Faculty of Kinesiology

Dr. E. Wendy Bedingfield has been a teacher, coach, researcher, administrator, leader, and advocate for women in Kinesiology. Born in Newfoundland, she earned a BPE from Memorial, a MSc in PE from Oregon, and PhD in Biomechanics from the University of Indiana (research on ski jumping). She initially was at Acadia University in the early 70s after finishing her MSc and served as an instructor as well as the women’s volleyball and basketball coach. After she completed her PhD, she held a position at the University of Alberta for 10 years where she ran a sport biomechanics lab. In 1986, she was brought to Acadia as a change maker - with the mission of saving the Physical Education program from the chopping block (spoiler alert – it was saved).

She was the first and only (to date) woman to lead the SRMK (now School of Kinesiology) as Director and she served as the first woman Dean of the Faculty of Management and Education (now Professional Studies). She later went on to serve as the Dean of Research and Graduate Studies. In between roles as Dean, she taught in the SRMK – not biomechanics, but courses on other topics she was passionate about and experience in related to sport and recreation: Global Issues, the Canadian Sport System, Sport and Gender, Facilitation (on making change in organizations) and Senior Seminar – serving both the Kinesiology and Recreation Management degree programs and students. She also supervised practicums.

While her teaching and leadership within Acadia were important, it is her leadership in practice that has likely been even more impactful on women in the field of Kinesiology. In the early 1980s, she worked with other women passionate sport and founded the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport (CAAWS, now Canadian Women in Sport). In the 1990s, again with a group of women, Dr. Bedingfield worked to change the structure of the board for university sport so that women were involved in decision making. As President of Canadian Inter-university Sport (now USport), she helped athletic scholarships – something that was controversial at the time – become acceptable in university sport in Canada and made efforts to direct scholarship money toward both male and female student-athletes. She served as the Coaching Association of Canada Research Committee’s first chair and was involved in coach education. After her retirement from a 26-year career at Acadia, she was a board member for the Canadian Soccer Association for two terms - ahead of, during and following Canada hosting the Women’s World Cup. Also within the last 10 years, she helped Nova Scotia establish WomenActive-NS – an organization that seeks to enhance the physical activity experiences of women and girls in that province.

Dr. Bedingfield’s leadership has been recognized with too many awards to list here. Among them are being inducted into the Acadia Sports Hall of Fame as a “builder” and being named one of the “most influential women in sport and physical activity” by CAAWS.

I first met Dr. Bedingfield in the mid-1990s when I was a student at Acadia in the Recreation Management program. She was Dean of the Faculty of Management and Education and I was the student representative for SRMK on the Faculty Planning Committee and on the Faculty Student Planning Committee. While I have long since forgotten what strategic planning the Schools and Faculty were doing that involved seeking student input, I remember that we had 7:30 a.m. meetings as the Student Planning Committee, Dr. Bedingfield was there, and there was food. Her valuing of student perspectives and making time to connect with students is something I have never forgotten. I also appreciated that she had innovative ideas, asked great questions, and that she navigated conflict and controversy during meetings in a way I admired. She was the first woman I had the chance to observe in a significant leadership role. Her example was and has remained powerful for me.

Dr. Bedingfield established herself as a change maker and offers an example that no matter where your current interests in Kinesiology lie or where your career starts – your pathway for making a difference may present itself as opportunities unfold you need to pay attention and be willing to jump in. And, sometimes when there is no evident pathway for making a difference or for change, you must work to create one.