Louise is a British Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (BASES) Accredited Sport and Exercise Scientist (Psychology), a Chartered Scientist (CSci) with the Science Council, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Louise joined the University of Huddersfield as a Senior Lecturer in the Division of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition Sciences in 2015.

Louise has worked in Higher Education for 22 years and has 25 years’ experience providing Sport and Exercise Science (psychology) support to a range of athletes and clubs, including Liverpool Football Club, Wigan FC, Professional Golfers, Olympic and child athletes.

Louise's primary research interests focus on athletes’ experiences of choking under pressure, theoretical mechanisms (e.g., self-focus, distraction) thought to cause choking under pressure, creating pressure protocols in professional or elite sport (e.g., penalty kick protocols in professional football), biofeedback training and protocols to mitigate stress and anxiety. Louise undertook biofeedback certification training with STENS, endorsed by the American Psychological Association in 2009. 

Louise is one of several UK academics who sits on the BASES Climate Action and Sustainability Advisory Group (CASAG), which was set up in 2021 to create a working group focussing on the roles and responsibilities of Sport and Exercise Scientists in response to ongoing climate change. Since its inception, the group has signed BASES up to both the United Nations Sports for Climate Action Framework and the Pledge to Net Zero, amongst fulfilling other strategic objectives. The work of this group is ongoing. 

Aside from this, Louise has a keen interest in sport and training and is a former international hockey player. Louise played for Wales in the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and was in the Great Britain Olympic Development Squad in 1998.

• Case studies in sport psychology (with elite and non-elite populations)
• Creating and simulating pressure in training
• Choking under pressure
• The application of Biofeedback in sport psychology: improving an athlete’s self-regulation of psycho-physiological responses (heart rate, galvanic skin response, respiration rate in passive and active settings)
• Stress, anxiety and performance

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