Milena Parent
Milena Parent
Full Professor

2005, Ph.D., Physical Education & Recreation (Sport Management), University of Alberta
2001, M.A., Human Kinetics (Sport Administration), University of Ottawa
1999, B.Sc., Honours Physiology, University of Ottawa

Room
MNT 374
Phone
613-562-5800 ext. 2984


Biography

Milena Parent is a full professor in sport (event) governance in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of Ottawa. She teaches sport management courses in both official languages at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Prof. Parent also lectures in the Project & Event Management Module in the French and English Executive Masters in Sport Organisations Management (MEMOS) programs.

She received a Young Researcher Award from the University of Ottawa (2009) and an Early Researcher Award from the Government of Ontario (2010). She was also named a research fellow of the North American Society for Sport Management (NASSM) in 2009.

Prof. Parent focuses on organization theory and strategic management, primarily in the context of major sports events (e.g., Youth Olympic Games and Olympic Games). She is interested in the governance and management of the relationships between organizing committees and their various stakeholders.

She co-authored Managing Major Sports Events: Theory and Practice (2nd edition with Aurélia Ruetsch, Routledge, 2021) and Strategic Management in Sport (with Danny O’Brien, Lesley Ferkins, and Lisa Gowthorp, Routledge, 2019). She co-edited The SAGE Handbook of Sport Management (with Russell Hoye, SAGE, 2017), Elite Youth Sport Policy and Management: A Comparative Analysis (with Elsa Kristiansen and Barrie Houlihan, Routledge, 2017), and The Routledge Handbook of Sports Event Management (with Jean-Loup Chappelet, Routledge, 2015).

Prof. Parent served as the 2001 Games of La Francophonie technical officials’ coordinator and a 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games protocol and language services manager.

Finally, she is a trained copywriter and has consulted for several organizations, such as the Sport Information Resource Centre, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, and Canadian Heritage/Sport Canada. She currently sits on the Canadian Sport Policy 2012 Policy Implementation and Monitoring Work Group, the Canadian Sport Policy Renewal Work Group, and the Surveillance and Monitoring Work Group.

Professor Parent is accepting new students for thesis supervision.

Quick links

Research interests

  • Sport event governance
  • Sport system governance
  • Stakeholder management and networks
  • Canadian sport policy
  • Olympic Movement

Ongoing research

Dr. Parent focuses on sport (event) management and governance and sport system governance. Currently, she has research projects associated with the governance of the Youth Olympic Games and, more broadly, other types of sports events. She is also leading a landscape study of Canadian national sport organizations, examining their governance, brand governance and social media use.

Memberships

  • President of SportCopywriters: https://sportcopywriters.com/
  • Academy of Management
  • Administrative Sciences Association of Canada
  • American Writers and Artists, Inc.
  • European Sport Management Association
  • North American Society for Sport Management
  • Professional Writers’ Alliance

