GRANVILLE, Ohio (April 19, 2023) – Dr. Gregory Lott, who serves as Denison's Associate Director of Athletics as well as Assistant Professor of Health, Exercise and Sport Studies and Director of the Knetzer Family Institute, was recently named a Global Mentor for the True Athlete Project (TAP).

The Global Mentor Program is a uniquely holistic sporting experience that matches emerging elite athletes with former and current world-class athletes in a nurturing year-long, one-on-one relationship. Lott was one of 29 mentors selected throughout the world. The mentor/mentee cohort of 58 individuals spans 30 different sports and represents 13 different countries.

"In the Global Mentorship program, all the mentors get to connect quite a bit and learn from one another," said Lott. "The other mentors are absolutely incredible, and I am quite blessed to be connected with them. My mentee is an elite Junior fencer who will be competing for one of the top D-I collegiate programs in the US next year. We are having a lot of fun getting to know each other, talking about how what I learned through my athletic experience can benefit her, and of course figuring out ways to implement lots of sport psychology concepts in her training and competition."

Additionally, through this relationship with the True Athlete Project, Dr. Lott will be working as part of the TAP implementation team to help British Gymnastics change their organizational culture over the next two years. He will be headed to England this summer for five weeks for in-person work that will include leadership development with the directors of the organization, a "deep dive" with the men's national team, a mentoring cohort, and delivering concentrated coach development curriculum with their coaches of elite junior female gymnasts.

British Gymnastics is dedicated to including research in their change process. While on-site, Lott will be conducting ethnographic research on organizational culture intervention in an elite sport environment (British Gymnastics). Dr. Lott's research is grant-funded through the Denison University Research Fund.

"The organization has put a lot of effort into articulating what they want to become through their 'Reform 2025' document," concluded Lott. "Just getting the chance to immerse myself in their organization for a concentrated period of time and work with lots of different groups (coaches, athletes, directors) is exciting. I'm very passionate about holisitic growth through sport and getting to partner with likeminded people outside of the US will be a special experience."

For more information on The True Athletic Project's Global Mentoring Program, please visit https://www.thetrueathleteproject.org/mentoring.html.