Faculty of Kinesiology

 Liz Johnson, graduated from UNB’s BSc(Kin) program in 2002. Upon completing her KIN degree, she left her Maritime home to pursue a Master’s in Exercise Physiology at the University of Victoria with the late Dr. Gord Sleivert, where she focused on Environmental Physiology and strategies to improve performance in the heat.  Following graduation, Liz was hired as a sport physiologist Pacific Sport (now the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific [CSI Pacific]) in 2006.  CSI Pacific provides evidence-based support, expertise and world class training environments to elite athletes and coaches striving to represent Canada at Olympic and Paralympic Games.   The sport institute model was conceived in collaboration with Own the Podium (OTP), Sport Canada and the Canadian Olympic Association in 2005 in advance of the 2010 Olympic Games (Vancouver).  The goal was to integrate sport science and medicine to enhance athletes’ opportunity to stand at the top of the podium.  Liz feels that prior to OTP and the development of the CSIs, Canada was behind countries like Australia, Britain and the United States on sport science, stating that there was more of an academic approach to answering sport related performance questions rather than an applied approach that addressed the concerns of coaches and athletes.

Liz works in an Integrated Sports Team (IST) working with coaches and athletes. The IST is like the ‘Pit Crew’ in Indy car racing.  A group of highly trained individuals with a shared purpose of supporting coaches and athletes to execute sustainable performance on the world stage.    The team provides a holistic approach where physiologists, biomechanists, nutritionists, strength and condition coaches and mental performance coaches and others work to deliver solutions to all aspects of the training paradigm.  As the sport physiologist, Liz’s responsibilities span collecting and analyzing traditional physiological measures (VO2, lactates, heart rates) to identify response to training, translating results to coaches to address individual athlete gaps and to advise on developing annual training plans.  She continues to draw from her learnings in environmental physiology creating strategies to mitigate jet lag, heat, dehydration and altitude.  Liz shares her 16 years’ experience with CSI Pacific internally leading the Institute’s physiology team and externally as an active member of the OTP Sport Scientist Canada High Performance Certification program, the Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport Committee, and the Women in Sport Science initiative where she is a mentoring women in under-represented fields within sport sciences.

Liz credits her time at UNB and the program in Kinesiology for not only providing a solid knowledge foundation in movement science but for the immersion and integration of this knowledge into applied work.  As an undergraduate student she was involved in research projects where she learned the tools of the trade and how to test people in a safe environment.  She also contributes the team approach to the research, knowledge sharing culture and work ethic in a team environment to her early days in the KIN labs.

When asked about the highlights of her career, Liz is proud of the support she has provided to coaches and athletes at major events that have taken her to nearly every continent and included the Olympics Games in London and Paralympics in Beijing, as well as multiple World Championships, Commonwealth games and Pan-Am games with the national Swim, Rowing and Wheelchair rugby teams.  Liz takes great pride in watching the athletes’ she has worked with translate their learning from the sport world to be successive and impactful global citizen.  Liz continues to be a passionate mountain biker and finds time to get out for a ride when her busy schedule of travel and raising three young children permits.