Sports Psychologist Joins Kansas Athletics

April 27, 2006

LAWRENCE, Kan. – The University of Kansas athletics department has hired Megan Brent, Ph.D., as its first full-time sports psychologist. Brent will provide performance-enhancing consultation to coaches and student-athletes, as well as individual and group counseling for mental-health issues.

Brent is currently a staff psychologist and outreach coordinator at the University of Cincinnati, where she provides counseling for college students regarding a wide range of issues. Prior to that, she completed a pre-doctoral internship and a post-doctoral fellowship at Kansas State University. There she provided individual, group, couples and crisis counseling, specializing in sport psychology. From 2001-2003 she completed a practicum with the director of sport psychology at Ohio State University, where she provided individual counseling for student-athletes with concerns such as substance abuse and self-esteem.

Brent earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology, magna cum laude, from the University of Dayton, and a master’s and doctorate in counseling psychology from Ohio State. She will begin her duties at Kansas July 1.

“In addition to the typical pressure that all college students face,” said KU Athletics Director Lew Perkins, “our student-athletes experience specific stresses related to participation at the highest level of collegiate athletics, including the expectations of their peers and the general public. Dr. Brent will help us support our student-athletes in such a way that we can optimize their competitive, educational and social experience here at the University of Kansas.”