Different audiences, ages and places.
No compromises on the standard.
Now educating insport & exercise science
Associate Lecturer application · Western Sydney University · REF1941O
Industry, research and coaching, brought to the classroom.
I came to university teaching after more than twenty years in industry, in marketing, product and leadership roles and in technology ventures I founded. Since 2022 I have taught across eight Deakin units and carried unit-chair responsibilities at Victoria University. I still coach, and my Deakin PhD examined training load, coaching practice and communication. I bring all of it to one aim: a great experience for students that equips them to be effective when they enter the workforce.
Teaching exercise science
At Deakin, I have taught every trimester since 2022 across eight units, in practical classes, seminars and marking, including a full-time contract in T2 2025. HBS109 is a cross-faculty unit, so my practical classes include nursing, medical and occupational therapy students.
At Victoria University I teach in the intensive block model. I carried full unit-chair responsibilities for SSC2000 in 2025, and in 2026 I was given unit-chair responsibilities for the entire AHE3114 unit whilst Dr Alice Sweeting was on leave: unit news, student support, all marking, self-moderation and grade release.
Student ratings of my teaching have been 100% positive in HSE103, HSE105, HBS109, HSE208, HSE302 and HSE304 at Deakin, and in SSC2000 at Victoria University. I ask students what is working and what needs to improve, and that feedback shapes the next delivery. In T2 2026, colleagues asked me to cover classes four times across four units, and I took the two I was free to take.
Teaching Fellow, Deakin University
Additional marking: HSE102 Functional Human Anatomy · HSE110 Muscle Biology for Exercise Science · HSE727 Time and Motion Analysis of Sport Performance
100%
You have a great presence in the classroom, and your ability to connect research with real world sporting scenarios made the learning experience that much more valuable.
Curriculum and assessment
In SSC2000, I proposed and delivered an endurance sport technology session from my research. Students used TrainingPeaks to design a training week, connect physiological evidence with an athlete's circumstances and explain their choices: reading what the platform showed, recognising uncertainty and justifying a professional decision with the kind of load-management technology they will meet in coaching and sport science work.
For AHE3114, I was given latitude to edit the teaching content.
Setting up for a circuit class prac for HSE302
Sessional Academic, Victoria University
Student feedback. SSC2000, 2025: Student Evaluation of Teaching responses were 100% “strongly agree” across all items.
Outreach and partners
At Deakin Open Day in 2023, 2024 and 2025, my own race bike, smart trainer, screen and Zwift showed prospective students the technology athletes use outside the laboratory. I rode for about five hours each day, including repeat sprint efforts.
Through Regional Rising, which I co-founded, I contributed to STEM and digital-literacy programs delivered with regional partners for students in North West Victoria, including STEM4Sunraysia.
‘Students can benefit from being taught by an experienced communicator...’Greg Leslie, SuniTAFE, 2019
For the profession, AusTriathlon and TrainingPeaks invited me to present at the Queensland Academy of Sport to high-performance, performance and development coaches, including Olympic-level coaches, and AusTriathlon invited me to deliver a national webinar on training load and communication. TrainingPeaks commissioned and edited an article from my 2026 Frontiers paper for its coaching audience.
I negotiated Deakin University's major sponsorship of Pivot Summit directly with Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander AO. In 2025, I made a senior-level introduction between AusTriathlon and Deakin to explore coach-education opportunities, then handed the discussion over with context on both sides.
Research from inception to output
Thesis: Triathlon Coaching Practices: Optimising Training Load Processes and Communication.
Submitted in just over three years, with three peer-reviewed papers published during candidature.
“I conclude that this thesis is an original scientific contribution that meets or exceeds international standards for the Doctor of Philosophy in sport science. I recommend its approval without reservation.”
Through my doctorate, I designed and conducted research on training load, coaching practice and communication in triathlon. Four of my first-author peer-reviewed papers are published, with a fifth, a pilot coach-education intervention, in second-round review. The 2026 Frontiers in Sports and Active Living paper analyses 34,731 training sessions from 95 age-group triathletes in 25 countries.
I conducted quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods research, using SPSS and NVivo. As a research assistant on a Deakin resistance-training and altitude study, I instruct lifting technique, run 3RM strength testing, recruit participants and, as an invited co-author, am writing the literature and scoping review.
