Royals Athletics Speaker Series hosted by Shelbi Snodgrass

February 26^th 11-12:30 pm PST | REGISTER NOW

Martha McCabe

Mental Wellness and Covid-19 from the Athlete Perspective

Two time Olympian and owner of Head to Head, Martha McCabe will be speaking on  Mental Wellness and COVID-19 from the Athlete Perspective.

Head to Head promotes mental resilience and physical wellness through Olympian led mentorship programs that teach healthy habits and inspire confidence.

Head to Head Olympian mentors share tips, strategies and insights on managing pressure, overcoming challenges, balancing life's commitments and more, through in person visits, virtual sessions, Head to Head resources and yearlong mentorship programs.

March 5^th 9:30-11:00 am PST | REGISTER NOW

Delia D. Douglas, Ph.D.

Black Female Athletes and the Politics of Resistance in Sport (Past and Present) pertaining to the topic of Diversity and Inclusion

Delia D. Douglas is the Anti-Racism Practice Lead in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. She is also an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba.

Dr. Douglas holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Science in Sport Studies from Miami University (Oxford, OH). Her scholarship is interdisciplinary, drawing upon critical race and gender studies, and Black Diaspora Studies, and is attentive to the continuing significance of the legacies of enslavement, imperialism, and settler colonialism. She has taught at the Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the University of Manitoba, and at selected US universities. Some of her written work has been published in the Journal of Black Studies, Gender Place and Culture, Sociology of Sport Journal, and the Journal of Sport and Social Issues. Dr. Douglas' expertise in race, gender, and sport is recognized internationally, and she has been an invited speaker at the United Nations at Geneva.

March 26^th 2:30-4:00 pm PST | REGISTER NOW

Dr. Tina Chen, Dr. Leisha Strachan, Gilmore Junio, and Chris Wilson

Inclusion and Diversity Panel

Dr. Leisha Strachan is a first-generation Black Canadian, proud daughter of Jerome and Margaret Strachan who immigrated to Winnipeg 53 years ago from the Caribbean island of Grenada. She is blessed to stand on the shoulders of elders in her family and Black community in Winnipeg who came to Winnipeg facing discrimination and racism yet remained for the opportunities that they foresaw for their children.

Currently, Dr. Strachan is a Professor and serving as Associate Dean Research and Graduate Studies in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management at the University of Manitoba. Her research is focused on positive youth development through sport and she is interested in exploring positive coaching behaviors and parent involvement.  

In addition, Dr. Strachan is part of a research team exploring anti-racism policies and practices in Winnipeg and the sport experiences of newcomers in the community. Her experiences in the field of sport psychology have also involved applied work, spending five seasons as a mental performance consultant with the University of Manitoba women’s soccer team.

She is a former national team member in the sport of baton twirling, earning 2 bronze medals at the world championships. She has been coaching in the sport for the past 26 years and is a judge and choreographer in baton, working with athletes across Canada, Scotland, England, and Australia. She continues to engage and develop the next generation through directing ANANSI School for the Performing Arts, a group working to teach African and Caribbean culture through the arts.

Chris Wilson, Executive Director of Sports & Olympics, leads the CBC team that brings Canadians their internationally recognized coverage of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. This includes CBC's commitment to covering our Olympic and Paralympic athletes 365 days a year, and their recent commitment to provide audiences with gender balanced coverage of women's and men's sports across all of CBC's platforms.

Prior to coming to CBC, Chris was the Director of Marketing for Swimming Canada where he helped to lead their dramatic organizational turnaround.  Having spent years as a private business owner, Chris brings an entrepreneurial style to everything he does.  He lives in Burlington, Ontario with his wife and three daughters.

April 10^th 11:00-12:30 pm PST | REGISTER NOW

Savannah King, Steve Hanson, and Kevin Hanson

Coach/Athlete Relationship, Reflections and Learning

Savannah King recently completed her second year coaching the McGill University’s varsity swimming team distance program. She is also working as a project administrator in McGill’s Faculty of Education on a large sports science research project. In 2019, she graduated from McGill with a Master of Science in Biomechanics after completing a Bachelor of Kinesiology at the University of British Columbia.

