About Us

Our team is dedicated to supporting girls and women in sport. With decades of experience, we are leading experts on menstrual health for girls in sport.

About Us

About Power To Play Period

Dr Sarah Zipp is a leading researcher on sport, gender and menstrual health. She has taught at universities around the world and hosted the UK’s first academic workshop on sport and menstruation in 2020. Dr Zipp designed these menstrual health lessons based on published research, with guidance from a diverse group of expert advisors and input from adolescent girls.

She was named the Early Career Scholar of the Year in 2020 by the Journal of Sport for Development and has published her work in academic journals, books and media articles. Her research and advocacy work includes the UK Menstruation Research Network, UK Period Poverty Taskforce, Gender Equality Toolkit for Generation Z (GETZ) Erasmus project and more.

About Us

Lilamani de Soysa

Lilamani de Soysa has worked to support girls and women in international sport for decades.

A former professional table tennis player, Lila travelled the world competing on behalf of her home country, Sri Lanka. She studied at the University of Lausanne. More recently, she taught on gender and sport at the Tokyo Olympic legacy programme at Tsukuba University in Japan.

She is an Executive Member to the International Working Group on Women in Sport (IWG). She works on gender and sport, sport for development and education in sport. Lila lives in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Olympic capital of the world.

Power to Play team workshop in Lausanne, Switzerland

Dr. Sarah Zipp at the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup in Australia

Lilamani de Soysa at the Smart Cities in Sport conference

Sarah Zipp & Anna Goorevich at the 2022 Rugby World cCp in New Zealand

Dr. Sarah Zipp, tossing a caber at the Bridge of Allan Highland Games (Scotland, UK)

Sarah (Schmidt) Zipp playing NCAA basketball (1998-2001)

Dr. Sarah Zipp delivering a workshop in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Dr. Sarah Zipp delivering Keynote Address at GETZ Conference (Norway)

Dr. Sarah Zipp & family at PhD graduation (Netherlands)

Gwen Zipp at the Youth Olympics in Lausanne (Switzerland)

Dr. Sarah Zipp & Aaron Zipp doing acroyoga

Developing a research and advocacy project with NOWSPAR Zambia

Our Advisors

We work with an amazing team of brilliant women from around the world. Our export advisors and global ambassadors include researchers, educators, coaches, international sport experts and other leaders in sport for girls and women.

We want to acknowledge the input, resources and advice from Dr Sasha Sutherland (Barbados), Anna Goorevich (USA), Dr Lombe Mwambwa (Zambia/Switzerland), Dr Georgie Bruinvels (UK), the Society for Menstruation Research and the UK Menstruation Research Network.

Our Logo

Designed by the Amazing Zipp Sisters! Our logo was a family effort from Dr. Sarah Zipp’s two adolescent daughters. They are also “expert” advisors on all things Gen Z, girlhood and other cool stuff we are too old to understand. The Zipp Sisters were the motivation behind Dr. Zipp’s efforts to understand the challenges girls face in sport. Having lived abroad most of their young lives, they have picked up sport, culture and art from across Europe and the USA.