By Mackenzie Shanklin

With more than 30 years of experience in pro sports, Dr. Yolanda Bruce Brooks joined the committed team at the Sports and Society Initiative and bring her years of experience at looking at the intersection between life and sports into the conversation.

Brooks not only wants to look at the intersection but also the person themselves. Throughout an athlete's career they have support systems that give them the core elements but also systems that help them develop into who they are, but these change and shift throughout their careers.

“I am interested in transitioning, but I am interested in the development of the person and the player across the lifespan and how that translates into their sport into their careers and into who they want to be beyond the sport,” Brooks said.

Brooks is a graduate of the Ohio State University receiving her degree in occupational therapy as well as receiving a doctorate in clinical psychology from Wright State University. During her time between Ohio State and Wright State, Brooks specialized in neurological disorders with head traumas and spinal cord injuries.

Brooks is also the founder of Sports Life Transitions Programs which strives to help with lifestyle management for a multitude of career backgrounds transitioning back and learning how to balance many life aspects.

Listen below to Dr. Brooks on the SSI podcast, The Intersection.

Many athletes solely focus on their sport throughout their careers, and they lose the ability to have a balance with their lives and lifestyles, Brooks said.

This balance is critical for having a long-lasting career and, in turn, can help athletes cope with stress. There is a lot of drive in the sports industry, but balance is needed to help that drive within athletes, Brooks said.

“There’s a lot of pressure to win, Brooks said. “But life is pressure; life is change.”

Brooks said she hopes to investigate the development of the person with Sports and Society and to address athletes’ identities because identity can become difficult when athletes leave the sports.

Once players retire, they can lose a part of their identity since they have been their sport for many years, but Brooks sees the importance and value of looking at the person and how this intersects with sports. They may be their sport during their career, but after they are more.

“It’s not something that these athletes do, it’s who they are,” Brooks said, “I am a basketball player, I am a football player, not that’s what I do.”