Elodie Wendling

About Dr. Wendling

Dr. Elodie Wendling is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Sport Management at Washington State University. Elodie earned her PhD in Sport Management from the University of Florida (UF) in 2019. Her dissertation, assessing career identity status, career and psychosocial functioning, and transition experiences of former NCAA college athletes, was funded by the NCAA Graduate Student Research Grant. Upon graduation, she went on to work as an Assistant Professor in Sport Administration at Georgia State University from 2019-2021 where she taught graduate and doctoral level courses. She decided to come back to UF in May 2021 to teach in the online graduate sport management program and continue to pursue her research agenda. Her primary line of research focuses on the personal and career development of youth, intercollegiate, and professional athletes. Through this research agenda, she has examined concepts such as career planning, athletic career transition, academic-athletic role conflict, elite youth sport participation, and relative age effects. One of her primary research interests involves the career identity development of elite athletes during the transition to life after sport. The overarching goal of this research is to examine identity formation processes and resources that can help both current and former elite athletes establish a career identity beyond their athletic career, enhance their well-being and promote optimal psychosocial functioning post-sport life. Given the unsettling effect that can be caused by career identity confusion, a better understanding of career identity development processes can facilitate athletes’ adjustments once they leave the high-level competitive sport landscape. She has published and presented her research at numerous national and international refereed journals and conferences. She is a member of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) and the Professional Association of Athlete Development Specialists (PAADS).

Elodie is a former NCAA Division I athlete who played college tennis for the Owls at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). She received a bachelor’s degree in economics from FAU in 2008 and a master’s degree in Sport Management from Barry University in 2011. Before pursuing her doctoral degree at UF, she worked as a career counselor at Barry University for three years.