Dr Mary Woessner

Dr. Mary Woessner is an early career researcher and senior lecturer within the Institute for Health and Sport (IHES) at VU. She leads a research group within IHES on Safety and Wellbeing in Sport and is the Chair of the Early and Midcareer Researcher Association.

Mary is internationally recognised for her expertise and research on safe sport. Her research recognises that participation in sport and exercise can provide diverse mental and physical benefits, but only when the environment is safe and free from harm. She leads innovative research exploring sport and exercise enjoyment at an individual (safety and wellbeing), institutional (policies, guidelines, practice) and societal level (normative behaviours). Her work seeks to ensure that sport (from community to elite) is safe and enjoyable across the lifespan. She is a co-founder of the International Research Network on Violence and Integrity in Sport, an ambassador for the Play by the Rules National Start to Talk Campaign, and most recently coordinated the largest International research conference on SafeSport in collaboration with Safe Sport International.

Mary currently supervises students and continues to lead clinical research projects exploring exercise enjoyment and exercise interventions in healthy and clinical populations. Her ongoing efforts in the field of clinical exercise rehabilitation focus on exploring novel ways to approach exercise interventions to improve both physical and mental wellbeing and promote long term behavioural change.