UNews - Scott Rathwell

ULethbridge master's student initiates study on youth ADHD experiences in sport

trevor.kenney — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 17:17:43 +0000

Participants sought to take part in study

A new study by a ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master’s student seeks to broaden the understanding of how the presence of youth diagnosed with ADHD are perceived and addressed in team sport environments. Results are intended to add to the scant literature on the subject and open conversations around supporting neurodiverse individuals, their teammates and coaches to create positive sport experiences.

Master's student Justine Cotnoir has used sport as a valuable tool in regulating her ADHD.

Justine Cotnoir is leading the project through a personal lens. She was diagnosed with ADHD when she was just six years old and found sport as a means of regulation that has allowed her to thrive in other aspects of her life.

“I was very lucky to get diagnosed early in life and to be diagnosed by a neuropsychologist who really had the tools to give my family information about what my specific challenges were,” says Cotnoir, who participated in ultimate frisbee and competitive swimming as a youth. “Sport was really important for me. I would struggle to focus or manage my time, and it was hard for me to sit down and devote an hour to homework. When I had frisbee practice, it regulated my whole day, and my schedule would be built around it. After that dopamine boost of physical activity, I was able to sit down for longer periods of time and focus on my schoolwork.”

Originally from Sherbrooke, Que., Cotnoir earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology at Bishop’s ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ. As an undergraduate student, she wrote an honours thesis examining the prevalence of ADHD athletes competing in university sport, as well as novel research on how having ADHD might be advantageous in certain contexts — such as sport.

Dr. Scott Rathwell (kinesiology) is the supervisor and co-investigator for the study.

ULethbridge kinesiology professor Dr. Scott Rathwell met Cotnoir at a research conference and was impressed with her work. Even though her research focus didn’t exactly align with his, he agreed to supervise her master’s studies.

“Most of my work has focused on adult sport participants (Masters athletes) and how we can optimize their environment to promote commitment and enhance/maintain performance as one ages,” says Rathwell. “I have always been interested in understanding what a quality experience is for athletes and how to optimize their experiences. Justine has just led me to shift that focus to athletes with ADHD.”

Cotnoir says that while sport experiences can be highly beneficial for those diagnosed with ADHD, there are some challenges for young athletes with ADHD, their teammates and coaches.

“Much of what I’ve heard has been people telling me they sometimes had problems where their symptoms presented in a sport setting. They were being misunderstood, or they were punished for talking too much or not listening. Some said they quit a sport or their parents took them out because they didn’t feel the coaches were meeting their needs just because they behaved differently,” says Cotnoir.

While there are studies that have some of these anecdotes, they are complementary to the focus of the work. Hers will focus solely on those experiences.

“I think one of the greatest strengths of this project is that it is being led by someone who understands both the science and the lived reality of ADHD in sport,” Rathwell says of Cotnoir. “Justine’s experience positions her to see things that others might miss, ask questions that truly matter, and design research that reflects the actual experiences of the end user in mind. I think having her as the lead improves our chances of publishing something that is empathetic, credible and genuinely impactful.”

Cotnoir aims to have a minimum of 300 people take the survey, which is open to any current or former athlete who has participated in competitive team sport between the ages of five to 17, as well as parents of children who currently or previously participated in a team sport and youth sport coaches. The broad cross section will give her a holistic view of the ADHD experience in sport. Following completion of the surveys, she will identify smaller groups for follow-up interviews that will serve as case studies. Those interested in taking part can follow this link: https://linktr.ee/_surveylinks_, and are eligible to win one of three $25 gift cards upon completion.

“I’d like to say we’re adding a piece to the puzzle in providing a better understanding of how ADHD is perceived and addressed in youth team sport environments,” says Cotnoir. “In the long term, maybe this will help shape future studies and lead to some practical ways to help those youth with ADHD who are participating in sport to have a positive and supportive experience as well as their coaches and parents.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers awarded federal research grants worth more than $3 million

caroline.zentner — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 21:50:59 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers are among the successful applicants for federal grants announced by The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Industry and Minister responsible for Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions, and the Honourable Marjorie Michel, Minister of Health.

The more than $1.3 billion in funding supports over 9,700 researchers and research projects in Canada through the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

“From brain plasticity and the mechanism of low-dose radiation to supporting newcomers through mentoring, these grants illustrate the diversity of research being done at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, vice-president of research. “This funding not only helps established researchers continue their work but also helps our early career researchers build their research programs. Ultimately, our students benefit with increased opportunities to engage in research throughout their post-secondary careers.”

