FREE INTERACTIVE SPEAKER SERIES

(PRE-REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED)

THURSDAY, MARCH 28, 2024
6:30-8:30pm EST (Doors Open at 6:15pm)

Pedal Works Café & Studios

101C, 1412 Princess St, Kingston, ON K7M 3E5

This is a unique opportunity offered to female student-athletes in grades 6-10 to learn from the experiences of accomplished women in their various fields. Our dynamic guest speakers – who are leaders and key contributors within their community – will have time to engage the audience with their story and share advice from their sport experience.

Our talks always have an interactive component and we invite athletes to ask questions at the end. Past presentation topics have included diversity and inclusion in sport, mental health, dealing with injury, defining your journey, habits for success, and much more.

Students will have an opportunity to network with guest speakers and other athletes during the event.

Parents, guardians and community members are welcome to attend the event, but are asked to sit in a designated section. Front seats will be reserved for female student-athletes.

This will be our 8th annual In the Huddle and the talks will continue to be interactive. We will continue to foster a safe and inclusive space for all participants. If we can provide any accommodations for the presentations, please do not hesitate to reach out to leadthrusport@gmail.com.

SPEAKERS

Speaker Bios

Martha Williams
Title: Entrepreneur
Other Titles: Fitness Professional, Executive Coach, Spinning Master Instructor
Owner Pedal Works Café & Studios

Personal Responsibility in Sports and Life

Martha earned her BA from Wellesley College and a MA from UCLA. She is a community activist and participates in Kingston’s Emancipation & Black History & Futures events for the city of Kingston. Martha has been a guest lecturer at several national & international conferences and events. She held teaching positions at Spelman College in Atlanta and at UCLA in California. Martha is an artist, that centres Black Women, she’s a trained co-active life coach and offers executive coaching, is one of three Spinning® Master Instructors in Canada and owns a Spinning®, Yoga, Art & Café business Pedal Works Café & Studios here in Kingston.

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Taryn McKenna
Title: Student Affairs Professional

Beyond the Jersey: Embracing the Whole Athlete

Taryn McKenna (she/her) is a former varsity athlete turned coach who has worked with players from 3-25 and now coaches with the Varsity Women’s Soccer Team at Queen’s University. She has worked as a high school music teacher, valet driver, and mascot. Today, she works as the Student Inclusion and Engagement Coordinator at Queen’s where she creates opportunities to build allyship and a sense of belonging among students. She prioritizes inclusion, respect and belonging in all that she does, and believes strongly that everyone has the ability to flourish when they feel a sense of belonging and pride in who they are. On the side, Taryn is a musician and is honoured and thrilled to be presenting at Lead Thru Sport’s In the Huddle speaker series event.

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Beth Barz
Title: Coach

Beth is an experienced Facilitator and Mentor Coach for the Advanced Coaching Diploma program at the Canadian Sport Institutes in Ontario and Calgary where she supports high-performance coaches in values-based leadership, decision making and cultural development. For this and other contributions to sport coaching, Beth was recognized as the 2022 National Coach Developer of the Year by the Coaching Association of Canada. She is a NCCP Master Coach Developer in rugby and multisport and is a World Rugby Master Trainer. She continues to coach, into her 22nd varsity season and her 7th with the Royal Military College Men’s Rugby Team, in 2024.

Beth is a long-time Kingston, Ontario high school teacher who is completing her PhD in Kinesiology part time. Her current research interest revolves around Coach Developers in multisport and sport-specific settings and transformational leadership and learning. Beth rounds out her work focus running a consulting business that supports sport coach development.

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Claire Meadows
Title: Coach
Claire Meadows led Queen’s Women’s Basketball to their best record in program history and second consecutive U SPORTS Women’s Basketball Final 8 medal in her second season as Head Coach of Queen’s Women’s Basketball in 2022-23.

Meadows and the Gaels finished the 2022-23 regular season with a 21-1 record, good for the top record in the OUA, before capturing the OUA silver medal and U SPORTS silver medal.

Meadows led the Gaels to a U SPORTS bronze medal on home court in her first season on the bench in 2021-22. At the U SPORTS Women’s Final 8 Basketball Championship, hosted by Queen’s, the Gaels earned a bronze, upsetting the No. 2 seed Saskatchewan Huskies in the first round and defeating the OUA silver medalist Brock Badgers in the Bronze Medal game.

Meadows (B.PhE’ 07) returned to Queen’s from the University of Saskatchewan, where she helped guide the Huskies to a U SPORTS National Championship in 2019-20 as associate head coach. Meadows was an assistant coach with Saskatchewan the previous year, winning Canada West Championships both seasons.

She has also served as head coach of the Canadian National Junior Women’s Basketball Team (FIBA Americas Silver Medal and sixth place finish at 2019 World Championships). She currently serves as an assistant coach for the German Women’s National team and will be coaching in the 2024 Paris Olympics.