Sargent, Joanne

UBC’s Physical Education faculty has been home to many of BC’s best basketball players. One such student, a graduate in Education with a 1973 Physical Education (Kinesiology) degree, is Joanne Sargent. While playing for the Blue & Gold between 1968/69 and 1972/73 she starred on three Canadian champion teams, two of those UBC teams are inductees in the UBC Sports Hall of Fame and the Basketball BC Hall of Fame. That is three national champions in four Varsity years! Joanne also was a member of Canada’s national team from 1970 through 1976 competing for Canada in the 1976 Olympics. In fact, in the 1976 Olympics, she set an Olympic Games basketball record for most assists in a single game, a record that stood for twenty years.

For more than ten years after graduation Joanne played Senior ‘A’ basketball winning several Canadian championships, a Canada Games team gold in 1975 and more MVP awards (a reported eleven) than she can recall. Moreover, she and her teams won three more gold medals at Masters and Seniors Tournaments in 2005, 2009 and 2010.

Basketball has been an integral part of Joanne’s life in addition to careers as a television Production Assistant and a TV News Director Assistant. As a player her hard work and intense competitiveness have helped inspire others and has translated into her induction as an athlete into the Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame, the UBC Sports Hall of Fame, the Basketball BC Hall of Fame and in 2014, the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Written by Fred Hume, UBC Historian

Alumni, UBC

Russo, Erminia

One of BC’s outstanding athletes of the 1970s and 1980s, P.E. (Kinesiology) alumna, Erminia Russo has forged an impressive career in the sport of volleyball. Erminia graduated from high school in Kelowna and in her first year on UBC’s volleyball team, she was a starter who quickly evolved into a three-time Canada West All-Star and All-Canadian. She was considered by her UBC coaches to be the team leader in addition to offensive statistical leader. According to coach Sandy Silver, “Erminia was strong in all aspects of the game . . . had a winning attitude and excellent poise.” In 1985 Erminia made Canada’s national team and played for Canada for eight years. According to Silver, she was “the quarterback of the team,” an experience climaxed by her appearance in the 1986 Olympics. All this as she completed her BPE at UBC in 1989. During the 1990s Erminia played professional volleyball in France, was one of Canada’s top beach volleyball players and embarked upon a coaching career. For two years she coached the University of Western Ontario volleyball team then from 1997/98 through 2000 was the successful head coach of UBC’s women’s team. She took UBC to the CIS finals in 1998 winning both Canada West and CIS Coach of the Year honours that year. In 1999 Erminia was honoured with the UBC Alumni Association Outstanding Young Alumnus Award and in 2007 was inducted into the UBC Sports Hall of Fame. Now married to former UBC football player and CFL coach Noel Thorpe, Erminia lives in Montreal where she continues to promote the game of volleyball and can be seen on television as an articulate Canadian volleyball analyst.

Written by Fred Hume, UBC Historian

Alumni, UBC

MacKinnon, Dean

Dean MacKinnon, UBC Physical Education graduate of 1966, took his degree to the classroom teaching in the Vancouver school system until his recent retirement. But he is perhaps better known for his outstanding 40 year career as a local basketball referee.

While a student, Dean played basketball under coach Hugh Marshall at John Oliver high school then attending UBC played on the Thunderbird rugby team. He was a pretty fair athlete which is required when refereeing high school basketball games, a career he began around age 30. Dean was an official at high school provincial championships, university contests plus refereed at Canada Summer games.

Later he became more involved as a referee for wheelchair basketball competitions and was named the sports’ Official Of The Year in 2000, 2005 and 2010. In 2003 he was recognized nationally with the “Wink” Willcox Award for his stellar work as an official in basketball, including the Wheelchair variety.

In 2013 Dean joined another UBC alumnus Tim Frick as inductees into the Basketball BC Hall of Fame.

