Professor Jennifer Cumming is Professor of Sport and Exercise Psychology at the University of Birmingham, a Chartered Psychologist, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and member of the Institute for Mental Health. She is also the lead for the Health and Well-Being pillar of the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Royal Ballet's partnership. Her research focuses on mental skills, mental health, safeguarding, and inclusion across dance, sport, and community settings.

 

Working closely with practitioners, organisations, policymakers, and people with lived experience, she develops and evaluates evidence-based interventions that promote wellbeing, positive development, and social inclusion. Her research spans four interconnected areas: mental skills and imagery interventions; safeguarding and wellbeing in dance; mental health, inclusion, and neurodiversity in sport; and community-based participatory research with underserved populations.

 

Professor Cumming has published more than 150 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters and is internationally recognised for her work on mental skills training and imagery interventions. She also leads community-engaged research focused on improving opportunities and outcomes for young people experiencing disadvantage, including the co-development and evaluation of the award-winning My Strengths Training for Life™ (MST4Life™) programme. 

Dr Tidmarsh is a Postdoctoral Research and Teaching Fellow in Sport Psychology and Mental Health at the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Science, University of Birmingham.

 

Dr Tidmarsh is a social scientist with interests relating to strengths-based sport psychology, implementation, and evaluation of positive youth development interventions in community settings. She is particularly interested in aspects of evaluation pertaining to implementation processes and the development and implementation of accessible data collection methods that meet the needs of those using them to promote inclusive research.

 

Dr Tidmarsh also has broad research interests in mental health, youth homelessness, and girls engagement in sport and physical activity. Her current research focuses on continuing to work with community partner St Basils as well as widening the reach of the MST Toolkits.

Georgia is a Postdoctoral Researcher and supports research and dissemination across the teams projects.

 

Her research interests include emotion regulation in relation to sport and the potential sport has for preventing and managing mental health symptoms. 

Kirsty is a 1+3 PhD student in the School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences. She is currently doing an MA in Social Science Research Methods as part of her ESRC funded PhD which will be on ADHD and athletes. 

 

She recently finished her MSc by Research at the University of Birmingham which focused on athlete perceptions of help-seeking for mental health. Previously Kirsty has been a Research Associate on the Therapies for Long COVID Project at the University of Birmingham.

 

Kirsty's research interests include ADHD and athletes, patient and public involvement in research, public perceptions of athlete mental health, and help-seeking for mental health. 

Dr Quinton is interested in how positive youth development approaches in sport and community settings improve mental health and wellbeing, emotional regulation, and social connectedness in young people.

 

She uses sport psychology and pedagogical theories to understand how young people’s backgrounds and support needs influence their development, engagement, and motivation to learn and perform in different settings (e.g., sport, university, and homelessness).

 

Dr Quinton is a mixed method researcher and particularly interested in involving communities and those with lived experience in research and turning knowledge into action and impact.

Fiona is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Birmingham, investigating Compassion in Athletes. She previously held the role of Research Associate where she helped to develop, deliver, and evaluate the MST4Life™ programme.

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She has a diverse research background, specialising in mental health, nature connectedness, and social prescribing.

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Her current research focusses on knowledge translation, community-based participatory research, and compassion within a sporting context.

Emma is a part-time PhD student at the University of Birmingham, and her research is investigating self-compassion and aspects of perfectionism in dance.

 

She has an established eleven-year teaching portfolio delivering and coordinating dance in a variety of settings, ranging from community youth dance to higher education.

Michelle is a PhD student at the University of Birmingham investigating mental skills training in dance.

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She has previously been a research assistant for the Resilience and Ethics in Dance (REDE) project and guest lecturer in dance psychology at the Oslo National academy of the Arts in Oslo, Norway.

 

Her main research interests include mental health in dance, resilience and how mental skills can enhance dancers’ mental well-being and performance.