Christopher Stanley earned an MS in sport and exercise psychology from Florida State University, and a PhD in developmental psychology from Loyola University Chicago. Dr. Stanley maintains status as a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC) through the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP).
Prior to joining the sport and performance psychology faculty at the University of Western States, Chris Stanley was research and teaching faculty at institutions in North Carolina and Florida. Throughout his career, he has been involved on a variety of collaborative research projects and applied activities related broadly to human performance and development in athletic, health, psychosocial and educational domains. In addition to teaching academic courses, he has given an array of performance-based lectures at conferences and events for audiences of athletes, families, coaches and psychologists. In terms of writing and scholarship, he has dozens of peer-reviewed publications and has authored two books. His most recent book – entitled Reach Every Athlete – focuses on coaching athletes with hidden disabilities and conditions.
In practice, Chris has been involved with USA Track and Field since 2014. This has included roles such as lead sport and performance psychology consultant at the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo (2021), Outdoor World Championships in Oregon (2022) and Budapest (2023). Chris also consults with a variety of other professional organizations, including lead mental skills and performance consultant with the elite program at the Atlanta Track Club.