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Annelise Ware, MHS recently graduated with a Masters of Health Science degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Mental Health. Her master’s thesis was on child sexual abuse in aesthetic sports. 

Tell us about your current role.

AW: I’m the Program Manager at , a nonprofit dedicated to ending abuse and misconduct in sports. We serve all athletes in all sports at all levels of play by addressing education and awareness, creating a safe place for survivors to find resources and share their voices, and eliminating the stigma around these necessary conversations. All athletes have the right to learn, play, and compete without fear of sexual abuse. #WeRideTogether is committed to creating the radical change needed to fulfill that vision.

As a former pre-professional ballet dancer, I recognize how important it is to proactively combat misconduct and foster safe and healthy sporting environments, for the sustainability of athletes and the sport as a whole. I pursued a master’s degree in public health so that I could better understand the micro- and macro-systems impacting vulnerable populations, and wrote my thesis on child sexual abuse in sports with guidance from Dr. Letourneau and Dr. Assini-Meytin. I’m very grateful to use my different experiences in academia and ballet to best promote safe and healthy sport.

What kind of things do you work on?

AW: I support the development of educational materials and resources tailored to athletes, parents, coaches, and athletic organizations. I write blog posts that discuss issues within the world of sports and safeguarding that can help inform all stakeholders in athletic environments. I run our Current Events program, in which I monitor various news sources to highlight and learn about cases of abuse in sport that illustrate how risk factors and abuse can manifest in various settings. I present our research and educational materials to different sporting organizations and abuse prevention groups in-person and virtually with my team. And, I co-facilitate our Internship Program, which hosts undergraduate and masters students from various schools and disciplines.

What have you had the opportunity to work on that was the most interesting to you?

AW: I recently published a series of and how we see these disparities impact female athlete health across sports. It’s important that we discuss often overlooked issues because awareness sets the stage for safeguarding improvements for all athletes. Understanding disparities in physical safeguarding and care informs how to best support the needs of athletes, and promotes holistic care for an athlete’s overall wellbeing. This series sparked a lot of meaningful dialogue in predominantly female sport spaces, and seeing how this information is disseminated and implemented into sporting environments is interesting to me as is the research process.

What do you hope to work on in the near future?

AW: I wrote my thesis on child sexual abuse in aesthetic sports, where I dived deep into different risk factors and how they manifest as patterns of behavior seen across the sport category. In the near future, I will be creating similar assets for all sports categories (endurance, extreme, technical, etc.) to serve athletes and parents in increasing awareness and education of risk factors in their specific sport, and to help coaches and sporting organizations proactively prevent abuse accordingly.

What was your favorite course at JHU and why?

AW: . I thought it was very interesting and insightful regarding not just public health, but our broader government and society. The way we treat addiction - like a moral failing, something that everyone should know to avoid, and as something that’s an inevitable evil - causes harm through perpetuating stigma and creating barriers to care. Substance use prevention also holds a lot of overlap with abuse prevention - we have to challenge pre-existing misconceptions in ways that everyone can grasp, and prevention can exist as basic actionable steps anyone can integrate into their environment.

What’s your ideal “day off” look like?

AW: My ideal day off looks like getting a lavender latte, going to the park and enjoying the sun, doing some yoga, and spending time with friends and family.

How do you define success—for yourself, not just professionally?

AW: I define success as finding a place where you can achieve your goals. This is both a physical place - a space where your basic needs are met - and a mental space, where you can feel your feelings and foster your passions.