Big Sky Conference to Hold Health and Wellness Symposium Tuesday in Sacramento
OGDEN, Utah (May 17, 2018) – The Big Sky Conference will hold the fifth annual Health and Wellness Symposium in conjunction with the league’s annual Spring Meeting on Tuesday, May 22 at Amador Hall on the campus of California State University, Sacramento.
The event will take place from 10:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. PT and will include member Presidents, Athletic Directors, Senior Woman Administrators, Faculty Athletic Representatives, student-athletes, coaches, health professionals, media and the general public. Admission is free to the event.
The Symposium offers those in attendance a look at various health-related topics that student-athletes experience on a day-to-day basis that extend beyond the expectations to perform in the classroom and on the field. While there are many resources available for student-athletes on college campuses, the Big Sky Conference strives to provide to its member institutions even more tools to manage health and wellness on campus and within its athletic department.
To help with this goal, the Conference presents speakers who will provide their knowledge on a variety of health-related topics. This year’s speakers include Huddle Up’s Jeffrey O’Brien (Institute for Sport and Social Justice) and Brandi Stuart (University of Central Florida). Specifically, the two will speak about bystander intervention and how to create active bystanders on campus.
O’Brien is one of the nation’s leading sport-based leadership development educators and provides technical assistance, training, and curriculum development for high school, college and professional sports, educational institutions, corporations, government agencies, non-profit organizations and community groups. He has developed and delivered trainings for thousands of student-athletes, coaches, and administrators at over 150 universities, including leading conference-wide training relationships with the Southeastern Conference, A-10 Conference and Big Ten Conference. O’Brien has worked with dozens of professional sports teams and leagues including the NFL, MLB, NBA, WNBA, NASCAR and MLL.
One of the United States’ leading gender violence prevention educators, O’Brien is the current Director of Huddle Up to End Gender Violence.
Stuart joined UCF as Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Welfare and Development in September 2015. Stuart also serves as the department’s Senior Woman Administrator. Stuart is responsible for the overall welfare and development of UCF student-athletes. She also has direct oversight of the Student-Athlete Welfare and Development office, as well as Sports Medicine and Strength and Conditioning.
For the past seven years, Stuart has been a consultant and facilitator in the National Consortium for Academics and Sport in the Mentors in Violence Prevention program. She served as a senior lead trainer for program delivery, working with intercollegiate athletic departments as well as NBA teams.
Huddle Up tailors each of their presentations to their specific audience. This research-based approach has allowed the Huddle-Up trainers to present their material all over the country from MLB spring training to collegiate football teams. The group strives to “effectively address the full continuum of abusive behaviors and empowering participants to understand how misogynistic language, sexual harassment, gendered bullying, sexual assault, rape and domestic violence are linked together.”
Former speakers at the Big Sky Health and Wellness Symposium have included Dr. Amy Athey, Dr. Michael Grander, Dr. Brian Haneline, Brenda Tracy, Ted Bunch and Don McPherson. Past topics have featured mental health needs of student-athletes, stress management, mentoring those that have alcohol and drug issues, diversity, inclusion and community building, concussions, the amount of sleep and mental wellness of student-athletes, and sexual assault prevention on campuses.