Written by Fred Hume, UBC Historian

Alumni, UBC

Griffith, Clyde

Physical Education graduate Clyde Griffith is a pioneer on two fronts: he is among the first graduates of UBC’s Recreation program while at the same time was one of the students who in the late 1950s came to UBC from the West Indies. This unique period of UBC history – from the mid 1950s through the mid 1960s – saw a primarily white campus introduced for the first time to Caribbean students who numbered approximately 200. These were the pioneering and accomplished “international” students who spawned UBC’s International House.

Clyde, from Trinidad, was part of this unique period, first enrolling in Medicine then realizing physical education and recreation were his passions. Also a noted musician, Clyde graduated from UBC in 1964 – he was International Student of the Year in 1962 – and quickly found his fellow alumni not only assisted his career but became life-long friends.

Griffith had a distinguished career in recreation as he was the first Recreation Director for the cities of Delta and Surrey and for over 20 years was Recreation Consultant for the BC provincial government. He was involved in many special projects including the Canada Summer and Winter Games and Commonwealth Games.

Griffith, who has a Masters in Community Development, also contributed to the community through authoring “The Black History Resource Guide,” documenting the contribution of black pioneers in BC.

Clyde has received many honours, among them recognition for his work with UBC’s International House and inclusion in “Who’s Who in Black Canada” and says his “ . . . driving desire is to give something back to my community.”

Written by Fred Hume, UBC Historian

Alumni, UBC

Bishop, Carole

Carole Bishop, born and raised in Vancouver, graduated from UBC with a BPE (Kinesiology) in 1973. However it is her career as an athlete and as a clinical psychologist that frames this UBC alumna as somewhat unique.

In her profession she has been an adjunct professor at UBC, an associate professor at SFU and the co-ordinator of graduate clinical psychology at Vancouver General Hospital.

In her athletic life, Carole was a heralded volleyball player and coach. In 1966 at age 16, Carole became the youngest Canadian to play at the international level. She didn’t play for UBC but while attending this university did play for Vancouver Senior ‘A’ club teams winning ten national volleyball championships in addition to being a member of Canada’s national team through 1978. With the national team, Carole competed in the Olympics, Pan-American games, World championships and North American championships. In European tournaments she was the MVP in 1975 and 1976, the latter year she was ranked the fourth best setter in the world.

Carole also coached club teams to four Vancouver city titles and even coached gymnastics, winning a Vancouver championship in 1981.

To this day Carole remains a friend to UBC and is an inductee in the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Written by Fred Hume, UBC Historian

Alumni, UBC

Kristin Campbell, PT, MSc, PhD

Kristin Campbell has always loved exercise and physical activity. As a high school student, she played on the teams Kristen Campbell and her dream job was to be the athletic trainer for the men’s tennis tour.

“I thought that would be the greatest job in the world,” says Dr. Campbell. “But then all through university, I realized it was more fun to work with average people, helping them get motivated about exercise to manage a chronic disease or recover from surgery.”

Immediately following the last exam for her physical therapy degree at Queen’s University, she boarded a plane for Vancouver to snowboard and work as a casual physical therapist at Vancouver General Hospital.

Flipping through one of Vancouver’s free magazines, an article about the first dragon boat team of breast cancer survivors caught her attention. Two UBC professors were quoted in the story—Dr. Don McKenzie of the School of Kinesiology, who started the team, and Dr. Susan Harris of the Department of Physical Therapy, who paddled with the team. Kristin had written an honours paper about how exercise may lower women’s risk of estrogen-related cancers, so she decided to explore opportunities to research this topic in the School of Kinesiology.

“UBC seemed like the ideal place to do research on exercise and cancer survivorship,” Dr. Campbell says. “Working with Dr. McKenzie, a leader in the field, set me up to be able to do my PhD with another leader in the field.”

