Playing with Inclusion, Assessing the Crossroads of Gender & Sport

Dr. Jody L. Herman is the Reid Rasmussen Senior Scholar of Public Policy at the Williams Institute, UCLA School of Law. Her research focuses on the prevalence and impacts of discrimination based on gender identity or expression. At the Williams Institute, her work has included research on the impact of gender identity anti-discrimination protections and minority stress, health, and suicidality among transgender people, among other topics. She co-authored The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey and serves as Co-PI on the 2022 U.S. Transgender Survey.

Dani Alexander-Burk (they/them) serves as a Regional Program Coordinator/Office Manager for Lambda Legal, the oldest LGBTQ+ focused legal advocacy non-profit in the country. They are based in the Southern Regional Office, located in Atlanta, Georgia. They lead community outreach initiatives across the Southeast and support Lambda’s Legal Help Desk. Previously, Dani worked at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia where they served as the Coordinator for Cultural and Community Centers,  managing the LGBTQ Resource Center for three years. Dani has a degree in cultural anthropology from KSU and is currently working on their Master of Public Administration from the University of North Georgia.

Anna Posbergh is a PhD candidate and American Association for University Women (AAUW) Dissertation Fellow at the University of Maryland in the Department of Kinesiology, specializing in physical cultural studies. Her dissertation examines how protective policies are created, how they regulate women’s bodies in sporting contexts, and how different versions of “woman” are constructed. In 2019, she co-authored an opinion piece for the British Medical Journal on the medical and ethical ramifications of World Athletics’ (then the IAAF) controversial female eligibility policy. She is a 2019 recipient of the Olympic Studies Centre’s PhD Students and Early Career Academics Research Grant and has published in journals such as the Sociology of Sport Journal and Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health.

Asaf Orr (he/him) is a Senior Staff Attorney and Director of the Transgender Youth Project at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. For more than a decade, he has litigated precedent-setting cases that safeguard legal rights that ensure transgender youth can thrive. Asaf also worked helped develop transgender-inclusive policies in a wide range of areas, including at all levels of athletic competition, as well as authored numerous publications.

Wendy B. Motch-Ellis is the Director of Campus Recreation at the University of North Carolina Asheville and she serves on the 2021-2022 NIRSA Assembly.   As Co-Chair of NIRSA’s Commission on Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, she helped co-author NIRSA’s Statement on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, NIRSA’s National Collegiate Championship Series Transgender Inclusion Guidelines, and served as editor and resource author for NIRSA’s publication Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion:  A Resource Guide for Leaders in Colelgiate Recreation.  Wendy brought to NIRSA national leading experts on LGBT inclusion in sport as presenters and advisors to NIRSA, served as a consultant on the development of the Campus Pride Sports Index, and she has been instrumental in changing the narrative around LGBT inclusion within collegiate recreation.