Dr. Emily Wright

About Me:

Emily values helping others and sharing her passion for promoting mental performance training as an important component of holistic athlete development and performance. Emily has a PhD in Sport Psychology with a specialization in youth sports and parenting. Throughout her career, Emily has gained valuable applied experiences working with a diverse range of athletes from the youth to collegiate level. While pursuing her Ph.D. at Michigan State University, Emily was a mental skills coach for the D1 women’s tennis team, where she delivered group and individual sessions focused on a variety of mental skills. She has also worked as a mental performance coach for Keystone Performance Excellence Consulting (KPEX – Pittsburgh, PA) providing individual sessions and collaborative workshops to a number of travel and recreational youth athletes and teams.

In addition to her work as a mental performance coach, Emily is currently the Director of the Champions for Life Program at Miami University (Ohio) where she provides NCAA, MAC, NCHC and University-sponsored life skills programming to enhance the student-athlete experience and the tools for student-athletes to succeed during and after their tenure at Miami. She is also responsible for teaching, facilitating, and administering the department's comprehensive student-athlete leadership and development program.

Emily has professional experience in higher education as an assistant professor teaching courses in Sport Psychology and mentoring students interested in both applied and research-focused concentrations in Sport Psychology.

Emily’s greatest passions in life involve helping others and sports, which is something she realized she could pursue simultaneously through a career in Sport Psychology during her undergraduate degree at Penn State University. Mental performance training was not something Emily had access to as a multi-sport athlete growing up and believes she could’ve benefitted greatly had she had the opportunity. Because of this, Emily strives to help others understand the value of mental performance training and how these skills can be applied not only to enhance sport performance but may also be transferred to other areas of life!

Outside of mental performance coaching, Emily enjoys running and exercising, watching Miami hockey games, working at coffee shops, and spending time with her husband, Zack in Oxford Ohio.

Education/Accreditations

• B.A. Psychology, Minor in Kinesiology, The Pennsylvania State University, 2014
• M.S. Sport Leadership, Miami University (Ohio), 2017
• Ph.D. Sport Psychology, Michigan State University, 2021

Experience

• Director of Champions for Life | Miami University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, Oxford, OH 2023-present
• Visiting Professor | Miami University, Oxford, OH 2023-present
• Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) – in progress