Conference 2016 Speaker Biographies
Tim Anderson, BSc, CSCS
Tim Anderson is a co-founder of Original Strength, and has worked in the health and fitness industry for almost 20 years. In that time, Tim has had the privilege of learning from some of the most gifted leaders in the fitness industry. As a movement restoration specialist, Tim has a passion for helping people regain the bodies they were meant to have through remembering how to move. For more information, please visit www.originalstrength.net.
John Berardi, PhD, CSCS
John Berardi is a founder of Precision Nutrition, and is an advisor to Apple, Equinox, Nike and Titleist. He has columns on Livestrong and The Huffington Post, and was recently selected as one of the 20 smartest fitness professionals in the world. To date, Berardi and his Precision Nutrition team have coached over 30,000 trainers and coaches through the renowned Precision Nutrition Level 1 and Level 2 Certification programs. For more information, please visit www.precisionnutrition.com.
Diana Bereas, CAIB, CRM
Diana Bereas is a senior marketer at PBL Insurance Brokers in Toronto, practising in the firm’s Commercial Insurance and Professional Liability segments. She regularly provides coverage advice and support to colleagues and policyholders in a broad range of areas, including commercial general liability, commercial property and professional liability insurance. Diana’s 15 years of industry experience enable her to provide unique insight to her insurance industry clients. Her enthusiasm for working with people to deliver solutions and peace of mind is contagious. For more information, please visit www.pblinsurance.com.
Laura Berry, BSc, CPTN-CPT, CSIA Level 3, CSCF Level 2
Laura Berry has been involved in fitness for the past 20 years. She is a fitness instructor, alpine ski coach and, for the last five years, a licensed owner of Mommy and Baby Fitness Mid Toronto. As the mother of three small children, pre and post-natal fitness has become her passion and focus. For more information, please visit www.mommyandbabyfitness.com.
Tanya Caruana, MBA, RHN
Tanya Caruana has a passion for healthy living. She is an honours graduate from the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition and owner of Nutrition by Tanya where she works with clients in helping them achieve their health and wellness goals. Tanya is also a frequent contributor to Mirror Friendly, a site dedicated to health and fitness, and a guest lecturer at Goodness Me. For more information, please visit www.tanyanutrition.com.
Michael Chapman, E-RYT 200, CPTN-CPT.M, CPTN-CYS
Mike Chapman is owner of the Breathe Into Motion Yoga Studios. He’s an Experienced Registered Yoga Teacher (E-RYT) and a Registered Yoga School Director (RYS) with the Yoga Alliance, a Certified Personal Trainer with Merit (CPTN-CPT.M), a Certified Yoga Specialist (CPTN-CYS) and a CPTN Course Conductor. Mike has created the BIM® Yoga System, which has been recognized by medical professionals for its physical therapeutic value and by CPTN Members for its value in athletic conditioning. For more information, please visit www.breatheintomotion.com.
Mike Demeter, BPHE, CFA, CMT, PICP™ 3, Biosignature Practitioner, FST, PTS
Mike Demeter has been in the fitness industry for over 30 years. As the senior trainer with GoodLife Clubs of Canada for over 25 years, Mike has enjoyed an array of clients from professional athletes and physique competitors to stressed executives, rehab clients and the physically challenged. Mike’s passions reside in working with the midlife makeover crowd and physique competitors with much time spent alternating between the two. When asked, Mike’s life mantra is, "I know this much, because I care this much."
Brian Grasso, Dipl Fitness Management
Brian Grasso is the founder and former CEO for the International Youth Conditioning Association and current CEO for the Mindset Performance Institute. For 18 years, he worked as a Performance Coach with Olympic, professional and National Team athletes from around the world, as well as more than 20,000 young athletes through his long-term athlete development model. For his unique and inspiring work in the fitness industry, Brian has been featured in media outlets such as Newsweek, The New York Times, ESPN and ABC News.
Karsten Jensen, MSc, CPTN-CPT.M, CHEK Practitioner L2, CHEK HLC L3
A periodization coach and expert, Karsten Jensen has helped world-class and Olympic athletes from 26 different sports since 1993. Many of his athletes have won Olympic medals, European Championships, World Championships and ATP Tournaments. Karsten is the first strength coach to create a complete system of periodization, The Flexible Periodization Method – the first complete method of periodization dedicated to holistic, individualized and periodized (H.I.P.) training programs. Karsten shares all aspects of The Flexible Periodization Method with his fellow strength coaches and personal trainers through the Flexible Periodization Method certifications and workshops. For more information, please visit www.yestostrength.com.
Angela Jervis-Read, BA, CYT
Angela Jervis-Read has been immersed in the world of yoga since 1998. She leads international teacher trainings and retreats in anatomy, meditation, as well as the yin and vinyasa traditions. She currently works as a professor of the Yoga Teacher Training Program at George Brown College. Angela’s background in gymnastics as well as her degree in philosophy, from McMaster University, complements and shapes her stimulating and thoughtful approach to teaching yoga. For more information, please visit www.angelajervisread.com.
Igor Klibanov, BA
Igor Klibanov was selected as one of the top five personal trainers in Toronto by the Metro News newspaper, and is the author of a book called STOP EXERCISING! The Way You Are Doing it Now. In 2010 he founded Fitness Solutions Plus, which provides personal training as well as fitness education. For more information, please visit www.fitnesssolutionsplus.ca.
