Meet the Keynote Panelists
PhD
Erin Willson
Erin Willson is an Olympian in Artistic Swimming and holds a PhD in Safe Sport from the University of Toronto. Her academic work is deeply informed by her lived experience as an athlete. Erin’s research has explored the prevalence and impact of maltreatment in Canadian sport, including emotional abuse, body shaming, and gender-based violence. She also examines the role of positive coaching strategies in preventing harm and fostering athlete well-being. As the former President of AthletesCAN, Erin has been a fierce advocate for athlete rights, leading national efforts to advance safety, inclusion, and athlete representation in sport governance. Her work bridges research and policy to ensure athletes are not only heard, but truly centred in the Canadian sport system.
PhD, CMPC
Bryan McLaughlin
Bryan McLaughlin is a postdoctoral research fellow and a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC). Currently, he serves as the mental performance consultant (MPC) for the Owen Sound Attack in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and works with both the women's basketball and women's hockey programs at Ontario Tech University, as well as with Canada Basketball's women's NextGen program. His research focuses on athlete development processes and performance through using an implementation science lens, bridging the gap between research and practice
Andrew Koo
Andrew Koo is the Director of Sport Performance Lab, the biomechanics research and development arm of MLSE, the ownership group of the Raptors, Maple Leafs, and Toronto FC. His team delivers coaching tools and game-winning insights in player development, scouting, and athletic training. His decade-plus of experience in sports analytics includes eight seasons in MLB front offices, where he led draft modeling and decision science for the Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers. While studying at University of Waterloo, he began his career writing for the Baseball Prospectus website and books.
Keynote Panel Moderator
Molly Brillinger
PhD
Dr. Molly Brillinger is a postdoctoral researcher in the Sport Insight Lab in the Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education, where she also completed her PhD in experimental motor control and learning. Her doctoral research explored how people mentally simulate and coordinate actions with other people, examining how motor imagery, joint action, and social context shape performance. Drawing on both behavioural and neurophysiological methods, her work provides insight into the motor and cognitive mechanisms that underpin skilled movement.
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Now working in high-performance sport, Molly’s research focuses on how athletes navigate increasingly complex, data-rich environments. In collaboration with the Texas Rangers, she explores how elite athletes perceive, prioritize, and act on information under pressure. Asking not just what data athletes are given, but how that information is structured, delivered, and ultimately used.
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By bridging motor learning, cognitive science, and applied sport science, Molly aims to inform how practice, feedback, and information are designed so that they properly align with how elite athletes think, perceive, and move.
Opening Remarks
Dr. Gretchen Kerr
Dean and Professor, Athlete Maltreatment
Closing Remarks
Dr. Ashley Stirling
Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Sport Psychology, Vice Dean, Programs