Dr Holly Collison-Randall

Dr Holly Collison-Randall is an anthropologist in the field of Sport for Development and Peace (SDP). She has completed extensive fieldwork examining sport interventions in the context of civil conflict, serious youth violence and crime, preventing violent extremism, climate change, and political violence. 

She is a globally recognised expert in Sport for Development and Peace (SDP), with over 15 years of experience researching, designing, and evaluating sport-based interventions across diverse sociocultural and political contexts. Holly has partnered with UNODC and the International Olympic Committee, co-authoring high-level policy and technical guides that are now used by governments to embed sport into national strategies for violence prevention and countering radicalisation. 

Holly has lead a research project in partnership with the London Violence Reduction Unit that explores and evaluates the co-designed London Sport Intervention Model focused on supporting young Londoners. Creating safe spaces, resilience, empowerment and trauma informed practices through sport. This contributes to their vulnerabilities to knife crime and serious youth violence.

Holly has recently partnered with the Olympic Refuge Foundation on climate action through sport. This body of works seeks to support global vulnerability through risk management strategies and youth action through sport based initiatives. That work is currently being implemented in Bangladesh, Jordan and Fiji.