About Dr. Kristy McCray
A California native transplanted to the Midwest, conducting research on sexual violence in sports.
About the researcher
Hi,
I'm Dr. Kristy McCray.
I’m an Associate Professor in the Department of Health and Sport Sciences at Otterbein University in Westerville, Ohio. I earned my PhD in Sport Management from The Ohio State University and my M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs and BA in Print Journalism and Political Science from the University of Southern California. I use my previous work experiences in college athletics and as the executive director of a rape crisis center to inform my research on sexual violence prevention in sports. I initially created Fair Play: Sexual Violence Prevention for Athletes from my dissertation research, but it’s based on nearly two decades in the field.
In my free time, I love cooking and rooting for my favorite sports teams. I also enjoy camping and hiking with my wife, spending time with family in California and Texas, and running with my dogs Duke and Henry.
Kristy McCray PhD at USC
My why.
Allow me to share why I care so deeply about college athletes and sexual violence prevention.
I love sports.
Some of my best memories are playing sports as a kid or attending sporting events with my family (go Lakers!). While I was working on my master’s degree, I worked and interned in a variety of capacities with athletes at USC, leading to my job as athletic academic advisor at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. I really loved doing that work - advising athletes, helping them find career paths (in and out of sport), sharing study skills and more. During this time, I also began volunteering at a local rape crisis center, eventually leading me to become the agency’s executive director. I am enormously grateful for the opportunity to be part of an organization that worked 24/7 to support victim-survivors of sexual assault. But I missed sports and working with athletes, so I decided to get my PhD in sport management and combine my two passion areas: college athletics and sexual violence prevention.
I have found my best and highest calling in combining my previous careers by conducting research and facilitating education to prevent sexual violence in college athletics.
Through my doctoral dissertation research, I learned that sports and athletes aren’t inherently bad or prone to sexual violence - but I learned about when and where it does happen, why is it happening. I created Fair Play: Sexual Violence Prevention for Athletes because I love my students, I love all of the athletes I have ever worked with, and I want them to live - and thrive - in athletic communities that are safe and healthy and free of sexual violence. I do this work not because I think sports are a problem - I do it because I think sports are the solution to culture change.
There is significant research on how and why sport can be a protective factor for building stronger, healthier, safer communities - I’d love to share it with you when you’re ready!