Savannah was a competitive swimmer from 2000-2015 and specialized in distance freestyle events (400-1500m). She competed for Team Canada on the senior national team from 2007-2014, including the 2008 (Beijing) and 2012 (London) Olympic Games. She also still holds the Canadian record in the 800 and 1500m freestyle events (SC) which she set in 2009.

Savannah has been coaching, in some capacity, for 12 years from learn-to-swim to masters swimmers. She was selected to the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC) mentorship program, alongside mentor and head coach of McGill’s swim team Peter Carpenter. More recently, Savannah was selected to the 2021 Swimming Canada High Performance Coach Development Program in both the Select Coaches group and the Female Coaches group.

Steve Hanson is the head coach of Simon Fraser University’s Men’s Basketball program – the only Canadian member institution of the NCAA. Hanson became the eighth head coach in SFU men’s basketball history May 2016 and was the first to lead SFU’s men’s program to the NCAA post-season and back-to-back winning seasons in 2018-19 & 2019-20.

Prior to SFU, Hanson was the coach of perennial power Terry Fox Secondary School where his Ravens won the 2012 BC High School Boys Basketball 3A provincial championship and later led the Ravens to a second place finish at the 2015 4A tournament. Terry Fox had a 93–27 win-loss record during Hanson’s tenure as head coach.

Hanson has his USA Basketball Gold License and coached future pros at the inaugural NCAA College Basketball Academy in Phoenix, Arizona in 2019. He also led Canada Basketball’s Centre for Performance (CP) program in British Columbia where he worked with the top-30 players in BC. Previous CP head coaches include Jay Triano, Scott Clark, Rich Goulet and Rich Chambers. As an AAU Coach with the 3D Basketball Academy, Hanson led their women’s and men’s academy for three years and coached their U16 & U17 Elite Programs in the US summer circuits. He has the equivalent of Level 3 certification from the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), received his Bachelor of Education from Simon Fraser in 2013 and his Bachelor of Physical Education & Coaching from Douglas in 2012. Hanson is married to Mary-Anne and they hey have one son, Adryan, who played for SFU in 2009-10 before going on to a successful international modeling career.

University of British Colubia’s Kevin Hanson is one of the most decorated men’s basketball head coaches in Canada West, and all of Usports.  In his 21^st season at the helm of the Thunderbirds, Hanson is the winningest men’s basketball coach in Canada West history with 320 conference wins (no games in 2020-212 due to Covid).  With the highest regular season winning percentage (77%) among active coaches across Canada West, Hanson currently holds a Canada West conference record of 320-95.

Under coach Hanson the Thunderbirds have represented Canada West at the National Championships 12 times, including 2 silver medals and 2 bronze medals.  The program has been the Canada West Champions 6 times; 2002-03, ‘06-07, ‘07-08, ‘10-11, ‘12-13, ‘19-20 and Coach Hanson has been named Canada West Coach of the Year 6 times; 2001-02, ‘05-06, ’08-09, ’09-10, ’10-11, ’16-17. He is also a two-time recipient of the CIS (Usports) Coach of the year in 2005 -06 and ’09-10.

Coach Hanson has been involved with Canada Basketball for nearly two decades, leading Canada’s World University Games team at four F.I.S.U Summer Universiades.   Hanson is the only active USports coach to coach in 4 Universiades and win two medals.  In 2003 in Korea, Canada finished with the bronze medal; in 2005, Canada placed 5^th in Turkey; in 2011, Canada won the silver medal in Shenzen, China; and in 2017 in Taipei, Canada finished in the top 10.

Hanson was also an assistant coach with Team Canada that won the silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia.  It was Canada’s first basketball medal at the Commonwealth Games, and the squad was named Team of the Year (Summer Sport Performance) at the 41^st Canada Sport Awards in Ottawa that year.

Hanson graduated from UBC’s Faculty of Human Kinetics in 1988 and earned his Master’s degree in Human Kinetics from UBC in 1994.