Now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at UBC, Dr. Campbell is investigating the role of exercise in rehabilitation from cancer treatment and how to use exercise in health promotion for cancer survivors after they complete treatment. One of her current projects is looking at the role of exercise in chemo-brain (cancer-associated cognitive dysfunction), or the difficulty cancer survivors sometimes experience with problem-solving and multi-tasking. She also plans to develop a prospective model of care for breast cancer survivors, which would measure arm function before and after surgery to ensure range-of-motion and strength are regained and for the early detection of lymphedema (swelling of the arm). Dr. Campbell also recently received funding to develop pelvic floor muscle training for women who were treated for gynaecological cancers.

“I really enjoy interacting with the cancer survivors who participate in our studies,” says Dr. Campbell. “A lot of the studies have exercise as a main component, and some people reluctantly sign up and don’t necessarily know what to do. Seeing them take hold of exercise, enjoy it and get the benefits is really rewarding.”

As she looks back on her career since graduating from the School of Kinesiology, Dr. Campbell is most proud to have been invited to participate in discussions for the development of the American College of Sports Medicine’s exercise guidelines for cancer survivors. She was also invited by the American Cancer Society to participate on an international panel of experts to develop prospective models of care for breast cancer survivors, which were published in a special supplement of the journal Cancer.

But looking forward, Dr. Campbell’s ultimate goal is to develop rehabilitation for the cancer survivors of British Columbia.

“My colleagues and I all look to cardiac rehab as the gold standard,” she says. “If cancer survivors could have access to a set rehabilitation program with health care professionals, either during or following their cancer treatment, I think that would make a world of difference to their quality of life and ability to engage in activities they enjoy.”

To contact Dr. Campbell, you can email: Kristin.campbell@ubc.ca

Centre for Sport and Sustainability

The Centre’s approach is to integrate training and educational opportunities with core research activities focused around sport and sustainability. Visit the Centre here. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Kriitmaa, Kolin

“Finding a mentor who can assist you in navigating your way through your career is important. Finding a mentor who will not agree with everything you want to do, but push you to be better all the time is important to maintain a competitive advantage.”

Originally from Kelowna, BC, Kolin completed both a Bachelor of Human Kinetics from the University of British Columbia (2001) and a Masters of Human Kinetics (2004) with a focus in Sport Management. Currently completing his MBA at the University of Athabasca, Kolin spends his time as the President of internationally acclaimed sports-marketing firm Dynamic Sport Development Ltd. while maintaining positions with a number of other organizations such as Innovative Sports Ltd., community groups and sport organizations.

Education – both in and out of the classroom – has helped guide Kolin’s professional experience. Reflecting on how such educations informs his work today, Kolin says “The BHK helped me to understand and get work experience in the coaching/teaching area. The MHK helped me to understand how to ‘Manage’ in the business of sports, and the MBA is helping me to take the next level to think like an executive who is operating a business.” It is, however, “Volunteer, volunteer, volunteer” Kolin suggests to aspiring students as “the only way to get experience and get an in with a company as the jobs are highly competitive.”

Working in a position highly involved in the world of professional sports and high profile athletes, Kolin performs a job many only wish they could pursue. It is, however, as Kolin states, not that simple. Describing his position as “what you make of it … little bit of management, little bit of entrepreneur, little bit of get your hands dirty and do the jobs that no one else wants to do,” the job is not without its pressures.

As Kolin explains, “people think that having the opportunity to hang out with high profile athletes, and work with both professional and amateur sports teams is all fun.” This is, however, a misconception since, as he goes on to say, it is often the case that “No one really sees the stress that is incurred because the work is more in the spot light than most jobs, and people are so passionate about sports it hits home a little harder when things do not go well.”

It is, however, a dynamic job. Commenting on his day-to-day, Kolin describes how “It is a highly networking and relationship building job”- one where, he states, “no two days are ever the same.” Building on years of experience at all levels of sports, Kolin has fostered a network of opportunities. Taking advantage of those connections, he suggests that “The biggest advantage I have had in my career is that I have always been in a position to walk through new doors when they are open.”

Kolin’s advice for getting navigating your career path? Find a mentor: “I believe the best way to gain experience is through mentorship. Finding a mentor who can assist you in navigating your way through your career is important. Finding a mentor who will not agree with everything you want to do, but push you to be better all the time is important to maintain a competitive advantage.”

