Dr. Cathy Campbell is one of Nova Scotia’s most beloved coaches and talented sports medicine practitioners. She has dedicated more than 40 years to developing Nova Scotia’s finest track athletes and Canada’s Olympic and World Cup women’s soccer teams.

Campbell took on the responsibility of coaching a group of young track athletes in the Atlantic Coast Club at a time when there were very few resources allocated to the sport.
Campbell spent eight years coaching the Atlantic Coast Club, which included Hall of Famer and provincial track sensation Cecilia Branch. Before Branch was rated third in the country for her 100-metre hurdle time, she trained under Campbell in the winter, running laps around the snow-covered track or the wooden walkway at the top of the Dalhousie Hockey arena, where there was only enough space for two hurdles. Campbell made do with limited training space by having Branch and the other kids run up Martello Tower Hill in Point Pleasant Park carrying each other on their backs.

Campbell volunteered two to three hours a day and most weekends with the Atlantic Coast Club while completing her Physical Education and Master of Science degrees at Dalhousie. She transferred her disciplined work ethic to soccer when fellow Dalhousie physical education alum Kevin Pipe asked her to be the team doctor for the Canadian women’s team in 2000. Working with the women’s soccer team has been the perfect opportunity for Cathy to combine her passions for sport and medicine.

In 2012, Campbell developed a new injury report system as leader of the Women’s High-Performance Team at the London Olympics, where the Canadian women claimed bronze. Campbell has always put athlete safety first and she makes herself available to team members on an “on-call” basis, always willing to answer their emails and phone calls at any time.

Campbell has provided her medical expertise in international soccer competitions for over fourteen years, attending five FIFA Women’s World Cups (WWC) as team physician and six as FIFA medical officer. She was recently appointed as FIFA General Medical Officer for the 2014 U20 WWC and 2015 WWC, making her the first North American woman to be appointed to the chief medical officer position for a World Cup event. As of 2019, Campbell is still serving as chief medical officer and doping control officer with FIFA, setting up medical coverage for venues and helping all the team doctors, as well as doing doping control for World Cups. She most recently travelled with FIFA to Uruguay for the U17 Women’s World Cup in November 2018.