The Speakers

Steven N. Blair, P.E.D., FACSM, is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Arnold School of Public Health,
Departments of Exercise Science and Epidemiology/Biostatistics at the University of
South Carolina. 

Professor Blair is a past-president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, and the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education as well as co-Chair of the Exercise is Medicine Science Committee.

He has received awards from many professional associations, including a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, an ACSM Honor Award, the Robert Levy Lecture Award, and the Population Research Prize from the American Heart Association.

Professor Blair is also one of the few individuals outside the U.S. Public Health Service to be awarded the U.S. Surgeon General's Medallion. His research focuses on the associations between lifestyle and health, with a specific emphasis on exercise, physical fitness, body composition, and chronic disease. He has published more than 450 papers and chapters in the scientific literature, and served as the senior scientific editor for the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health.

Dr Joy is the Medical Director for the Community Health, Health Promotion and Wellness, Food and Nutrition programs at Intermountain Healthcare in Salt Lake City. In addition she practices Family Medicine and Sports Medicine at the Salt Lake Clinic LiVe Well Center. She is an adjunct faculty member at the University of Utah School of Medicine in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and the University of Utah College of Health Department of Nutrition & Integrative Physiology.

Dr. Joy is the Immediate Past President of both the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and the Female Athlete Triad Coalition. She held 2 terms of office on the Board of Trustees for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine. She is on the Editorial Board for The Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, and is Associate Editor for Current Sports Medicine Reports. She serves on the Exercise Is Medicine Steering Committee for the ACSM, and chairs the EIM Clinical Practice Committee. In addition, she chairs the Healthcare Workgroup for the National Physical Activity Plan. She developed and directed the Primary Care Sports Medicine Fellowship Program at the University of Utah from 1998 until 2011. Her research and advocacy interests lie in the areas of physical activity assessment and promotion, the Female Athlete Triad, air quality and health, and diabetes prevention.

She has authored many journal articles and textbook chapters on a wide variety of topics in sports medicine. Her research interests lie in the areas of physical activity assessment and promotion, practice-based research in primary care, the Female Athlete Triad, and sports injury prevention.

Professor Mike Loosemore is Lead Consultant in Sport and Exercise Medicine at the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health. He treats the general public with musculoskeletal and sports injuries and is also working to promote exercise as a preventative intervention and treatment in many medical conditions.

Professor Loosemore is a Lead Sports Physician for the English Institute of Sport, based at ISEH where he treats elite athletes from a wide range of sports; he is currently the Chief Medical Officer for GB Boxing and GB Snow sports.

He has travelled extensively with national squads, accompanying teams to 4 Olympic and 5 Commonwealth Games, World and European Championships. He was the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for the England Commonwealth Games team in New Delhi 2010 and reprised the role for Glasgow 2014. He was CMO for the GB team at the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Professor Loosemore is active in various fields of sport and exercise medicine research and has published work on various aspects of Sports and Exercise Medicine.

In 2011 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in science for ‘outstanding contribution to sport and exercise medicine’. In 2014 he received the Sir Robert Atkins award for ‘an outstanding contribution to sports medicine’.

He was awarded an MBE for services to Sport and Exercise Medicine in 2018.

Mike Farrar is an independent management consultant and former Chief Executive of the NHS Confederation. He joined the organisation in May 2011.

Mike was chief executive of the North West England SHA from May 2006 to April 2011. He was previously chief executive of West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire Strategic Health Authorities, chief executive of Tees Valley Health Authority and head of primary care at the Department of Health.

Mike was also a board member of Sport England, and in August 2009 was appointed as National Tsar for Sport and Health. Mike was also awarded the CBE in 2005 for services to the NHS and is an honorary fellow of the University of Central Lancashire.