2025 SMAANZ Distinguished Service Award Announcement
It is with great pleasure that the SMAANZ Board announces Professor Emma Sherry as the 2025 SMAANZ Distinguished Service Award winner. The award will be presented at the 2025 SMAANZ Conference in Auckland later this year.
Emma is currently a Professor at RMIT University. Her involvement with SMAANZ spans more than two decades, beginning as a student representative on the SMAANZ Board, before serving in multiple board roles from 2009–2014. During this time, she was instrumental in the digital transformation of SMAANZ, helping establish systems and processes that strengthened the organisation. She has been central to conference organisation, acting as Conference Committee Volunteer Manager (2004, Deakin), Co-Chair (2011, La Trobe; 2015, Uni Tas), and Chair (2022, Swinburne). In addition, Emma has been a long-time contributor to SMAANZ HDR workshops, webinars, and conference abstract reviewing, while mentoring and supervising 11 PhD students, many of whom have gone on to leadership roles within the SMAANZ community.
Emma has also made significant contributions to the sport industry through her governance roles with VicSport, Tennis Victoria, the Melbourne and Olympic Park Trust, Sport Inclusion Australia, and the Australian Sport Innovation Centre of Excellence. Her commitment to bridging academia and practice has been a defining feature of her career, with her research and service consistently influencing both policy and practice. She has also been an active advocate for women in sport management, establishing networks such as the Brainy Sports Ladies to support HDR students and early career researchers.
Her research profile is internationally recognised, with a strong body of work in sport for development and gender equality in sport. She is co-author of the highly cited Sport for Development: An Integrated Literature Review (2016, Journal of Sport Management), and her broader scholarship spans books, book chapters, government and industry reports. Emma has co-founded major research groups, including the La Trobe Centre for Sport and Social Impact and the Swinburne Sport Innovation Research Group, and her scholarship has been cited internationally. Through this work, she has consistently advanced SMAANZ’s reputation as a global leader in sport management scholarship.
In announcing the award, SMAANZ President, Professor Heath McDonald, noted:
“Having known Emma for more than 20 years, I have seen firsthand her unwavering commitment to the sport management community. What sets her apart is the way she brings people together across our discipline, mentoring the next generation, supporting colleagues, and strengthening SMAANZ as a whole. Her influence has been profound, and alongside her international reputation for pioneering work in sport for development, she has consistently bridged scholarship and practice through her industry leadership. Emma’s impact over more than two decades has been remarkable, and this award is a fitting recognition of her enduring contribution.”
Emma was honoured to accept the award:
"It is an honour and privilege to receive this award for an organisation that I have been part of for most of my adult life. This community has not only supported my career but has also given me lifelong friends and life changing experiences. I know that my engagement with the SMAANZ community will continue for many years to come and look forward to celebrating with friends and colleagues in Auckland later this year"
Emma becomes the eleventh winner of the SMAANZ Distinguished Service Award. See the full list of winners here. She was nominated for the award, with enthusiastic support from members of the SMAANZ community locally and internationally. The nomination was then ratified by the SMAANZ Board. We thank the nominators and those who provided letters of support for this award round.
Please join us in congratulating Emma, and we look forward to the formal presentation in December.
