Alumni profile: Marika Warner on closing the research-clinical gap in physical therapy

Marika Warner (MSc ’08) is the Director of Research and Insights at MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Partnership). She splits her time between the company’s corporate headquarters at Scotiabank Arena and MLSE LaunchPad, a 42,000‑square‑foot sport‑for‑development facility in downtown Toronto that supports youth facing barriers through sport, research and community programming.

Warner earned her undergraduate degree in physiotherapy from the University of Alberta and pursued graduate studies at the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute (RSI) within the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine, during which she focused on neurorehabilitation, exercise and mood outcomes. Her early research and clinical roles in Toronto helped shape her commitment to public health and social responsibility.

Today, Warner is a recognized leader in the sports and social impact sector. At MLSE, she oversees data‑driven approaches to community programming, large‑scale research initiatives — including the provincial Change the Game research project — and partnerships with academic units such as U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology & Physical Education.

We chatted with Warner to find out more about her career path and hopes for the future.
 

What were some of your interests growing up?

I was born in Calgary but grew up mostly in Winnipeg, from age five to seventeen. Dance was a huge part of my early life — I trained seriously and even imagined, in my early teens, that it might become my career. By high school, though, I knew I wanted something more academic. Still, dance was foundational: it shaped how I understood anatomy, movement and mood. Movement was my “medicine,” and physiotherapy felt like a natural career path.

How did you become interested in the research side of physical therapy?

After I moved to Toronto, I worked as a physiotherapist at the UHN’s Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, primarily in stroke and brain‑injury neurorehabilitation. I started using aerobic exercise with my patients at a time when it wasn’t commonly encouraged. I saw real benefits — not just physically, but in mood, self‑esteem, energy and cognition — and I wanted to put some rigour behind what I was seeing clinically.

Working alongside Toronto Rehab colleagues like Elizabeth Inness (MSc ’08 RSI, PhD ’15 RSI), who blended clinical insight with research training, showed me the dual benefit of those two lenses. That curiosity and desire to close the gap between research and practice pulled me toward RSI.

Through my research, I was able to show it is safe and feasible to use aerobic protocols in clinical settings. We also found significant improvements in mood and reductions in depressive symptoms.

Can you share a highlight from your RSI experience?

One of my biggest takeaways was how valuable a collaborative approach is: I had an occupational therapy‑trained supervisor, I was a PT, and we worked closely with physiatrists. That interdisciplinary structure showed me how research and practice can coexist immediately and effectively when the right people are embedded in real‑world settings.

Describe your path from researcher to your current role at MLSE.

After getting my graduate degree, I kept one foot in clinical work and one in research. I continued to work at Toronto Rehab and the Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital as a research physiotherapist, and I also ran a private practice, taught dance, choreographed and even did some stunt work — I had a lot of energy in my 20s!

A major turning point came when I joined the Regent Park Community Health Centre to design a physiotherapy program for their massive caseload of about 20,000 patients. That role pushed me into population and public‑health‑oriented physiotherapy — thinking upstream, designing group interventions and addressing barriers to access.

When MLSE posted a role focused on building a new chapter of corporate social responsibility through sport, it felt like everything — my rehab background, my program‑design experience, my belief in movement as medicine — clicked. I applied immediately (from a surf camp in Hawaii!), interviewed, and ultimately made a big jump from health care to the sports sector.

What’s your day‑to‑day like at MLSE?

Honestly, it varies depending on the time of year, but my work is a blend of research and management. I’d say a little more than half — about 60 to 65 percent — is research‑focused. That includes leading large‑scale studies, doing program evaluation, analyzing data, and making sure everything we do is evidence‑based. The rest is managing people and processes: coaching my team, handling finance or HR tasks, and keeping a huge portfolio of community programs, infrastructure projects and grants moving forward.

Some periods get heavier on the management side, but the research component is always core to what I do. The pace is fast, the scope is wide, and there’s always something new to dig into, which I love.

How do you see yourself furthering your education and your career?

I’m really happy in the sports sector and can see myself growing within MLSE — potentially into a VP‑level role overseeing research or the broader community engagement portfolio. I’ve also thought about working with a league like the NBA in a similar capacity.

Education‑wise, returning for a PhD is still high on my list. I would love the luxury of spending concentrated time with theory and literature, something that’s hard to do in the pace of my current work. I’d only pursue it if I had a research question I felt truly passionate about, but I already have an idea: studying corporate social responsibility strategy in professional sport. I know the timing and the supervision need to be right, but it’s definitely something I still want to do.