How an Introverted Exercise Physiologist Came to Lead Regulation for Her Profession with Carly Ryan

Sep 21

Carly Ryan spent seven years as a clinical exercise physiologist before a job assessing accreditation applications took her somewhere she never pictured. That was thirteen years, five roles and an executive seat ago, and she now leads the regulatory function at Exercise & Sports Science Australia (ESSA). She says she fell into every one of those roles.

If you're an allied health professional around the seven-year mark, wondering where your clinical skills fit beyond treatment, Carly's move from EP into healthcare leadership shows what a career transition into regulation and professional standards actually involves. That includes the move to a desk job, the trade-offs of stepping back from hands-on work, and the introvert's dread of networking.

Great for folks interested in professional association work, professional standards, strategy and quality and safety workstreams.

We Explore

How Carly went from assessing accreditation applications to leading ESSA's regulatory function
How Carly gets career advice as a self-confessed introvert who dreads the cold open
How to see the transferable skills in your clinical work, using the lens Carly applies to professional standards
How Carly uses the goal-setting skills from clinical practice to get buy-in for system-level change
The trade-off Carly made moving from doing the work to leading it

Timestamps

01:54 Why Carly Chose a Career in Exercise Physiology

03:11 Building Confidence and Value in the EP Profession

14:24 Career Pivots: Moving Beyond Clinical Practice

18:58 Mentors, Networking and Creating Career Opportunities

24:51 From Clinical EP to Regulation and Professional Standards

28:45 Transferable Skills for Health Professionals

32:22 Transitioning from Clinical Work to Leadership

39:36 Leadership, Stakeholder Engagement and Listening

49:40 The Future of Exercise Physiology Career Pathways

54:47 Values, Burnout and Knowing When to Move On

59:00 Ethical Practice, Client Feedback and Better Healthcare

65:00 Career Mapping Support for Health Professionals

About Carly Ryan

Carly Ryan is an exercise physiologist and executive at ESSA, leading professional standards, university program accreditation, and ethics and disciplinary work. She is also a board director of the National Alliance of Self Regulating Health Professions (NASRHP). Seven years of clinical work in lifestyle programs, education and group exercise give her a practitioner's view of what regulation looks like on the ground.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-ryan-a4482192/
ESSA: https://www.essa.org.au
NASRHP: https://nasrhp.org.au

Career Cliniq Resources

Carly's roles only made sense once she was in them. StreamAhead maps where your interests and experience sit across the wider spectrum of healthcare work, so you can see your options before you fall into them. https://careercliniq.com/streamahead