Yuen, Denise

Graduating year: BHK 2007

Denise Yuen graduated in 2007 from the UBC School of Kinesiology and focused her studies on Physical Education with a Minor in Science. She is currently a Contractor with the Australian Paralympic Committee after working as a Village Duty Manager for the Australian Youth Olympic Festival.

With previous experience as a Canadian SportWORKS Officer (CSO) with Commonwealth Games Canada, Denise has worked internationally to assist both the Singapore National Olympic Council and National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka with an emphasis on improving their Games Team Management through the use of Zeus, an online information and games management system. While adapting to this new system, efficiencies in the organizations are achieved through the review and revision of processes, policies, procedures, and programs. Denise has also worked as the Manager of Community Development for the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, and Sea-to-Sky Corridor with Special Olympics BC from 2008 to 2011.

Actively involved in the campus community throughout her undergrad, Denise reflects back on these formative years and says “Throughout my undergrad I remember writing numerous lesson plans and developing programs which have been helpful for me in managing programs and working with educators and coaches”. She continues her dedication to community spirit through volunteer work ranging from organizing the Commonwealth Games Canada Game of Life Walk/Run, to coaching Special Olympics athletes.

Advice to Current Students: “Networking is so important! The books and notes in University are just the beginning – there is so much more to learn and experience from the people and environment around you.”

Hodson, Sara

Graduating year: BHK, 2002
Position: Owner
Organization: Live Well Exercise Clinic
Stream: Exercise Science
Website: www.livewellexerciseclinic.com

“Experience is key. Employers want to see a resume with applicable work experience. It is an equally important facet to being a successful candidate for a job.”

Sara Hodson graduated from the School of Kinesiology (formerly Human Kinetics) in 2002. With the chosen stream of Exercise Science, she quickly pursued a career in the final year of her undergrad with Fraser Health as a Clinical Exercise Physiologist in the Chronic Disease Management Programs. Holding this position for ten years until 2011, she then decided to make the courageous jump and open up her own clinic, Live Well Exercise Clinic.

She now serves as the president of a successful chain of Live Well Exercise clinics across Canada and has plans to move into the US and grow her company internationally. In 2018, Sara was named by BIV (Business in Vancouver) as one of the top 40 under 40 winners. This award recognizes young entrepreneurs under 40 who have demonstrated excellence in business, judgment, leadership and community contribution. Add to this, her company was named as one of the Fastest Growing Companies in BC that year.

As an undergrad, Sara was a highly involved student, working at the BirdCoop as well as managing the Changing Aging Program each for two years. She notes how her experience in Kinesiology provided her with a strong foundation for which she could launch a successful career. “My undergrad in Kinesiology has been the foundation to my entire career. I keep my textbooks and classwork close at hand in my clinic,” says Sara, “My practicum work placement gave me the clarity and direction I needed in knowing what my professional pursuits would be.”

Shortly after graduating, Sara took her degree even further, completing a post-graduate diploma as a Clinical Exercise Specialist and Cancer Exercise Trainer from the American College of Sports Medicine.

Sara’s diverse experience and ‘go-getter’ attitude have made her clinic a success to date. Currently operating out of White Rock, BC, Live Well Exercise Clinic provides safe, evidence-based programming to help increase the quality of health and life for those dealing with diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

Not only does Sara apply her ‘no-fear’ lively attitude to her professional life, but she also carries this through to her personal life. With four children ages 1, 3, 5 and 7, Sara defines the term ‘Super-mom’ devoting time to their extra-curricular activities as well as her family as a whole.

Sara is an active and valued alumnus of the School of Kinesiology. She is dedicated to supporting the students by presenting to them on her career journey, mentoring, and hiring students through the School’s Co-op Program.

Advice to Current Students: “Experience is key. Employers want to see a resume with applicable work experience. It is an equally important facet to being a successful candidate for a job.”