Dr. Mark Aoyagi, PhD, CC-AASP, is the director of sport & performance psychology and associate professor in the Graduate School of Professional Psychology at the University of Denver. He is also the founder and director of the Center for Performance Excellence. His areas of expertise include performance excellence, team effectiveness, and achieving meaning, satisfaction and fulfillment through sport, work, and life. Mark is a recognized sport psychology consultant and has worked with several Division I athletic departments as well as professional and Olympic teams and athletes. He is a licensed psychologist in the state of Colorado and is listed in the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Sport Psychology Registry. Mark is active in several professional organizations including the International Society for Sport Psychology, American Psychological Association (APA) and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology (AASP). He was elected to the executive board of AASP (Association of Applied Sport Psychology) as the research and practice division head (2014-2017), appointed chair of the Graduate Program Committee (2013-2014), and selected as member of the Distinguished Professional Practice Award Committee (2014), the Student Development Committee (2007-2010), Future of Focus Areas Ad Hoc Committee (2012-2014), and Foundation Committee (2012-2014). For APA Division 47 (Exercise and Sport Psychology), Mark was elected as member-at-large on the Executive Committee (2011-2013) and served as member of the Public Interest Committee (2008-2012), member of the Practice Committee (2008-2014), and Chair of the Science Committee (2010-2012).

Mark has several publications and national conference presentations on the topics of sport psychology, team effectiveness, models of sport psychology practice, and ethics among others. Along with Artur Poczwardowski, he co-edited the book Expert Approaches to Sport Psychology. Mark has been an invited speaker for several professional teams and college athletic departments in the United States as well as internationally for high performance groups in Canada, Poland, Mexico, Italy, and New Zealand. Mark earned a PhD in counseling psychology with an emphasis in sport psychology from the University of Missouri in 2006 and was the sport psychology post-doctoral fellow at the University of Southern California. Prior to that, he completed a BS in exercise and sport science and a BS in psychology from the University of Utah in 1999 and a MS in kinesiology, sport psychology emphasis from Georgia Southern University in 2001. Mark also completed a Graduate Business Certificate in Management from the University of Denver, Daniels College of Business in 2011. He was the recipient of the 2005 Student-Practitioner Award from the Association for the Advancement of Applied Sport Psychology for excellence in applied sport psychology and the inaugural Early Career Professional Award from Division 47 (exercise and sport psychology) of the American Psychological Association in 2013. Mark played rugby, football, baseball, and wrestling competitively, and now enjoys a variety of recreational sports and outdoor activities.