Teena Murray

Teena Murray has spent over 25 years in college, pro and international sport. Most recently she has served in front office roles in the NBA (Sacramento Kings) and NHL (Pittsburgh Penguins), after a long tenure as Director of Performance at the University of Louisville.

Teena is renowned for pioneering a high-performance approach to building integrated models that break down walls between medical, performance, well-being, player development and coaching. She leans into data as a vehicle for guiding this process. She was among the earliest adopters of sport science in college athletics and created the NCAA’s first performance analytics division in partnership with CATAPULT at the University of Louisville in 2012. She also created a Research & Development Taskforce to drive innovation between Athletics, academic departments, and tech partners while at Louisville. Over 14 years at Louisville, Teena established a premiere Health & Performance program and effectively supported the Cardinals transition from Conference USA to the Big East to the ACC, climbing the Learfield standings along the way.

Teena’s career began as a strength and conditioning coach at Cornell University. She has also held roles with the University of Connecticut, USA Hockey, the Hartford Wolfpack (AHL), the Florida Panthers (NHL), the Anaheim Ducks, the International Ice Hockey Federation, and the Turkish Basketball Federation.

Teena helped to create the Masters’ program in Strength & Conditioning at the University of Louisville where she served as adjunct lecturer for many years. She has co-authored 10 peer-reviewed publications and 2 book chapters to date.

Teena holds a master’s degree in Exercise Physiology & Sports Nutrition from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and bachelor’s degrees in education (Queen’s University, Canada) and Hons. Kinesiology & Biology (Laurier, Canada). She recently completed an Executive Leadership program at Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and is currently completing an InnerMBA- aligned with her passion for advancing conscious leadership in elite sport. Teena holds emeritus status with the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) and the Collegiate Strength & Conditioning Coaches Association (CSCCa).

Hope Bender

Hope graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2019 with her bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences. While at UCSB, Hope was a 4x NCAA DI All-American in the heptathlon/pentathlon and a 6x Big West Conference Champion in the heptathlon, 400m hurdles, and long jump. She was also an active member in UCSB SAAC.

Since graduating, Hope has continued to pursue professional track and field, finishing inside the top-10 at the 2021 Olympic Trials in the heptathlon and placing second at the 2023 USA Indoor Championships in the pentathlon, while also spending the last three years as an Assistant Track & Field Coach at UCSB. She is continuing to train for the 2024 Olympic Trials in June, with the goal of qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics.