Anna Ward
Lecturer
Dr. Anna Ward is a lecturer in sport, exercise & performance psychology in the Counseling Psychology & Applied Human Development Department at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. Anna teaches graduate courses in sport psychology, counseling, and research methods, bridging the gap between theory and applied practice. Her research focuses on the professional practice and development of sport psychology practitioners and students, including supervision training and peer mentorship, supervisory and practitioner competence, and the lived experiences of professionals in the field. She also oversees student-led research projects for both graduate and undergraduate students as a faculty member of BU Wheelock’s Performance Recovery and Optimization (PRO) Lab.
In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Ward mentors and supervises students in the sport psychology specialization in counseling psychology. She is also the coordinator of the community field internship placements, where she establishes and maintains relationships with athletic teams in and around Boston in order to give students an abundance of varied applied sport psychology experiences. She is CMPC-certified, having worked with collegiate and youth athletes in sports such as gymnastics, cross country and track & field, basketball, hockey, and cheerleading.
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Recent News
Education
PhD, Sport Psychology, Florida State University
MS, Sport Psychology, Florida State University
BS, Psychology, Boise State University
Courses
CE720 Sport & Performance Psychology Practicum I
CE721 Sport & Performance Psychology Practicum II
CE847 Theories of Group Counseling
RS600 Introduction to Research
Selected Publications
Chow, G. M., Garinger, L. M., Freeman, J., Ward, S. K., & Bird, M. D. (2024). “It’s about going from good to great”: Expert approaches to conducting a first sport psychology session. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology, 18(1), 14-36.
Selected Presentations
Ward, S. K., Jackson, M., Cobb, E., Cohn, S., & Hark, J. (2025, October). Sport psychology students’ views of supervision: Perspectives on satisfaction, supervisor skills, multicultural competence, and their own service-delivery competence [Poster presentation]. Association for Applied Sport Psychology Annual Conference, Montreal, QC, Canada.
Ward, S. K. (2024, October). Prevalence of, opportunities for, and graduate students’ experiences with supervision training in sport psychology. [Poster presentation]. Association for Applied Sport Psychology Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV.
Ward, S. K., Dallas, F., Ferner, K., Kang, A. J., & Englis, M. (2024, October). You are where you’re at: Embracing your student identity in your consulting work. [Symposium presentation]. Association for Applied Sport Psychology Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV.
Ward, S. K., Cohn, S., & Hark, J. (2024, July). An integrated literature synthesis and proposed model depicting supervision in sport psychology research. [Poster presentation]. European Federation of Sport Psychology (FEPSAC) Congress, Innsbruck, Austria.