Publications

  • Brynildsen, K. B., & Parent, M. M. (2021). Test events as risk management tools in the context of the Olympic Movement's Agenda 2020. Event Management, 25(2), 115-133.
  • Leopkey, B., & Parent, M. M. (2017). The governance of Olympic legacy: process, actors and mechanisms. Leisure Studies, 36(3), 438-451.
  • MacIntosh, E. W., & Parent, M. M. (2017). Athlete satisfaction with a major multi-sport event: the importance of social and cultural aspects. International Journal of Event and Festival Management, 8(2), 136-150.
  • Naraine, M. L., Schenk, J., & Parent, M. M. (2016). Coordination in international and domestic sports events: Examining stakeholder network governance. Journal of Sport Management, 30(5), 521-537.
  • Parent, M. M. (2008). Evolution and issue patterns for major-sport-event organizing committees and their stakeholders. Journal of Sport Management, 22(2), 135-164.
  • Parent, M. M. (2010). Decision making in major sport events over time: Parameters, drivers, and strategies. Journal of Sport Management, 24(3), 291-318.
  • Parent, M. M. (2016). The governance of the Olympic Games in Canada. Sport in Society, 19(6), 796-816.
  • Parent, M. M., & Deephouse, D. L. (2007). A case study of stakeholder identification and prioritization by managers. Journal of Business Ethics, 75(1), 1-23.
  • Parent, M. M., & Harvey, J. (2017). A partnership-based evaluation of a community-based youth sport and physical activity programme. Sport in Society, 20(1), 7-29.
  • Parent, M. M., & Hoye, R. (2018). The impact of governance principles on sport organisations’ governance practices and performance: A systematic review. Cogent Social Sciences, 4(1), 1-24.
  • Parent, M. M., Hoye, R., Taks, M., Thompson, A., Naraine, M. L., Lachance, E. L., & Séguin, B. (2021). National sport organization governance design archetypes for the twenty-first century. European Sport Management Quarterly, 1-21.
  • Parent, M. M., Kristiansen, E., & Houlihan, B. (2017). Governance and knowledge management and transfer: the case of the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, 17(4-6), 308-330.
  • Parent, M. M., Kristiansen, E., & MacIntosh, E. W. (2014). Athletes' Experiences at the Youth Olympic Games: Perceptions, Stressors, and Discourse Paradox. Event Management, 18(3), 303-324.
  • Parent, M. M., MacIntosh, E., Culver, D., & Naraine, M. L. (2019). Benchmarking the Buenos Aires 2018 athletes' perspective for a longitudinal analysis of Youth Olympic Games athlete experience and learning. International Olympic Committee.
  • Parent, M. M., Rouillard, C., & Leopkey, B. (2011). Issues and Strategies Pertaining to the Canadian Governments' Coordination Efforts in Relation to the 2010 Olympic Games. European Sport Management Quarterly, 11(4), 337-369.
  • Parent, M. M., Rouillard, C., & Naraine, M. L. (2017). Network governance of a multi-level, multi-sectoral sport event: Differences in coordinating ties and actors. Sport Management Review, 20(5), 497-509.
  • Parent, M. M., & Séguin, B. (2007). Factors that led to the drowning of a world championship organizing committee: A stakeholder approach. European Sport Management Quarterly, 7(2), 187-212.
  • Parent, M. M., Taks, M., Naraine, M. L., Hoye, R., Séguin, B., & Thompson, A. (2019). Canadian national sport organizations' governance landscape study: Survey results. https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-health-sciences/sites/g/files/bhrskd346/files/2021-12/survey_results_-_canadian_national_sport_organizations_governance_landscape_study.pdf 
  • Parent, M. M., Taks, M., Séguin, B., Naraine, M. L., Hoye, R., Thompson, A., & Lachance, E. L. (2020). 2020 Workshop report: Governance, branding, and social media in Canadian national sport organizations. https://www.uottawa.ca/faculty-health-sciences/sites/g/files/bhrskd346/files/2021-12/workshop-report_1.pdf

Conferences and presentations

  • Lachance, E. & Parent, M.M. (2017, June 3). The volunteer experience in a local para-sport event: An ethnographic approach. Paper presented at the 2017 North American Society for Sport Management Conference, Denver, Colorado, USA.
  • Naraine, M., Parent, M.M. (2015, July 27). Examining the social network of Canadian national sport organizations. Paper presented at the Social Media & Society 2015 International Conference, Toronto, Canada.
  • Parent, M. M. (2012). Describing the Olympic Games knowledge transfer stakeholder network. Paper presented at the Innsbruck, Austria, 4th International Sport Business Symposium.https://www.sport.uni-mainz.de/Preuss/Download%20public/Symposium_uni_innsbruck_12_01_2012.pdfnorth_eastexternal link
  • Parent, M. M. (2015). The Governance of the Olympic Games in Canada. Paper presented at the Symposium célébrant 100 ans du siège du Comité international olympique «De l'administration à la gouvernance olympique: défis pour notre siècle», Lausanne, Switzerland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJUmf2vMkEI&list=PLGLNN-KqKMrSlg5NKHGr_FT8FpEDQhmG4&index=9north_eastexternal link
  • Parent, M.M. (2017, June 21). The structures of sport and “good governance.” Paper presented at the 57th International Session for Young Participants, International Olympic Academy, Athens-Olympia, Greece. http://www.ioa-sessions.org/yp2017-lecture-prof-dr-milena-m-parent-cannorth_eastexternal link   
  • Parent, M.M. (2017, May 11). Les candidatures pour les grands événements sportifs : mythes et réalités. Colloque « La ville et le sport », Brest, France.
  • Parent, M. M., Schafer, J. P., & Rouillard, C. (2011, Septembre). Event rights holders versus host nations: Who is accountable, for what, and to whom, for an Olympic Games? Paper presented at the 19th European Association for Sport Management Conference, Madrid, Spain. 
  • Parent, M. M., & Séguin, B. (2010, July). Change as routine? Understanding organizational change in Canadian major sporting events. Paper presented at the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management, Paris, France.
  • Séguin, B., Parent, M.M., Young, B., & Bennett, A. (2014, November 27). Understanding ‘Best-Ever’ Masters Sport Events: The Case of FINA 2014. Sport Management Association of Australia and New Zealand (SMAANZ) conference. Melbourne, Australia