Dr Gillian Cook

Dr Gillian Cook is the Programme Director of BSc Sport Psychology, and a Senior Lecturer in Sport and Performance Psychology. She is a British Psychological Society (BPS) Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist, and a Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registered Practitioner Psychologist. She has worked with teams and organisations including British Swimming, British Athletics, Dundee United Football Club, Birmingham City Football Club, Scottish Hockey, Loughborough Sport, Nike, the NHS, and BBC. She is regularly interviewed about sport psychology-related topics on British national radio and news outlets (e.g., BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio Wales, The Independent, The Times, The Sunday Times).

Gillian teaches and supervises across the undergraduate, postgraduate, professional doctorate and PhD degree programmes. Her research interests include high performance leadership, and the psychology of performance excellence. Specifically, her research examines how effective leaders create the conditions for others to thrive and deliver optimal outcomes in high pressure environments.

Gillian joined the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences in 2019. She graduated with a First Class BSc Honours degree in Psychology from the University of Aberdeen in 2012. She continued her studies at Loughborough University, graduating with Distinction from the MSc Psychology of Sport and Exercise programme in 2013. She conducted her PhD at Loughborough University in collaboration with British Swimming, and examined the psychology of the world’s best Olympic swimming coaches, in particular, understanding how they optimise their own and their athlete’s performance.

Through her research and applied consultancy, Gillian has been the recipient of awards including the 2014 British Psychological Society (DSEP) MSc Award for the best MSc dissertation of the year; the 2015 Global Editors Network News Data App of the Year Award for her contribution as scientific advisor to develop the interactive App ‘What Sport are you Made for?” which was part of the BBC’s coverage for the Commonwealth Games; the 2018 world-wide Association for Applied Sport Psychology Student Award for Excellence in Science Practitioner Endeavors for her research and applied sport psychology consultancy work; the 2019 Loughborough University Doctoral College Research Student Prize for demonstrating outstanding academic performance, achievement, and contribution to the University; and the 2020 British Psychological Society (DSEP) PhD Award for the best PhD thesis of the year, demonstrated by an exceptional and innovative thesis, and contribution to knowledge in the field.