Yetsa A. Tuakli-Wosornu, MD, MPH, is an Associate Professor (Adjunct) at Yale School of Public Health Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and a Harvard-trained Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation physician. She represented Ghana in the women’s long jump until 2016. As a physician, Dr Tuakli serves patients with common orthopaedic conditions such as osteoarthritis, non-surgically. As a public health scientist, Dr Tuakli directs the Sports Equity Lab (SEL), an interdisciplinary research group focused on reducing inequities in sport (e.g., peer aggression, race-, gender-, and disability-based discrimination, harassment, abuse, neglect) while at the same time amplifying sport’s role as a positive change agent in society. SEL combines academia with community-based programs, uses diverse media channels for content dissemination, and focuses on athletes with physical and/or intellectual disabilities from less-resourced settings. Dr. Tuakli believes that the transformative power of sport and movement on biopsychosocial outcomes for individuals, communities, and societies cannot be overstated. In sport, she has worked as a safeguarding scientist and advocate in various capacities, including as the International Paralympic Committee’s inaugural welfare officer at the 2016 Paralympic Games. Currently, she is the Chair of the International Olympic Committee Consensus on Interpersonal Violence and Safeguarding in Sport (2023-24), a member of Safe Sport International’s (SSI) advisory board and co-Chair of the SSI research committee.
