Shill concludes her UCalgary journey with Governor General’s Gold Medal

r. Isla Shill still sounds a little surprised when she talks about receiving the Governor General’s Gold Medal at the University of Calgary’s fall convocation.

“I was very honoured and honestly a bit in shock,” she says. “It was such a meaningful way to wrap up my graduate journey at the University of Calgary.”

The Governor General’s Gold Medal is one of Canada’s most prestigious academic honours, awarded annually to graduate students who achieve the highest academic standing across all programs.

Shill, BSc'19, MSc'21, PhD'24, completed her undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees in the Faculty of Kinesiology before beginning postdoctoral work at the University of Edinburgh and now the University of Victoria. Throughout that journey, her work has centred on concussion and injury prevention in youth sport, particularly high school girls’ rugby.

Her path into research began early. During her third year as a kinesiology student and Dinos rugby athlete, a friend connected her with the Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre. 

“That opportunity opened the door for everything that followed,” Shill says. “It was meaningful to work in a community I was already part of as a player and coach.”

Research focused on injury survelliance and prevention

That early experience led to a master’s project and later a PhD focused on injury surveillance and an evaluation of injury-prevention strategies in adolescent girls’ rugby. Working closely with the Calgary Senior High School Athletic Association, Rugby Alberta, and Rugby Canada, Shill helped co-design and evaluate an evidence-informed warm-up program tailored for Canadian youth players. Her work has contributed to a growing evidence base addressing long-standing gaps in research on girls and women athletes.

“As a youth athlete, I saw how little research existed to support girls sport,” she says. “Being able to help fill that gap has meant a lot to me.”

Work has international impact

Shill's research achievements include contributing to international consensus statements on concussion in sport and on injury prevention for girls and women athletes, as well as presenting at global conferences. She also received a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, recognizing her as one of the country’s top doctoral researchers.

Shill credits the multidisciplinary environment at UCalgary, particularly the Human Performance Laboratory, for shaping how she approaches complex sport-safety questions. “Working across sports medicine, community health, biomechanics, and motor learning helped broaden the way I think about problems,” she says.

Mentorship was also central to her success. She worked under the supervision of Dr. Carolyn Emery, MSc'99, PhD, and Dr. Brent Hagel, BPE'93, MSc'98, PhD, and collaborated with researchers in Canada, the U.K. and South Africa. “I am very grateful to my supervisors and colleagues,” Shill says. “Their support pushed me to grow as a researcher.”

Now at the University of Victoria, Shill is expanding her work into concussion and brain injury rehabilitation while continuing rugby research, including a World Rugby-funded project on tackle training in girls’ rugby.

“I am excited to build my own research program and support the next generation of students,” she says. “I hope to help young women see what a pathway in research and academia can look like.”