Risa F. Isard

Assistant Professor

Expertise: Sport Management; Not accepting new Ph.D. students for 2025

Educational Leadership

---

Title:

Assistant Professor, Sport Management

Academic Degrees:

Ph.D. Management, University of Massachusetts Amherst

B.A., Social Change at the Intersection of Culture, Gender, and Sport, Duke University, 2012

Areas of Expertise:

Current Courses:

Management of Sport Organizations

Introduction to Sport Marketing

Biography:

Dr. Risa Isard is a sport industry veteran. As a scholar, she uses quantitative and qualitative methods to investigate how stigma influences the experiences of organizational stakeholders. Isard is most interested in exploring how this manifests in women’s sport, given the unique economic, historic, and socio-cultural factors that influence associated organizations. She is driven to produce work that can advance equity for girls and women, LGBTQ+ folks, and people of color, as well as others marginalized in society and sport. Her research has been featured at the international festival SXSW as well as in the New York Times, ESPN, Ebony, CNN, NBC Sports, Vice and elsewhere, including on the popular podcast Takeline. As a thought leader and public scholar, Isard has penned pieces for Sports Business Journal, NBC, Adweek, Global Sport Matters, Quartz, and espnW among other outlets. Her research and public scholarship have inspired industry changes and spurred related partnerships.

Isard’s varied industry experiences inform her research. She is the founder of RISport, where she consults for sport organizations on issues of equity and inclusion. Previously, as the first full-time employee for the Aspen Institute’s Sports & Society Program, she launched and oversaw all community-based initiatives; was founding director of the Project Play Summit, which hosted Michelle Obama and Billie Jean King; developed the first online tool to grow access to sport; related evidence-based findings for sports industry leaders; and consulted for international partners. She has also led key community and corporate initiatives national nonprofit KABOOM!, a minor league baseball team, and Brandi Chastain’s nonprofit ReachUp!, as well as holding previous staff roles with Duke Women’s Basketball and the Phoenix Mercury.

Isard received her Ph.D. from the Isenberg School of Management and Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at the University of Massachusetts. Her dissertation was titled Women’s Professional Sport and Stigma. She previously graduated cum laude from Duke University with a specialized degree in “Social Change at the Intersection of Culture, Gender, and Sports,” simultaneously receiving honors for her original research on the pre-history and early years of Title IX (1969-1975).

You can follow Isard on Twitter: @RisaLovesSports.

Peer-Reviewed Publications (Select):

Isard, R. F., Melton, E. N., Delia, E. B. & Nite, C. (Accepted). Between profit and purpose: Employee responses to financial and social logics in women’s sport. Journal of Sport Management.

Isard, R. F., Melton, E. N., & Macaulay, C. D. T. (2023). Women’s sport and everyday resistance. Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.

Katz, M., Melton, E. N., Isard, R. F., & Agha, N. (Accepted). Fan networks in women’s sport: An egocentric analysis of social fans and isofans. Sport Marketing Quarterly.

Melton, E. N., Cunningham, G. B., MacCharles, J., & Isard, R. F. (2023). LGBTQ inclusive fan codes of conduct in US athletic departments: A multilevel analysis. International Journal of Sports Marketing, 24(3), 432-448.

Cunningham, G. B., Isard, R., & Melton, E. N. (2022). Transgender inclusion in sport. Kinesiology Review, 11, 64–70.

Isard, R. F., & Melton, E. N. (2021). Does sport media raise her name? Examining intersectional representation in media narratives. Sport, Business and Management, 12(3), 305–322.

Industry Media & Engagement (Select):