Meet The Team
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MADELEINE ORR, Ph.D.
SEG Founder & Co-Director,
Lecturer at Loughborough University London
m.orr@lboro.ac.uk
Madeleine Orr is the Founder and Co-Director of The Sport Ecology Group, and an Assistant Professor of Sport Ecology at the University of Toronto. Previously she was a lecturer at Loughborough University London where she developed the world's first Masters program in Sport and Sustainability.
Madeleine researches the impacts of climate change on the sport sector, with a focus on vulnerability and resilience at the organizational and community levels. Madeleine's work has been published in several discipline-leading journals including the WIRES Climate Change, Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, the Journal of Sport & Tourism, and Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health. Madeleine is a board member for Eco-Athletes and Think Ocean. Her work has been recognized by Forbes (30 Under 30 in Sports, 2021); Corporate Knights (30 Under 30 in Sustainability Leadership, 2020); and North American Association for Environmental Education (30 Under 30 in Enviro Ed, 2020).
BRIAN MCCULLOUGH, Ph.D.
SEG Co-Director
Associate Professor at Texas A&M University
brian.mccullough@tamu.edu
Brian McCullough is the Co-Director of the Sport Ecology Group and is an Associate Professor in Department of Health and Kinesiology in the Sport Management program at Texas A&M University. His research examines the intersection of the natural environmental and the business of sport, specifically the managerial decision-making processes to implement ecologically focused initiatives, examining interventions of behavioral change among sport spectators and participants to promote more ecologically friendly behaviors, and evaluating the environmental impact of sport spectators and participants. Dr. McCullough has published over 50 peer reviewed book chapters and academic articles. He has worked with the United Nation’s Climate Change Secretariat to establish the Sports for Climate Action Framework to engage the sport sector to meet the Paris Climate Agreement goals of carbon neutrality and Timothy Kellison and he were awarded a research grant from the International Olympic Committee.
Dr. Timothy Kellison is Director of the Center for Sport and Urban Policy and Associate Professor at Florida State University. His research is primarily focused on sport in urban environments, with special emphasis in sport ecology, public policy, and urban and regional planning. With Brian McCullough, he is co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Sport and the Environment, and he has published over 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His research has been cited in various media outlets including The New York Times, ESPN The Magazine, Fox News, Forbes, and National Public Radio, and he has earned nearly US$1 million in grant funding, including from the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Department of State.
SYLVIA TRENDAFILOVA, Ph.D.
SEG Member
Associate Professor at University of Tennessee at Knoxville
sylviat@utk.edu
Dr. Sylvia Trendafilova is an associate professor of sport management in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation and Sport Studies at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN). She earned her Ph.D. in Sport Management at the University of Texas at Austin. She also holds a B.S. in Physics (minor in Mathematics) from Sofia University, a M.S. in Environmental Studies, and another M.S. in Sport Management, both from Baylor University. Dr. Trendafilova’s main area of research focuses on the sustainable management of sport and explores corporate social responsibility and the benefits these activities have on different sport organizations. She is also interested in the theory of collective action and its applications in the realm of sport. Her work is informed by theories from political economy, sociology, and behavioral analysis.
JONATHAN CASPER, Ph.D.
SEG Member
Associate Professor at North Carolina State University
jmcasper@ncsu.edu
Dr. Casper's research seeks to apply and integrate sport ecology into organizational operations, marketing, and fan engagement. He believes that sport can serve as an informal educational setting (or platform) which may influence sustainable behavior change or alter dispositions related to the natural environment. He has collaborated extensively with collegiate athletic departments/conferences, professional sport teams, and corporate sponsors who wish to implement and evaluate strategic sustainability efforts and has received external funding for sustainability education, evaluation, and engagement. Dr. Casper co-edited “Sport Management and the Natural Environment: Theory and Practice”. He has published in leading peer-reviewed academic journals specific to sport and sustainability and presented his findings at international conferences.
Dr. Walker J. Ross is an assistant professor of Sport Business Management in the Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise at Florida Southern College. He earned his Ph.D. in Sport and Entertainment Management from the University of South Carolina, an M.S. in Sport Management and Policy from the University of Georgia, and a B.A. in Environmental Ethics and Policy from the University of Portland. He has also attended the International Olympic Academy Seminar for Postgraduate Students. Dr. Ross’ main research interests are focused on environmental sustainability in public assembly venue management as well as the Olympic Games. He approaches research from a management and organizational theory perspective.