In total, ULethbridge received funding from NSERC for nine Discovery Grants and two Discovery Development Grants. The Discovery Grants will bring in nearly $475,000 a year for the next five years. The research projects include the following:

Dr. Gerlinde Metz (Neuroscience) will receive $96,000 per year for a study looking at the social determinants of experience-dependent brain plasticity.
Dr. Stacey Wetmore (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $89,000 per year for a project involving computer modelling of modified RNA.
Dr. Olga Kovalchuk (Biological Sciences) was awarded $55,000 annually to study the fundamental mechanisms of low-dose radiation.
Dr. Borries Demeler (Chemistry & Biochemistry) is set to receive $47,000 yearly for solution studies of interacting biopolymer systems.
Dr. Hadi Kharaghani (Mathematics & Computer Science) will receive $32,000 a year for his project on special orthogonal matrices.

The remainder of the NSERC recipients are four early career researchers, each of whom received a Discovery Launch Supplement of $12,500 in addition to their Discovery Grant.

Dr. Corina Birghila (Mathematics & Computer Science) was awarded a yearly amount of $31,000 for a project titled Optimal Decision under Uncertainty.
Dr. Jessica Willi (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $44,000 annually for a project on ribosome functions through synthetic biology.
Dr. Vineet Rathod (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $38,000 annually to examine the structure-function relationship of natural and engineered amyloid proteins.
Dr. Dylan Girodat (Chemistry & Biochemistry) will receive $42,000 per year for a project on the structural dynamics of ribosomes during translation.

In addition, Discovery Development Grants, worth $22,000 each, were awarded to Drs. Christopher Hopkinson (Geography & Environment) and Marc Bomhof (Kinesiology and Physical Education).

Hopkinson will use remote sensing to model vegetation and snowpack response to wildland fire in headwater basins.
Bomhof intends to look at the interplay between exercise and dietary factors on appetite regulation.

ULethbridge social science and humanities researchers were awarded $645,000 in SSHRC Insight Grants.

Dr. Daniel O'Donnell (English) will work on a project involving Research Data Management and Research Data Infrastructure by humanities researchers.
Dr. Scott Rathwell (Kinesiology) wants to enhance sport participation, promote physical activity and improve health outcomes for aging adults by establishing a framework for effective sport programming in middle-aged and older adults.

Several ULethbridge researchers are the recipients of Insight Development Grants totalling more than $291,000.

Dr. Toupey Luft (Education) has designed a project to address the gap in understanding how arts-based mentorship may enhance a sense of belonging for newcomer young adults.
Dr. Kenneth Holyoke’s (Geography & Environment) project investigates the nature and scope of climate impacts on the Wolastoqiyik and Wabanaki archaeological record in New Brunswick.
Dr. Justin Raycraft’s (Anthropology) objective in this project is to increase understanding of the social dimensions of human-carnivore coexistence in the Tarangire ecosystem of northern Tanzania.
Dr. Jeffrey MacCormack (Education) will develop a professional development intervention consisting of a community of practice for teachers and principals where they learn evidence-based practices to support students with profound and multiple disabilities.
Dr. Miranda Leibel (Liberal Education) will examine how the creation and maintenance of postal services are an important component of Canadian state- and nation-building.

Kinesiology student Leeza Voyevoda eager to experience all Semester at Sea program has to offer

trevor.kenney — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 16:06:56 +0000

Leeza Voyevoda has never been afraid to expand her comfort zone. That intrepid spirit gave her the confidence to leave her hometown university for what she hoped would be a better experience at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge, and now, it has led her to an international educational opportunity as the Brawn Family Foundation scholarship recipient and the Semester at Sea student.

Leeza Voyevoda's excursion began in Dubai and will conclude in Germany.

“It was one of my co-workers who told me he was doing this exchange thing and how he was going to all these amazing countries and taking a semester of school,” says Voyevoda about being introduced to the program. “I literally went to my computer at work, looked it up and started applying 20 minutes later.”

Semester at Sea is just as it sounds — close to 600 students board a ship and set sail for a semester of learning in shipboard classrooms, through field experiences and service projects as they visit 11 countries and three continents over the course of 106 days. Voyevoda departed Dubai on January 5, 2023, and will conclude her semester by docking in Germany on April 20.

For the fourth-year kinesiology major, the excursion is the perfect ending to her post-secondary journey — one that started at ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary before she realized she needed a more personal experience.

“I felt like I needed to be able to make connections with my professors and after my first year at U of C, I heard some good things about the U of L, so I decided to give it a shot,” says Voyevoda. “Within my first few classes here, I was able to go up to a professor and have a conversation and that made a world of difference to me.”

