Sarah Crossman is from the College of Education, Psychology and Social Work and is one of the eight winners of the Best HDR Student Publication Award for 2024.
Her winning publication Facilitators and constraints to adult sports participation: A systematic review explores the factors that influence the sport participation of working age Australians (25-64 years). This is a pressing issue given declining sport participation rates among adults, so this research has important implications for public health and wellbeing.
Sarah is supervised by Professor Murray Drummond, Associate Professor Sam Elliott and Dr Jasmine Petersen at Flinders University.
We invited Sarah to share insights into her PhD journey and what winning this award means.
What does winning this award mean to you?
I was humbled to receive this award from the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Research). As with all studies, a lot of work went into this review, which taught me a lot about the research and publication processes. I am grateful for the support and contributions of my research team and am proud of the final publication
Why did you choose to commence a PhD?
I came to be a PhD candidate from a rather unconventional route. I studied a Bachelor of Environmental Management (Honours) and then worked as a spatial data analyst in State Government, CSIRO and at Flinders University for 20 years. Throughout this time, my passion for sport grew and my interest in the spatial sciences waned. Starting a PhD was a slightly terrifying, but very exciting step towards a new career path in sport-related research.
How did you choose your supervisor?
A cold call to Professor Murray Drummond was a pivotal moment in my decision to pursue a sport research career. That email led to two years of working as a Research Assistant with Murray and my other supervisors, Assoc Prof Sam Elliott, and Dr Jasmine Petersen, which solidified my passion for sport research. Choosing them as my supervisory team was a natural choice and it’s only now that I realise how lucky I was! Their diverse expertise, support, and constant encouragement have made my PhD experience thoroughly enjoyable.
What are your future goals and plans? / Where do you see your career heading in the future?
I would love to continue working in academia as a sport researcher, ideally securing a Postdoctoral position at Flinders. Working on sport research that has practical application and that makes a difference to people’s health and wellbeing would be a rewarding way to spend the rest of my career.