Marc Lebert, BA, CPT, NLP Practitioner
Marc Lebert is the owner of Lebert Fitness, a global leader in innovative fitness products. He is also a Fitness Club owner (Fitness NATION® Mississauga), Black Belt NLP Practitioner, Reebok ONE Expert Contributor, International Presenter and board advisor of the Mindset Performance Institute. Marc was the Silver Lining Entrepreneur of the Year, named Top 100 Fitness Entrepreneurs in the Industry and winner of the 2015 NEOS International Personal Trainer of the Year. For more information, please visit www.lebertfitness.com.
Ross O’Donnell, BA, CPT
Ross O’Donnell is president of Fitness Kickboxing Canada Inc. (FKCI) and oversees operation of its certifications programs and CEC courses across Canada. He is the host of the TV show “MMA Hot Seat,” an international fitness and martial arts presenter, a fitness columnist with over 300 published articles and 15 instructor-training manuals to his credit, and author of The Ultimate Fitness Boxing & Kickboxing Workout. Among the many leadership roles he plays, Ross is also a professional MMA coach. For more information, please visit www.fitnesskickboxingcanada.ca.
Melissa Putt, BA, CPTN-CPT
Melissa Putt is the owner of Healthy Habits Nutrition and Fitness Consulting Inc. for the past 27 years. Throughout her career she has trained in fascial normalization modalities including Somatherapy, Cranial Sacral, Thai massage and Fascial Fitness. Her mantra is to change posture through fascial release is the root of permanent physical change. For more information, please visit www.healthyhabits.ca.
David Sandler, MSc, ACSM-HFD, ACSM-HFI, CISSN, CSCS,*D; FNSCA, FISSN, RSCC,*D
David Sandler has been a fitness industry and strength and conditioning coach and consultant for more than 25 years. Along with more than 450 lectures worldwide and more than 400 articles in nutrition, supplementation, power, strength and fitness training, David currently enjoys appointments with several organizations performing R&D and Business Development, developing new sports supplements and helping people transform their lives. He has been the lead exercise and sports physiologist on more than 45 episodes of network television for several popular TV shows and series.
Krista Scott-Dixon, PhD
With nearly 20 years of experience in adult education and curriculum design, Krista Scott-Dixon (or “KSD”) is the intellectual powerhouse behind PN’s coaching program development. Once the “kid picked last for every team,” Krista sees health and fitness as pathways to a bigger goal: changing people’s lives. Krista is the author of several books and dozens of academic publications, and inspires the loyal readers of her groundbreaking women’s weight training website Stumptuous. For more information, please visit www.precisionnutrition.com.
Roland Semprie, D.SCENAR, MNLP, MTET, MHT, MES, EST, BA
Roland Semprie is a co-founder and partner of D2A, Direct to Athlete, the premier sport nutrition, marketing and lifestyle company, and co-founder/president & CEO Longevity Clinic Toronto. He was the co-host of Slice TV’s Re-Vamped, and has made several appearances as a fitness and nutrition expert on many of the major TV networks in Canada (Global TV, CHCH, City TV, HGTV) as well as on radio stations (Flow 93.5, Toronto1, KJOH), newspapers (Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Toronto Sun, National Post), and magazines (Cambo-Russian Sports and Fitness Magazine, Toronto Life, Fashion Magazine, SWAY and Flare).
Kathy Smart, RNC, RSNA, PTS, HTC
Kathy Smart is a registered holistic nutritionist who wrote the best-selling cookbook Live The Smart Way; a Cordon Bleu approved chef and is best known as North America’s gluten-free expert. In 2015, Kathy launched the much-anticipated Live The Smart Way Expo, her personally branded Canada-wide consumer Expo, which is now the largest health and wellness expo in Canada, expanding to ten cities across the country. Active in the community, Kathy has also been a fitness trainer for Special Olympics Canada. For more information, please visit www.kathyissmart.com.
Nick Tsaggarelis, BKin, DC, DAc, MEd
Nick Tsaggarelis has been managing the health and performance of professional and recreational athletes, “A” list celebrities, elite law enforcement and military personnel for over 15 years. He continues to lecture around the globe on the integration of rehabilitation strategies and physical medicine modalities such as Acupuncture and Dry Needling, Chiropractic Techniques, Soft Tissue Therapies, Rehabilitation Strategies, and Kinesiology Taping for the management of sports injuries, movement disorders and performance optimization. For more information, please visit www.drnick.ca.
Janis Williams, BRec, BEd, CPTN-CYS, YTT 200
Janis Williams is owner and instructor of Fox Hill Yoga in Kentville, Nova Scotia. She has had a solid daily yoga practice for over ten years, and has been teaching for five years. Her focus is the challenging Ashtanga series, but teaches classes and workshops across Nova Scotia in all styles. She also instructs the CPTN-CYS courses in Atlantic Canada.
Alwyn Wong, BSc, DC
Alwyn Wong has been involved in the health and fitness industry for over 20 years. As author of The Kick Acid Diet®, he has provided nutritional services for individuals and teams, focusing on long-term fat loss and improved athletic performance. Clinically, he has combined his experience with professional athletes bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts with the latest in scientific research to present a non-biased view of health and performance.