Olympic Level Athlete to Sports Analytics Researcher (Liz Wanless) - KNN Ep. 74

 Dr. Wanless researches advanced analytics application to various aspects of sport organization operations from customer relationship management to the diffusion of natural language processing (NLP). In 2021, Dr. Wanless was awarded the Ohio University College of Business Excellence Intellectual Contributions Award as well as the Outstanding Teaching Recognition. Dr. Wanless published more than 20 peer-reviewed publications in outlets including the Journal of Sport Management, Sport Management Review, Journal of Sports Analytics, Journal of Strength and Conditioning, Journal of Issues in Intercollegiate Athletics, and International Journal of Sports Science and Coaching. Additionally, she has given over 60 peer-reviewed and invited presentations at conferences including the North American Society for Sport Management, INFORMS spORts, Sport Marketing Association, Applied Sport Management, Annual Fund Analytics & Execution Symposium, and the National Sports Forum. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Wanless competed for Nike, Asics, the New York Athletic Club, and Team USA as a professional track and field shot putter maintaining top 20 in the world for 5 consecutive years. In 2004, Wanless was recognized as the NCAA Woman of the Year for the state of Maine.  In our conversation today, we talk about how Liz was able target find the same passion for data that she had for athletics, her own experience with impostor syndrome in the male dominated field of sports analytics, and why there aren't more women working in the domain. Liz has an awesome story, and I really enjoyed my chat with her.