For nearly 30 years, I dedicated my career to helping elite athletes perform at the highest level. As a strength and conditioning coach and sport science leader at Michigan State University, I had the privilege of working alongside Hall of Fame coaches, developing hundreds of professional athletes, and contributing to championship teams.

Performance wasn’t just my profession—it was my passion.

But long before thyroid disease became part of my own life, I experienced a moment that would stay with me for years.

As a walk-on football player at Michigan State, I remember sitting in a Sunday team meeting after we suffered another loss. 

Coach George Perles addressed the continued criticism of our team, and specifically of Coach Perles himself.   

As the losses began to mount, a prominent local sports columnist repeatedly criticized Coach Perles for being overweight. Most people assumed they knew the whole story.

Then, during that team meeting, Coach Perles addressed it directly.

He quietly pulled down the collar of his shirt and revealed the scar across the base of his neck.

“What they don’t know is that I had my thyroid taken out.”

The room fell silent.

At the time, I didn’t fully understand the significance of what he had just shared. It was the first time I had ever heard someone speak personally about their thyroid. I never imagined that nearly two decades later, I would be facing my own thyroid cancer diagnosis and learning firsthand what life without a thyroid really meant.

In the summer of 2009, I discovered a lump in my neck. Just weeks later, I underwent a total thyroidectomy after being diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer. 

From that day forward, rebuilding my health was no longer something I coached. It became something I had to live.

Living without a thyroid taught me lessons no textbook, certification, or coaching experience ever could. I learned firsthand what it feels like to struggle with energy, metabolism, recovery, body composition, and the emotional challenge of not feeling like yourself.

There was one advantage I had. I understood performance. I understood how the body adapts. I understood strength training, nutrition, recovery, and the science behind rebuilding human performance.

For the first time in my life, those two worlds came together.

My career taught me how to build elite performance. My thyroid cancer taught me how to rebuild it.

Today, my mission is simple. I help people move beyond their diagnosis by reclaiming their strength, restoring their energy, rediscovering their confidence, and ultimately…

Becoming themselves again.

Advanced Nutrition & Wellness Coaching Coursework — NASM

Thyroid Cancer Survivor

Professional expertise. Personal experience.

For more than 30 years, I’ve helped elite athletes maximize performance through evidence-informed training, nutrition, recovery, and sport science.

After becoming a thyroid cancer survivor, I realized those same principles could help people facing a different kind of performance challenge.

Today, I combine decades of experience in elite athletics with firsthand experience living without a thyroid to help people rebuild their energy, metabolism, strength, body composition, and confidence—ultimately helping people become themselves again.

This isn’t about chasing quick fixes or another restrictive diet.

It’s about helping your body perform the way it was designed to.

People living with Hashimoto’s

People with Hypothyroidism

Thyroid Cancer survivors

People living without a thyroid

Anyone who feels like they’ve lost the person they used to be