Members Area

Meet the Professionals

Friday, October 20
Meet the Professionals Lunch
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Available only to those attending in person.

This event is for students only. You must sign up for the lunch when you register for the meeting. Registrants are assigned to professionals on a first-come, first-served basis.
Student Member: $25
Student Non-Member: $30

This year's professionals are:

Nick Bartley, MA, CMPC, South Metro Fire Rescue
Nick graduated from the University of Denver (DU) with a Master's degree in Sport and Performance Psychology in 2010. He was employed to support the Army’s Comprehensive Soldier & Family Fitness (CSF2) program from 2011-2014 in which he provided performance psychology services to basic combat trainees, wounded warriors, elite operational and competitive units. He transitioned to work solely with the Special Operations Forces community at Fort Bragg and Fort Carson (2014-2021).  Nick taught the Psychology of High-Risk Occupations course for DU’s Graduate School of Professional Psychology (2016-18). As well, he played a pivotal role in establishing a performance psychology field placement approved by the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) for graduate students. Currently, Nick is the Director of Performance and Professional Development at South Metro Fire Rescue (SMFR) in Centennial, Colorado. SMFR has 30 stations that serve 300 square miles over three counties. He was hired in 2021 as their Cognitive Performance Coach and promoted in 2022 to lead multiple programs within their Human Performance & Optimization division. Additionally, he has the pleasure of handling, Herbie, one of three K9 service dogs on South Metro’s Peer Support team. Nick, with his wife Jessica, three kids and Herbie happily reside in Monument, CO where they enjoy parks, hikes, and starry nights! 
 

Abby Keenan, MS, CMPC, Intrepid Performance Consulting
Abby Keenan is a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) in private practice in Atlanta, GA. She earned her Bachelor's in Psychology from the University of Georgia and Master's in Educational/Sport Psychology from Florida State University. She has been an applied mental performance practitioner for over 11 years, and in that time has supported athletes, soldiers, and youth and adult leaders in various roles and capacities. Abby specializes in working with teenage student-athletes (and their parents) through online, one-on-one mental skills coaching, most often with swimmers and runners. She became an entrepreneur in 2015 by establishing Intrepid Performance Consulting, LLC with her husband. She enjoys "wearing many hats" by working with clients, fulfilling contract deliverables, doing administrative tasks, networking, mentoring graduate students, and more, all while raising two young boys. Abby is also involved in AASP as she is passionate about professional development and standards; she has chaired two committees, is an active member of two Special Interest Groups, has been a subject matter expert for the CMPC Certification Exam Review process and the recent CMPC Job Analysis revision, and was a part of two strategic planning sessions. She has been a contributing author for three textbooks and often presents at conferences, particularly on her favorite topics of reflection, mentorship, youth sport, and private practice. Abby loves the opportunity to connect with and guide graduate students and early career professionals as they enter the field.
 

Larry Lauer, PhD, USTA Player Development
Dr. Larry Lauer is the Director of Mental Performance for USTA Player Development (PD) and leads the Mental Performance Team. Larry has a Ph.D. in exercise and sport science, specializing in sport psychology from the University of North Carolina Greensboro. As a USTA PD team member for nearly 10 years, Larry has worked with junior, transitional pro and professional tennis players, and the national coaching staff, that are training at the national player development centers. He has been a sport psychology consultant for over two decades with elite tennis players from juniors, college, and pros. Larry was an assistant coach and mental coach for Michigan State Men’s Tennis for three years, helping the team reach the 2013 NCAA tournament. Formerly, Larry was the Director of Coaching Education and Development in the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports (ISYS) at Michigan State University. At ISYS Larry conducted research on tennis parents, coaching, coach education, aggression in hockey, and life skills development in youth. He also was involved in training Detroit police officers and coaches to mentor youth athletes for the Detroit PAL. During his stay in Michigan, Larry worked for nearly 9 years as the mental performance consultant to USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. An AASP Certified Mental Performance Coach and listed in the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee Sport Psychology Registry, Larry was named one of the 100 Most Influential Sport Educators in America by the Institute for International Sport for his work in developing and leading the Playing Tough and Clean Hockey Program. He also received the 2017 “Doc” Councilman Science Award for Tennis. As an advocate of striving for excellence in a healthy manner, Larry has presented to audiences over 800 times, published over 30 refereed journal articles and hundreds of popular articles. He also co-hosts the Compete like a Champion podcast with Coach Johnny Parkes. Larry has appeared in numerous media outlets including ESPN’s Outside the Lines and HBO’s State of Play show Trophy Kids. He also has been interviewed by many media outlets including USA Today, the New York Times, Time.com, and the LA Times. 