Figure 20: RUP-ACIP-EBP Training Load and Communication Practices Spectrum. · p. 122
Resistance-training and altitude study: lifting instruction, 3RM testing, recruitment, honours mentoring and review writing as an invited co-author.
Sub-maximal VO₂ testing and GPS sport-watch evaluation; protocols, data handling and reporting.
Also helping other PhD students yet to graduate pilot their studies
Source photographIn 2025, I co-supervised a Master of Applied Sport Science candidate researching menstrual-cycle symptoms and perceived performance in female triathletes; the thesis is being prepared as a journal manuscript. I am currently mentoring an honours student within the resistance-training and altitude study.
I am developing three papers on AI-assisted research methods in sport science with Professor Stephen Seiler, Professor Marco Cardinale and Palo Galko, a team that spans sport science, research methods and information technology.
My academic funding record is at an early stage. Outside academia, I have secured and acquitted local, state and federal grants, and Runway, which I co-founded, raised $1.25 million through LaunchVic.
Practice behind the teaching
As owner and head coach of Summit Triathlon Coaching, I coach athletes in Australia and internationally through Ironman distance. I designed and delivered national coach education for AusTriathlon and TrainingPeaks, adapting my research for development, performance and Olympic-level coaches. That keeps what I teach current.
Professional triathlon coaching in Australia and internationally through Ironman distance: training prescription, monitoring, race preparation and athlete communication.
Coach education at Queensland Academy of Sport and a national webinar on training load and communication for AusTriathlon.
Industry, leadership and funded delivery
I held marketing and product roles across ASX, NASDAQ and NYSE listed firms and private companies, and was Marketing Director at Dexion, part of GUD Holdings (ASX: GUD). My marketing consultancy Crux created Catapult's original OptimEye and ClearSky identities. Through my digital agency Digitalsmith, I led digital strategy, later website work and due diligence connected with a major acquisition. I founded Pivot Summit, which secured more than $1 million in sponsorship, including Deakin University's major sponsorship, negotiated with Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander AO. I co-founded Runway, which raised $1.25 million through the Victorian Government's LaunchVic program.
Pivot Summit (Founder & CEO) and Runway Geelong (COO), 2017.
Photo: Geelong Advertiser
Earlier leadership 1998–2017
Founder and Managing Director, Digitalsmith 2012–2015
Founder and CEO, Pivot Summit 2015–2019
Co-founder, COO and Director, Runway 2016–2017
Owner and Head Coach, Summit Triathlon Coaching Jan 2022–present
Teaching Fellow, Deakin University Teaching at Deakin since 2022
Sessional Academic, Victoria University 2025 and 2026 · Intensive block model
Led a regional technology and innovation event; secured more than $1 million in sponsorship; brought Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to regional Australia for the first time; negotiated Deakin University's major sponsorship with Vice-Chancellor Professor Jane den Hollander AO.
The 2017 programme, with Steve Wozniak.
Startup incubator and accelerator that raised $1.25 million through the Victorian Government's LaunchVic program.
Led digital strategy, later website work and due diligence connected with a major acquisition. My marketing consultancy Crux created Catapult's original OptimEye and ClearSky identities.
Identity options for the OptimEye S5 lock-up. Artwork: Crux.
Created the original OptimEye and ClearSky identities
Digital strategy, later website work and due diligence
Marketing Director at Dexion, part of GUD Holdings (ASX: GUD); Technology Geelong director; senior roles across ASX, NASDAQ, NYSE and private-company settings, including Varian (now part of Agilent, NYSE: A), OfficeMax (formerly NYSE: OMX) and MYOB (formerly ASX: MYO). At ADP Employer Services (NASDAQ: ADP), I was Product Manager for Payline, which had a $23 million annual sales target.
Partnership development: made a senior-level introduction between AusTriathlon and Deakin in 2025 to explore coach-education opportunities, then handed the discussion over with context on both sides.
Funding: secured and acquitted local, state and federal grants for education and innovation.
Documents and contact
I want to bring that breadth and that standard to exercise science students at Western.
I am able to relocate and work on site at Campbelltown.
Dr Leighton Wells
PhD in Sport Science, Deakin University
leightonwells@gmail.com+61 418 519 906linkedin.com/in/leightonwells
HSE302 · 2024
HSE208 · T2 2026
HSE105 · 2026
HBS109 · 2026