Before long she was enrolled in independent study opportunities, working closely with her professors and getting hands-on experience. She gravitated to research studies with Dylan Brown and Drs. Scott Rathwell and Jon Doan, and now is considering a career working as an athletic therapist with high performance athletes. Before that though, she’s eyeing graduate school, and Semester at Sea may well help lay the foundation.

“I’ve always been travel-focused and after high school I was able to travel around the Baltics a little bit and visited Sweden and Russia,” she says, noting her family is originally from Russia. “I’ve always had the itch to travel and one of my big goals is to do my graduate school outside Canada. I love to explore and get different perspectives, opinions and world views, and I see this as a step towards that.”

She’ll take four courses over the semester, including a required global studies course and another — disability across the lifespan — that’s in the realm of kinesiology. But, having already completed all her core courses and electives at ULethbridge, she had the freedom to expand her interests and one such opportunity was to study art.

“I never had the time to take art before, but I’ve always loved it and if I hadn’t taken kinesiology, I’d have studied art. Whenever I travel, I go to museums and different art installations and now I get to do it as coursework in these amazing countries — I’m so lucky,” she says.

She’s especially enthused about the first few stops on the voyage, including ports in Kenya, where she’ll get a chance to go on safari, and India. She also recognizes how fortunate she is to be chosen as this year’s scholarship winner, noting it would be impossible for her to pay for a trip of this magnitude.

“I still can’t even comprehend it,” says Voyevoda. “I’m just so grateful to the Brawn family and how generous they are. This will quite literally change my life in the most amazing way possible.”

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers secure SSHRC funding

trevor.kenney — Mon, 04 Jul 2022 15:14:53 +0000

Four ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge researchers were successful as principal applicants in earning funding support from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). The projects were part of 809 research initiatives from across Canada that received more than $175 million in funding.

This investment, through SSHRC’s Partnership Grants, Partnership Development Grants, Insight Grants and Aid to Scholarly Journals grants, supports research, research partnerships, and knowledge mobilization across a multitude of issues of critical relevance to Canadian society. Funding is provided to researchers, research teams and publications for projects of up to seven years.

“Now, more than ever, social sciences and humanities research plays an integral role as we navigate through the post-COVID-19 reality and continue to build a healthier, stronger and more prosperous Canada,” says the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry. “These grants enable scholars to address complex issues about communities and societies, and further our collective understanding so we can build a better future for all Canadians.”

Social sciences and humanities research such as this is essential to help Canadians understand and address some of the biggest challenges of our times.

ULethbridge projects include an examination of postpartum depression and maternal mental illness from Dr. Heather Stanley (history); a look at cancel culture from a marketing perspective by Dr. Rhiannon Mesler of the Dhillon School of Business; a study on successfully managing physical activity, from Dr. Scott Rathwell (kinesiology & physical education); and historian Dr. Kristine Alexander’s study, Children of the State: Age, Race, and Settler Colonialism in Canada.

“There’s a great breadth of expertise reflected in these successful projects and the culmination of their teams’ work will enhance our understanding of some very important issues,” says Dr. Dena McMartin, ULethbridge vice-president (research). “Research work like this in the humanities and social sciences creates insight and perspectives on key societal interests and sets the stage for the development of policies and practice.”

As well, ULethbridge researchers such as Dr. Carly Adams (kinesiology & physical education), secured funding as co-applicants on other projects. Adams is part of a Partnership Grant led by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Victoria, Past Wrongs, Future Choices, that examines the mid-20th century internment, dispossession and displacement of people of Japanese descent (Nikkei) in allied countries. She also partnered with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Manitoba on an Insight Grant, The People’s History of Sport in Canada.

Following is a list of SSHRC grant recipients as principal applicants for the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge:

Insight Grant

Dr. Heather Stanley, History, Maternal Darkness: Postpartum Depression and Maternal Mental Illness in Western Canada — $91,319 (5 years)

Insight Development Grant

Dr. Rhiannon Mesler, Dhillon School of Business, Marketing, Cancel Culture: An Examination of Individual and Situational Drivers — $74,636 (2 years)

Dr. Scott Rathwell, Kinesiology & Physical Education, Getting Back on Track: A Mixed Methods Study of Successful Management in Physical Activity — $74,170 (2 years)

Dr. Kristine Alexander, History, “Children of the State”: Age, Race, and Settler Colonialism in Canada — $25,459 (2 years)

The Research Support Fund supports a portion of the costs associated with managing the research funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, such as salaries for staff who provide administration support, training costs for workplace health and safety, maintenance of libraries and laboratories, and administrative costs associated with obtaining patents for inventions.

UNews - Scott Rathwell

ULethbridge master's student initiates study on youth ADHD experiences in sport

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