Bio

Mandy Wintink, PhD

(Neuroscience & Psychology)

I am currently the CEO and Director of the Centre for Applied Neuroscience, a company I started in 2010 to house my own life coaching practice as well as train others to become Life Coaches. The company also serves the corporate world by offering neuroscience-related training and development.

University Education

I earned a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from the University of Winnipeg in 1998 with an Honor’s in Psychology. I completed my Master’s of Arts degree at Brock University specializing in Behavioural Neuroscience in 2000. I earned my Doctor of Philosophy degree from Dalhousie University in Psychology and Neuroscience in 2005. Following my PhD work, I earned an NSERC Post-Doctoral Fellowship to study in the Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology in the Faculty of Medicine at Dalhousie University.

Data Science

In 2021, I retrained in Data Science through BrainStation.

Sports

I have always played competitive sports, attending national-level competitions in soccer, hockey, and ultimate frisbee. I also played varsity hockey at Dalhousie University while completing my PhD. After graduating, I continued to work the the Dalhousie Tigers as a mental skills trainer, assistant coach, and yoga teacher. I also continue to work with my competitive women’s ultimate team teaching the sport psychology. After many, many provincial gold medals in Ringette, Soccer, Basketball, and Ultimate Frisbee, I finally won my first Nationals Gold medal in Ultimate Frisbee!

Equality of Opportunity for Women

I first learned about the need to promote equality of opportunity for women when I was an undergraduate student and started working on a university-wide project entitled “Fostering the Success and Persistence of Women in Science”. At the same time I was also starting new hockey teams for women and even started an entire new roller hockey league in Winnipeg for women. Some other initiatives that I am proud of include starting an ultimate (frisbee) program in Halifax for women - a program that continues today. And also, I recently created the new Canadian Nationals Masters Division (30 years +) for women. I am very proud to have been part of many women in science, women in sports, women in business group and will likely continue to be part of many more as the need arises!

Life Coaching

After a year of my Post-Doc research I began working part-time as a Life Coach at Balance Naturopathic Health Centre (2006) in Halifax. Upon moving to Toronto in 2010 I launched the Centre for Applied Neuroscience and began coaching new clients in Toronto and continuing working with existing clients in Halifax. Much of my coaching experience has come from being involved in sport, academia, and business.

Mindfulness Meditation and Yoga

In 2008 I did my yoga teacher training and earned my yoga teacher certification in the Kripalu tradition. I have also done several silent meditation courses and both practice and teach mindfulness.

Mentoring

Within the academic realm, I have been involved in several initiates to mentor women in science, in attempts to balance out the current underrepresentation of women in scientific careers. I have also managed many undergraduate and graduate students and helped them reach success in science and with their life plans in or outside of science.

Community Building

I have worked as a team and community development leader at Balance Naturopathic Health Centre and have worked in several organizations delivering motivational and educational workshops. Actually, I have been building local communities for quite some time wherever I go... in science labs, in sports, and through the newly establish Neuropsychoidiology Life Coaches Association!

On The Side

I also enjoy spending time with my dog, Jett, and cat Pickles, although Jett seems to reciprocate that enjoyment more than Pickles. :) Jett and Pickles both tend to pop up in many of my stories, examples, and writings along the way. I also continue to play competitive ultimate frisbee with Lotus of Toronto and enjoy good organic and local food and wine!