Meet the Team

Leadership

Kate Ackerman, MD, MPH, FACSM

Kathryn (Kate) Ackerman, MD, MPH, FACSM is the co-founder and Director of WHSP Medical, WHSP Institute, and the Biennial International Female Athlete Conference, as well as an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School through Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

She earned her BA from Cornell University, MD from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health, and completed her residency in internal medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She completed her sports medicine fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH), endocrinology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as further research training in the Neuroendocrine Unit at MGH. She was the Associate Director of the Sports Endocrine Research Lab at MGH from 2012-2023 and formerly founded and directed the Female Athlete Program at BCH from 2012-2025 before launching WHSP to accelerate research and enhance comprehensive, interdisciplinary clinical care for female athletes across the lifespan.

She chairs the USRowing Medical Committee, co-chairs the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee Women’s Health Task Force, is a member of the World Rowing Medical Commission and the Women’s Tennis Association Women’s Health Taskforce, and is a Deputy Editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Her research focuses on female athlete health and the various aspects of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs). She has authored/co-authored over 175 articles and book chapters related to sports medicine, endocrinology, rowing, bone health, and female athletes, including position statements with the International Olympic Committee.
Athletically, Dr. Ackerman represented the US as a lightweight rower at the World Championships, having taken up rowing as a walk-on at Cornell. She has multiple National Championships titles and still competes with her teammates for life as a masters athlete. In 2020 she became a member of the National Leadership Council for the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance, a $220M initiative to improve health and performance globally. Dr. Ackerman leads the Alliance’s focus on scientific advancements for women.

Emilie Burgess, MS, RDN, CSSD, LDN

Emilie Burgess is a board-certified specialist in Sports Dietetics specializing in sports performance, low energy availability, disordered eating, and eating disorders in athletes. She currently works as a sport & eating disorder dietitian at Laura Moretti Nutrition LLC, co-chair for the 2025 Female Athlete Conference, and a contract dietitian for USA Track and Field.
Emilie was most recently the Athletics Sports Dietitian for 34 varsity teams at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and served as the Exhibitor Chair for the 2023 Female Athlete Conference.
As a dietitian, Emilie has worked at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston, Cambridge Eating Disorder Center, and at Home Base Program, a Boston Red Sox and Massachusetts General Hospital program. During the pandemic, she transitioned to Boston Hope, a COVID-19 field hospital where she helped co-lead and build the food service department.
Emilie has also worked as a clinical nutrition specialist in the Division of Sports Medicine and Female Athlete Program at Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Recreation, and completed a sports nutrition fellowship program at the University of Washington through the Gatorade Sports Nutrition Immersion Program.
Emilie earned a BS in Dietetics at the University of Connecticut, where she competed as a Division I tennis player. She went on to earn a MS in Nutrition and Food Science, and completed a dietetic internship at West Virginia University.

Grace Saville, BS

Grace received her Bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University, where she majored in Biology of Global Health and minored in physics and math. Grace is a Clinical Research Assistant at the Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program, at Boston Children’s Hospital. Grace was the Logistics and Communications chair for the 2023 Female Athlete Conference.