For over two decades Dr. Audrey Hicks has been an outstanding volunteer with the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology through service on the Board and various working groups, as a conference chair, and as an Associate Editor with the CSEP journal, Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism (APNM).

Audrey joined the Board of Directors in 2003 and served as an executive member prior to serving a two-year term as President-elect in 2007, followed by a term as CSEP President 2009-2011. Audrey was notably the second woman to hold the position of CSEP President in the Society’s 42-year history to that time. With exceptional diplomacy, Audrey successfully led CSEP through several administrative and organizational challenges including the establishment of a strong partnership with ParticipACTION, and culminating with the launch of the CSEP’s Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines in early 2011.

From 2007-2013 Audrey was key contributor to all CSEP Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines (children and youth, early years, adults, older adults) and world’s first Canadian Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines (children and youth, early years) development committees.

Audrey’s research career at McMaster University recognizes her expertise is in neuromuscular physiology with a particular focus aging and exercise rehabilitation in neurological populations. With this expertise, and colleagues at McMaster, she played a key role in the development of SCI Action Canada’s Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults with Spinal Cord Injury in 2012 and CSEP’s Physical Activity Guidelines for Adults with Multiple Sclerosis in 2013.

Following her term as CSEP President, Audrey served as the chair for CSEP 2015: Science is the New Steel — CSEP’s annual conference — which was held in Hamilton and hosted by McMaster University. The conference was well-attended and profiled to visitors a revitalized Hamilton downtown core and surrounding natural escarpment that had emerged from its industrial past.

As a volunteer to the exercise physiology research community, beginning in 2005 Audrey served for 12 years as an Associate Editor for APNM, successfully transitioning with the journal through its’ ownership and publisher changes. In 2017 the journal’s publisher, Canadian Science Publishing, established a new role of Consulting Editor to the journal and Audrey is the first individual to hold this post.

Both in her career and as a volunteer, Audrey is renowned both as an exceptional leader and mentor in exercise science. In 2017 she was formally recognized as one of the Influential Women of CSEP in support of CSEP’s 50th anniversary, and was nominated as one of the eight founding Fellows of CSEP in 2018. Significantly, in 2018 Audrey was the recipient of the CSEP Honour Award, the Society’s highest form of recognition. Audrey was the first woman to receive the CSEP Honour Award since it was established in 1985.

To learn more about Audrey’s experiences as a volunteer with CSEP and as a mentor and leader in exercise physiology in Canada, watch this engaging interview from early 2019.

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