SEG Member
Assistant Professor at University of West Florida
Jamee Pelcher is a current sport management Ph.D. student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Prior to that, she completed the Sport Sustainability Leadership certificate at Seattle University and earned her MBA at Western Carolina University along with her B.S.B.A. in sport management and finance with a minor in economics. She currently sits on the Advisory Board for the College of Business at Western Carolina University. As a LEED Green Associate, her research interests focus on environmental sustainability in sport. Before coming to academia, Jamee was an entrepreneur for more than 20 years, owning and operating several businesses in North Carolina.
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Dr. Andrea Collins a Senior Lecturer at the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University. Andrea’s research interests focus on assessing the environmental impacts of major sporting events and festivals. She has published her research in the Journal of Sustainable Tourism, Journal of Travel Research and Tourism Management. Andrea has worked with UK Sport and Partners to develop the environmental section of its eventIMPACTS toolkit, and Golf Environmental Organisation to develop its International Sustainability Standard for Golf Tournaments.
SEG Member
Senior Lecturer at Cardiff University
collinsa@cardiff.ac.uk
SEG Member
Lecturer and Researcher at La Trobe University
g.dingle@latrobe.edu.au
Greg Dingle, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in Sport Management, and a Researcher at the Centre for Sport and Social Impact, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia. Greg’s research is focused on the impacts of climate change on sport, and associated risks, vulnerability, resilience, and adaptation responses. Greg has published refereed articles in Managing Sport and Leisure, Science of the Total Environment, the International Journal of Sport Marketing & Sponsorship, and the International Journal of Environmental Sustainability. He has co-edited the Routledge book, Sport and environmental sustainability: Research and strategic management, and contributed to the Routledge handbook of sport and the environment.
Bio coming soon.
SEG Member
Associate Professor at University of South Carolina
nmwatana@mailbox.sc.edu
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SEG Member
Assistant Professor at University of Connecticut
cchen@uconn.edu
Dr. Chen Chen (陈晨) is a grateful visitor to amiskwaciwâskahikan (in Plains Cree: "Beaver Hill House") on Treaty 6 Territory, a region known today as Edmonton, Canada. He is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, University of Alberta. Drawing important insight from his community organizing work with Climate Justice Edmonton, a grassroots collective, his academic work takes an interdisciplinary lens and addresses the intersection of sport, colonialism, and socio-ecological (in)justice. He is particularly interested in how knowledge and ways of being from various marginalized communities can mobilize sport and movement spaces to be more just and equitable, and facilitate more meaningful community-building towards decolonization (the restitution of Indigenous land). His work has been published in leading outlets in sport management, sport sociology, sport history, and urban studies.
SEG Affiliate Member
Assistant Professor at
Towson University
sclavenger@towson.edu
Samuel M. Clevenger is an assistant professor in the sport management program at Towson University. His research centers on two interrelated topics: the significance of sport and physical culture in our present era of anthropogenic environmental degradation; and the ways in which historical analysis can help human society envisage ecological, post-capitalist, and postcolonial forms of sport and physical culture. His research has been published in such international journals as Rethinking History, Sport in Society, Communication & Sport, and The International Journal of the History of Sport. He is currently working on a book project for the publisher Palgrave Macmillan on the meaning of sport, recreation, and leisure in the history of the international garden city movement of the early twentieth century and the role of sport in the planning of "post-growth", sustainable planned communities.
SEG Member
Assistant Professor at University of Cincinnati
jessica.murfree@uc.edu
Jessica Murfree is an Assistant Professor of Sport Administration at University of Cincinnati. Previously she was a Visiting Assistant Professor and ACES Fellow at Texas A&M University. Previously, she was a Lecturer at University of Louisville where she also completed her PhD in Sport Administration. She earned her M.A. in Sport Management at the University of Alabama, and a B.A. in Sport Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Jessica researches the intersections of climate change, extreme weather and sport, with a focus on social and legal outcomes. Jessica is a member of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) Sustainability Committee, Vice Chair and board member for the Commission on Sport Management Accreditation (COSMA), and former board member for the Sport and Recreation Law Association (SRLA).
