Tammy
Petersen
Founder and
Managing Partner
 Tammy Petersen is the Founder and
Managing Partner for the American Academy of Health and Fitness. She
has written two books on older adult fitness and designed corresponding
training programs. SrFit™ is used nationwide as the textbook for a
college based course for personal trainers who wish to work with Baby
Boomers and beyond. SrFit is also the basis for an advanced training
home study course that qualifies for up to 22 contact hours of CEU
credit with the major personal trainer certification organizations and
24 hours with the athletic training Board of Certification. Functionally Fit™, through on-line trained certified nurse aides,
reaches the chronic long-term care and assisted living patient to
provide daily functional strength training as an accepted and expected
part of the daily care plan. She has also co-created two other
programs. JrFit™ is an advanced training home study course that focuses
on youth strength training and nutrition that that qualifies for up to
22 contact hours of CEU credit with the major personal trainer
certification organizations and 24 hours with the athletic training
Board of Certification. Move More, Eat Better – YOU Matter!™ is a
lifestyle change course for the general population that focuses on
exercise/activity, diet/nutrition, stress and change. Tammy’s
educational background includes Bachelor of Science degrees in
marketing and economics from Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg,
Kansas. She holds a Master of Science in Education in the area of
health and fitness, with an emphasis in geriatrics, from the University
of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. She is an author for Personal Training on
the Net. Additionally, her articles have appeared in IHRSA’s Club
Business for Entrepreneurs, Personal Fitness Professional, Club
Industry’s Fitness Business Pro, AFAA’s American Fitness
and OnSite Fitness.
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More...
My husband is an Internist
and Geriatrician. Unhappy with partners that did not share his passion
for working with seniors, he started his own practice and now he also
manages the practices of five other providers who strictly serve the
geriatric population. Working with him over the years as the
group’s Executive Director, I was responsible for everything from
credentialing with insurance companies, to billing, to working with
patients in a customer service role and at the clinic. I also attended
conferences like the American Medical Directors Association with my
husband and spent time in skilled nursing facilities. This gave me
experience and contacts in many areas.
Prior to the opening of my
husband’s geriatric practice, and before taking a break to raise
three children, I was employed as a credit and fraud analyst for Mobil
Oil. And later I worked as a manager for DST, a large company that
provided financial and management services for the majority of mutual
funds and annuities in the United States. After deciding to become an
around the clock mom, I worked on a volunteer basis to raise awareness
of the need for retirement and assisted living facilities in addition
to our community’s long-term care facility. Beverly Enterprises,
one of the nation’s largest nursing home corporations, enlisted
my help in construction of a BBOP (Beverly Business Opportunity Plan).
Statistical market analysis of surrounding communities, along with
surveys of local businesses, resulted in a 300-page document that
guided development of a proposal to corporate officers. That proposal
suggested expansion of the existing nursing home campus to include an
assisted living facility, daycare center and fitness center.
This project made me
realize what a need there was for people to rally for our seniors (and,
as fate would have it, this is also when my husband realized he needed
an executive director!). I was extremely busy for a few years, but I
went back to school to get the education that I needed to meet my goal
of making a difference in the lives of older adults. I feel that I now
have a background and perspective that allows for a unique opportunity
to design programs that can help bring about the cultural changes we so
desperately need for older adults at all levels of health and
independence. I also believe that I can use much of this same
experience to build a bridge between the medical and fitness industries
that will benefit people of all ages—including youth. So I
decided to put my knowledge to work and founded the American Academy of
Health and Fitness.
The missions of AAHF are:
(1) Through correspondence course, workshops and website, provide
advanced training and education for Certified Personal Trainers who are
serious about ensuring safe and effective programs for the mature adult
and youth. (2) Link the fitness and medical communities’
proactive health efforts via a lifestyle change program for
physicians’ patients. And, (3) Provide easily accessible,
relevant on-line training for Certified Nurses Assistances/Aides that
focuses on increasing the functionality of nursing home residents.
I also want to help insure
that the job of personal training grows into a true allied health
profession and I would like my website and consequently the American
Academy of Health and Fitness, to be the "portal" of successful aging
across the gamut for the personal trainer. Personal trainers will find
the AAHF to be a valuable resource that provides access to training
programs, tools from other industry experts, industry news, and links
to an extensive list of resources. My dream is for personal trainers to
associate my name with successful aging like they do Phil
Kaplan’s for successful business or Wayne Westcott’s with
strength training—and to deserve that distinction.
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