GP054: Sport and Justice with Tracy Blake (Part 1)

Global Physio Podcast

Today’s episode is Part 1 of a two-part series featuring Tracy Blake (she/her). The only daughter of Trinidadian immigrants, Tracy and her youngest brother were raised in the multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-faith, working class neighbourhood of Rexdale in Toronto, on the traditional territory of many nations, including the Anishinabeg, Haudenosaunee, Chippewa, and Huron-Wendat peoples, as well as the Mississaugas of the Credit. Her 17-year clinical career includes providing acute inpatient care in the largest hospital system in Canada, community care to diverse populations ages 6 to 86 in private practice, field event coverage to athletes from over 25 sports at over 40 local, provincial, national, and international events, and whatever-was-needed as a personal support worker and case consultant in long term care facilities during COVID. Her curiosity, creativity, and commitment to professional dream-chasing has resulted in an unconventional career path that has meandered through a post-professional degree in Manipulative Therapy from Western University and a doctorate from the University of Calgary. It has included founding a section of the highest ranking sport medicine journal in the world as a junior editor, co-authoring the most recent iteration of the Canadian physiotherapy education accreditation standards, advocating for the inclusion of physiotherapists in athlete rights based policy innovation at the United Nations, and launching the Canada Games Sport Physiotherapy Leadership Program.

Resources:

– Jones, C P. Levels of Racism: A Theoretic Framework and a Gardener’s Tale. https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.90.8.1212

– Dhir J, Blake T, Cleaver S, Smith-Turchyn J, Miller P, Smith M, Udarbe Han M, Gasparelli K, Wojkowski S. The Search for Justice: Developing a Collaborative Understanding of Health Justice in Physiotherapy. Physiother Can. 2022 Aug 24;74(3):227-229. doi: 10.3138/ptc-74-3-gee. PMID: 37325207; PMCID: PMC10262822.

– Aranas K et al. Entry-To-Practice Competency Expectations for Health Justice in Physiotherapy Curricula: A Scoping Review. https://utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/ptc-2023-0039

– Blake T. In the fight for racial justice, the sidelines are no longer an option. Br J Sports Med. 2020 Nov;54(21):1245-1246. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2020-102894. Epub 2020 Jul 30. PMID: 32732258.

– Helms, J. E. (2017). The Challenge of Making Whiteness Visible: Reactions to Four Whiteness Articles. The Counseling Psychologist, 45(5), 717-726. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000017718943

– Barnes, S. (2022). American Dreams: Smart sleep, high-tech beds, and the National Football League. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 57(1), 164-180. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690221991778

– Bekker S, Ahmed OH, Bakare U, Blake TA, Brooks AM, Davenport TE, Mendonça LM, Fortington LV, Himawan M, Kemp JL, Litzy K, Loh RF, MacDonald J, McKay CD, Mosler AB, Mountjoy M, Pederson A, Stefan MI, Stokes E, Vassallo AJ, Whittaker JL. We need to talk about manels: the problem of implicit gender bias in sport and exercise medicine. Br J Sports Med. 2018 Oct;52(20):1287-1289. doi: 10.1136/bjsports-2018-099084. Epub 2018 Mar 17. PMID: 29550755.

– Dear Epidemiology – https://pantograph-punch.com/posts/dear-epidemiology

– Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design by Kat Holmes: https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262539487/mismatch/

– MLSE Change the Game Report: https://www.mlsefoundation.org/change-the-game-research-project

– Centre for Sport and Human Rights: https://www.sporthumanrights.org/

– Dr. Ahmed Ali Quote: https://x.com/DrAhmednurAli/status/1383169230699433985

– Verhagen E, Oliveira F, Ahmed OH, Anderson N, Badenhorst M, Bekker S, Belavy DL, Blake T, Cao C, Carrard J, Chen L, Cheng SWM, Edouard P, Harwood A, Hendricks S, Hespanhol L, Kearney R, Keohane D, Magnani R, Mah D, Mavros Y, McLeary N, Memon AR, Moholdt T, Morais Azevedo A, Nauta J, Nicol G, Noorbhai H, Ogbonmwan I, Owen PJ, Panagodage Perera N, Reiman M, Resende R, Robinson DG, Rojas-Valverde D, Sewry N, Statuta S, van Nassau F, West L, Wheeler PC, Xiao T, Pandya T. Let us introduce ourselves, #WeAreBOSEM. BMJ Open Sport Exerc Med. 2021 Jun 30;7(2):e001171. doi: 10.1136/bmjsem-2021-001171. PMID: 34262787; PMCID: PMC8246350.

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