Jordan P. Howell is associate professor of sustainable business in the Rohrer College of Business at Rowan University. Jordan's research and teaching examine the roles for markets and businesses in achieving sustainability goals. In his work, he explores the history of ‘how we got here’ with a particular problem in addition to proposing solutions. Jordan firmly believes that we must not limit ourselves to a single approach to environmental problem-solving. Regulations, educational & behavioral initiatives, and market-based solutions all have an important role in effective governance. We also have to be careful to understand the different attitudes and cultures surrounding the environment and sustainability before we act. Jordan’s work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New Jersey Dept. of Environmental Protection, among other sources. Jordan is an avid golfer, tennis player, and yoga enthusiast and sees tremendous potential for sport to play a starring role in addressing environmental and social problems.
SEG Member
Associate Professor at Universidade Portucalense
rcayolla@upt.pt
In the field of consumer neuroscience, through the execution of original ideas and the integration of investigations carried out in neurosciences, Ricardo Cayolla links the results achieved to different business areas. Consumer Neuroscience, Consumer-Brand Relationship, Sport Marketing and Sport Ecology are the research areas.
Beyond the academic field, former professional tennis player, Ricardo is also a tennis coach, writer, sports manager and with a presence in the media. Ph.D. in Marketing and Strategy, Ricardo Cayolla has also a course of Design Thinking for Business Innovation in ESADE. He is a Sports Specialist, presenting and advocating a thesis about his training system, applied for over twenty years.
SEG Member
Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Ottawa
tfabian@uottawa.ca
Tom Fabian, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow in sport anthropology at the University of Ottawa, focusing on traditional games research in Indigenous communities in Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. In particular, he is interested in the intersection of reconciliation, games heritage, and environmentalism in various contexts. The current project theme that he is developing centres on how traditional games can promote green leisure activities, an inspired relationship with environmentalism, and a back-to-nature ethos. An active member of the North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) and the International Network of Sport Anthropology (INSA), Tom lives and works in Mi’kma’ki, the unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people, having worked as an Assistant Professor of Sport Management at St. Francis Xavier University (Antigonish, Nova Scotia) for the past two years.
SEG Member
Postdoctoral Researcher at Senckenburg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center
ugo.arbieu@senckenberg.de
Dr. Ugo Arbieu is a postdoctoral researcher at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate
Research Centre (Frankfurt am Main, Germany), a Research Associate at the Smithsonian
Conservation Biology Institute (Washington D.C., USA) and a Visiting Fellow at the Paris-Saclay
University (Paris, France). His main interest is in social-ecological research, investigating
attitudes towards charismatic species, human-carnivore coexistence, and more generally, the
human dimensions of wildlife conservation. Recently, Ugo has been exploring the applicability of
conservation marketing in the sports context, to investigate the links between team
identification and pro-conservation behavior.
SEG Member
Deputy Dean at University of Hertsfordshire
a.e.cain@herts.ac.uk
Alison Cain is Deputy Dean of the School of Life and Medical Sciences at the University of
Hertfordshire, where she has worked since 2006. She has a keen interest in the interrelatedness of
sport and the environment, the environmental impacts of sport (positive and negative), and sport’s
potential as a platform, educative tool, or catalyst for promoting pro-environmental behaviours. She
has developed curriculum materials in these areas for BSc (Hons) degree programmes as well as
supervising numerous student research projects on related topics. She has reviewed book proposals
for Routledge and Sage and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Advance HE).
Her Bachelor’s degree is in Leisure studies and Marketing, and she earned a Master of Science
degree in Sociology of Sport with Distinction from the University of Leicester. She is currently
partway through a programme of doctoral research focusing on interpretation, implementation and
impacts of the IOC’s environmental sustainability agenda.
![[Picture_Background] Young Do Kim.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/a700be_e5d9bca28bdb412abeabe5c3b814fd58~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_65,w_592,h_595/fill/w_54,h_54,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/%5BPicture_Background%5D%20Young%20Do%20Kim.jpg)
SEG Member
Associate Professor at Elon University
ykim4@elon.edu
Young Do Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sport Management at Elon University. His ongoing research projects focus on examining the benefits and effectiveness of sport organizations’ pro-environmental initiatives. He is actively involved in sport sustainability research projects with undergraduate students. Further, Dr. Kim has dedicated time to integrating sport sustainability principles and practices in his sport marketing and facility management courses. These courses are designated as a sustainability-inclusive course by The Office of Elon Sustainability. He is a U.S. Green Building Council LEED Green Associate and served as a member of the Elon Environmental Advisory Council.
