Professor Elizabeth Pike has worked at the Universityof Hertfordshire since August 2017, where she is Professor and Head of the Institute of Sport, having previously worked at St Mary's University and the University of Chichester.
Elizabeth’s work takes as its focus issues of equality, diversity and inclusion in and through sport. She has published widely on these topics and has been an invited speaker, researcherand advisor at many Universities and conferences across the globe, including numerous media appearances. Her expertise has been recognised in her election to the Presidency of the International Sociology ofSport Association (ISSA), serving as a voluntary Executive Board member from 2008-2019. During hertenure as President, she established the ISSA as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. In 2019 she was awarded Fellowship of the RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), in 2021 she was awarded the inaugural Life and Medical Sciences Athena Swan Award for her work to promote equality, in2023 she was identified by the Women in Sport and Exercise Academic Network (WiSEAN) as one of the top 10 individuals who have made a significant contribution to women's/girls’ sport and exercise and whoare inspirational in their field, and she is the 2024 Global Winner of the International Olympic Committee’s Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Award. She serves on theeditorial board of the journals International Review for the Sociology of Sport, Fisica and Ciencias, Olimpianos, and Frontiers.
Elizabeth has particular expertise in the area of gender and sport. She is the co-founder of the AnitaWhite Foundation (AWF) and served as Chair of the AWF from 2011-2017. During this time, she established partnerships with the Tanzanian National Sports Council to support women leaders in Tanzania, and with Females Achieving Brilliance to develop the Women’s Sports Leadership Academy which was shortlisted for the 2019 Beyond Sport Award for Gender Equality. Since 2019, she has chaired the Management Group for the Women in Sport HighPerformance pathway (WISH), which is supported by Olympic Solidarity. Elizabeth has published widely ontopics related to women and sport, is currently editing the Routledge book series on Women, Sport and PhysicalActivity, and was part of theresearch team that was commissioned to produce the 2014 and 2018 Progress Reports for the International Working Group on Women and Sport (IWG). She is the ResearchLead for the IWG UK Secretariat 2022-2026, leading the Anita White Fund and serving as a member of the European Non-Government Sport Organisation's EQUIP (Equalityin Practice) Expert Advisory Panel in a voluntary capacity.
Elizabeth is also a leading academic in the sociological understanding of physical activity andageing. She is Head of the Sport and Social InclusionResearch Group (SSIRG) which includes an international research team, policy-makers and practitioners, andformer Associate Editor of the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. She has been awarded ESRC grants to deliver research projects investigating physical activity for older women in the UK and Japan, and physical activityfor people living with dementia. She was an invited member of the international research team that produced a Consensus Statement on Physical Activity and Ageing, and a member of the Alzheimer's Society Physical Activity Expert Advisory Group.
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