 

Amanda Perkins Ball, PhD, Rice University
Dr. Amanda Perkins-Ball is an Assistant Teaching Professor of Kinesiology at Rice University in Houston, TX. After earning her Ph.D. in Kinesiology with an emphasis in Exercise and Sport Psychology from Temple University in 2012, she became an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at Missouri State University. Before coming to Rice, she became an Assistant Professor and Director of the Exercise & Sports Studies and Physical Education programs at Benedictine University Chicago. Her work focuses on promoting physical activity among underserved populations, understanding the experiences of marginalized identities in sport and physical activity spaces, and developing inclusive pedagogical and advising practices for diverse students and student-athletes. Dr. Perkins-Ball is the recipient of national teaching awards and was recently recognized as an Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor and for her work mentoring student-athletes at Rice. She has authored over a dozen publications and over 40 presentations at the state, national, and international levels and is the outgoing chair of the AASP Diversity Committee.

 

Mélanie Poudevigne, PhD, FACSM, CMPC
A longtime advocate for vulnerable populations in sport sciences, Dr. Melanie Poudevigne has more than 20 years of experience as a coach, exercise physiologist, mental performance consultant, author, and administrator. She serves her professional organizations as a fellow and board of trustees for the American College of Sports Medicine in applied sciences and as the current AASP Nominations and Leadership Development Committee Chair. She founded the first CAAHEP accredited health and fitness management program in the Southeast combining business and sport science contents. Poudevigne gets her inspiration from traveling to remote parts of the world and working in multicultural settings where diversity excels and adversity gets booted. She has been proactive in shaping policies supporting equity in the workplace to address productivity and inclusivity, and has enjoyed mentoring students desiring to pursue their AASP mental performance certification. She earned her Master in Sport Management from Georgia Southern, her PhD in Exercise Psychology at the University of Georgia, and was a collegiate gymnast at the University of Paris.  She is currently working on her Parivrtta Svarga Dvijasana and if you love ocean conservancy, her happiness gets measured in bar.

 

Lindsay Shaw, EDD, CMPC, Cleveland Guardians
Lindsay is the Director of Sport Psychology for the Cleveland Guardians baseball team. She oversees the mental health and mental performance needs for players and baseball staff in the organization. She previously spent a decade as a sport psychologist and psychophysiologist for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, where she was responsible for meeting the performance and clinical needs of both summer and winter US National Team athletes. She utilizes brain computer interfaces, brainwave stimulation, sleep assessments, heart rate variability interventions, and other novel approaches in her work with elite athletes. Her Master’s and Doctoral degrees are from Boston University in Counseling Psychology, with a specialization in sport performance. Lindsay is a licensed psychologist, and is board certified in biofeedback and neurofeedback by BCIA, and received postdoctoral training in cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia at UPenn. She holds various consulting appointments including with a Fortune 10 company, special operations team and concierge health and wellness group. She has authored peer reviewed journals, book chapters, and other publications.

 

Chris Stanley, PhD, CMPC, Florida State University
Chris Stanley recently joined the University of Western States (UWS) as faculty in the Sport and Performance Psychology program. Prior to UWS, he was Associate Research faculty at Florida State University, as well as full-time Psychology faculty at institutions in North Carolina and Florida. Throughout his career, he has been involved on a variety of collaborative research projects and applied activities related broadly to human performance and development in athletic, health, psychosocial, and educational domains. In addition to teaching academic courses, he has given an array of performance-based lectures at conferences and events for audiences of athletes, families, coaches, and psychologists. In terms of writing and scholarship, he has dozens of peer reviewed publications, and has authored two books. His most recent book – entitled Reach Every Athlete – focuses on coaching athletes with hidden disabilities and conditions. In practice, Chris has been involved with USA Track and Field since 2014. This has more recently included role as lead Sport and Performance Psychology staff at the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo (2021), and Outdoor World Championships in Oregon (2022) and Budapest (2023). Chris also consults with a variety of other professional organizations, including lead mental skills and performance consultant with the elite program at the Atlanta Track Club.