Amy M. Bender Email & Phone Number

Calgary, Canada Area

The #1 sports science school in North America. Creates content and lectures for kinesiology classes, examiner on theses, serves on graduate student committees, and collaborates on student and faculty academic research projects.

Calgary, Canada Area

Mitacs Accelerate Postdoctoral fellow which combined training from an academic institution (University of Calgary) with an industry partner (Own the Podium and Centre for Sleep & Human Performance) to learn how to work in a corporate environment.  Award-winning researcher and innovator – received the Mitacs Canadian National Award for Commercialization for taking a research idea to market by creating an online sleep screening survey that was commercialized. Also selected as one of Mitacs next 150 Innovators chosen from thousands of researchers who take part in Mitacs’ programs each year. Published peer-reviewed papers (13). Established global collaborations – partnered with researchers across the world to collaborate on research projects. Co-authored papers with researchers from USA (20), Australia (10), England (9), Canada (7), Ireland (5), South Africa (4), New Zealand (3), France (3), and the Netherlands (1). Key research scientist and consultant to Olympic teams/medalists – developed a strategy of individualized recommendations for Canadian Olympic Team athletes to sleep better and reduce jet lag, including medalists (Rio Summer 2016 Games – 12 medalists, PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games – 15 medalists).

Helps executives, athletes, and everyday people sleep better.  Research expertise featured in Oprah Magazine, Good to Go (book), Parade Magazine, City News, and Global News.  Consultant to corporate wellness businesses, corporations, Professional teams, & Olympic teams – Helped create sleep content for two corporate wellness programs (Byte-Size Wellness and Rite Fitness). Other key consulting clients include Gatorade Performance Partner, Toronto Maple Leafs, Calgary Flames, TB12, Hockey Canada, and Rowing Canada. Extensive experience in research communications – Experienced public speaker throughout my career with presentations in the community/corporations (40), and presentations at conferences (40+). Skilled at media appearances including live radio/TV interviews (10+), magazine/book interviews (10), podcast interviews (25+), and online article interviews (25+). Recent Featured Presentations: TEDMedLive - University of Calgary (2018), International Olympic Committee World Conference - Monaco (2020 rescheduled due to COVID-19), South East Athletic Training Conference, Atlanta, GA (2020), Food Nutrition Conference & Expo - Philadelphia, PA (2019), American College of Sports Medicine Annual Meeting - Orlando, FL (2019), and Ontario Coaches Conference - Toronto, ON (2019).

Helped oversee data collection, clinical care determinations, and delivery of top-tier sleep and performance programs at Absolute Rest - which offers the most comprehensive sleep assessment in the world.

Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Led the Clinical Sleep Science team, member of the Senior Leadership Team, and chair of the Scientific Advisory Board at Cerebra - a sleep biotech medical device startup company focused on bringing in-lab technology into the home and using novel sleep EEG metrics to better diagnose and treat sleep disorders. Supported marketing and sales activities with brand strategy, field materials, post-marketing surveys, and the "scientific voice" of Cerebra's technology as evidenced by building key relationships with sleep KOLs, 24 sleep conference presentations, moderated 11 conference symposia/webinars, and gave 31 external presentations to sleep medicine physicians and researchers. Principal Investigator responsible for the success of 8 research projects including research conducted at 3 separate clinical trial sites (Ontario, Canada/MO, USA/NY, USA) which resulted in FDA 510k clearance in 2022 of the Cerebra Sleep System - a class II medical device utilizing self-applied polysomnography to diagnose sleep disorders in the home.On a mission to help everyone sleep better. Principal investigator of the Personalized Sleep Recovery Platform Eurostars grant which collaborated with two other European companies to design a comfortable in-ear EEG consumer device paired with a companion app to go beyond traditional sleep trackers of measuring sleep to actually influence behavior change and create actionable insights. Talented at study design, analyzing results, and using data-driven insights for strategic recommendations. Led a team of world-class sleep clinicians and scientists to the first-place award of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Sleep Disruptors contest in 2021.

Calgary, Canada Area

Manages all aspects of research projects and outcome monitoring at Canada’s top counselling centre focused on data-driven results and evidence-based practice for counselling success with over 100,000 client outcomes.  Executed high-impact research project for COVID-19 data – created relevant research questions and executed analyses to understand how mental health outcomes changed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Disseminated results to internal stakeholders and preparing presentations and reports for external stakeholders to generate funding. Preparing research paper. Built partnerships for study recruitment – partnered with internal and external stakeholders for feedback and insights to develop materials to motivate clients to participate in our Children's Mental Health study. Made procedures more streamlined and user-friendly while establishing compliance with the human research ethics board. Developed a new researcher training program – Currently training students to learn about research best-practices. Created a program to develop content (presentations, handouts, timelines) and increased buy-in by pairing students’ interests with prioritized research projects for the business to explore. Applied the results from these projects to change counselling practices and improve outcomes.

Calgary, Canada Area

Managed and executed all aspects of sleep research and clinical athlete services including: Clinical sleep screening, fatigue and jet lag management, presentations to athletes and teams, mentoring graduate students, media requests, product development, and service pricing.

Spokane, Washington Area

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Kinesiology And Exercise Science

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Experimental Psychology

Master Of Science (Ms), Experimental Psychology

Bachelor Of Arts (Ba), Psychology

Activities and Societies: Collegiate Basketball Player