Board Member Profile: Dr. Meg Garvey
Senior Scientist at Nix Biosensors
Dr. Meg Garvey is an Exercise Scientist with a unique combination of end-user interaction, behind the scenes scientific knowledge and writing, data collection and analysis experience. She has consulted with several health and wellness companies/programs, particularly as they invest in or develop a product to bring it to market. Spending the last 20+ years in the fitness and wellness industry as a coach, trainer, and subject matter expert in both civilian and DoD environments with a PhD in Exercise Science is from the University of Massachusetts Boston and a MS is in Clinical Exercise Science from Northeastern University. Particularly in her role as the Senior Scientist at Nix Biosensors her expertise and continued interests are in the validation and utilization of devices, sensors, and assessments to measure human performance with both conventional and tactical athletes.
We talked with Meg to learn more about his perspective on the Tactical Athlete. Here is what she had to say:
(TA-LB): The themes of the Tactical Athlete Leadership Board are Readiness, Resilience, and Recovery. From your perspective, why are these themes important, and what about them resonates with your experience in the human performance industry?
(Meg): From my experience all of these terms are frequently discussed, yet do not have absolute firm definitions. I have never used the words "well it depends" more in my career, which makes it increasingly important to continue to have discussions about this grey space and what can make a difference in one instance versus another. Particularly as we discuss wearables and biosensors it is important to call out under what conditions was it validated, can there be modifications to algorithms to fit the use-case we are discussing, and what are the best methods to interpret, report, and act on the data being collected.
(TA-LB): Looking to the future, what technological innovation do you think will have the most significant impact on tactical athletes?
(Meg): Can I say hydration?! In all seriousness though, I believe the greatest tech innovation may be that the tech is both shrinking and becoming less expensive as raw materials. Those two factors can lend themselves to some pretty big breakthroughs in tech.
(TA-LB): The spirit of the TALB is to bring a diverse set of perspectives to the table aligned toward a singular purpose: to sustain the tactical athlete of today and prepare for the tactical athlete of tomorrow. Why is it essential for the broader human performance industry to work together towards this end?
(Meg): We need to be able to recognize our biases while building and validating solutions for human performance problems. Having a diverse sound board helps us achieve this.
(TA-LB): What is the greatest challenge to innovation in the human performance sector?
(Meg): Interoperability (or lack there of)