SEG Member
Assistant Professor at University of Florida
gjakar@ufl.edu
Gidon Jakar is an Assistant Professor in the University of Florida’s Sport Management Department, he completed a PhD from the University of Michigan in June 2020 in the Department of Sport Management, and a PhD in Geography and Urban Studies in May 2020 in the Geography Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Following his PhD, Gidon was a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Michigan. The research in both PhD studies included Sport Management related qualitative and quantitative analyses. Gidon's recent studies incorporate the extensive use of ESRIs Geographical Information System (GIS) ArcGIS, including spatial analyses and data mapping. Prior to his PhD studies, Gidon was part of an EU funded international research group examining coastal development and policies and wrote his Master’s thesis on the paradigmatic shifts in planning and development along coastlines.
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Sean Heath, PhD, is an independent scholar in Sport Anthropology. His current research examines the emplaced sensory entanglements and the environmental impacts of outdoor swimming in all manner of “blue spaces.” Hi is an active member of the International Network of Sport Anthropology (INSA) and NGO Football 4 Peace International (F4P).
Sean Heath, PhD
SEG Member
Independent Scholar in Sport Anthropology
s.m.heath@brighton.ac.uk
SEG Member
Sr Lecturer at Loughborough University
j.a.kenyon@lboro.ac.uk
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SEG Member
Researcher and Lecturer, University of Freiburg
amanda.shuman@sinologie.uni-freiburg.de
SEG Member
Assistant Clinical Professor at Drexel University
jfl82@drexel.edu
Dr Jamie Kenyon is a Senior Lecturer in Sport Management. He is also the current Programme Leader for the BSc Sport Management degree, and the University and College Union (UCU) Department Representative for the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences.
Dr Kenyon's research is predominantly focused on the strategic marketing and management of sport events and organisations, spanning community-based organisations and events (e.g., third sector sport organisations and small-scale events) through to their international counterparts (e.g., NGSOs like the IOC, and mega-events like the Olympic Games), and specifically focuses on: a) the various impacts and legacies of events (e.g., image, the climate and environment, volunteers, sport policy, etc.); b) branding and relationship management in sport (specialising in football marketing); and c) managing community and volunteer sport organisations (CVSOs).
Dr. Amanda Shuman is a Lecturer and Researcher at the University of Freiburg (Germany) and technical manager of the Maoist Legacy Database (https://maoistlegacy.de). She received her PhD from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is currently finishing a book manuscript on the politics of sports and physical culture in China during the Mao era (1949-1976). She has widely published on related topics, including China’s involvement in transnational and international sports networks during the Cold War. She is also an avid trail runner and has published on leisure running practices and the marathon craze in China. Her more recent research and teaching interests are at the intersection of environmental history and the politics of sport in both China and in Germany, especially as related to the last four decades of the Olympic movement.
Dr. Jeffrey Levine is an Assistant Clinical Professor of Sport Business at Drexel University’s LeBow College of business. He leads the Esport Business Undergraduate Program and is a member of the College’s DEI Action Group. Jeffrey’s research explores emerging issues involving sport and leisure in society. His work with the Sport Ecology Group focuses on investigating the legal implications of climate change in sport and leisure. Jeffrey’s scholarship has been published in journals such as the Journal of Legal Aspects of Sport, the Harvard Journal of Sports and Entertainment Law, and Sport in Society, among others. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the Sport and Recreation Law Association (SLRA) as President Elect and is a SRLA Research Fellow. Jeffrey graduated with a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Organizational Development with a specialization in Sport Management from the University of Louisville. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Sport Management and Communications from the University of Michigan and received a Juris Doctor from Tulane University Law School with a certificate in sports law, where he was the managing editor of the Sports Lawyers Journal. Prior to going back for his Ph.D., Jeffrey worked in the legal department of several professional sports organizations before transitioning into private practice.