenous All Stars team, Head Coach of the First Nation Gems Women’s National Championship team, Head Coach of the NRL Indigenous Women’s Academy and the Assistant Coach of the Australian Women’s Jillaroo World Cup Team. Jessica is also the NRL Pathway Strategic Manager. She has been in the women’s space of rugby league for more than 11 years coming through from the grassroots level. In 2019 she was projected into the elite ranks as the Assistant Coach with the Australian Women’s Prime Ministers XIII team and the 2021 Inaugural Knights NRLW team.
Outside of rugby league, Jessica is a mother of two children, and has spent 12 years working for the NSW Department of Education as a teacher in her community of Trangie NSW, with a Bachelor of PhysEd. Jessica is on the board of the Trangie Local Aboriginal Lands Council with strong cultural responsibilities for the youth in her community. She is passionate about her culture and providing opportunities for young people in remote communities to achieve their dreams and aspirations in the game of rugby league at the elite level.
