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Our management and board have a wide range of skillls to ensure that the members and the public can have confidence that we have created a structure where highly skilled professionals have control over the activities of the association. The board will be responsible for all aspects of membership; publications; fees ; member services; daily operations; accounting and finance; legal contracts; staffing; management of association; liaison with other professional bodies and Government departments; resources; ethics, grievances, appeals and complaints from members of the Public. Each member of the Management team and Board of Directors is either a Pilates Teacher or a student of the Pilates Method.
MBChB
Moira is a Professor at the University of the West of Scotland having previously worked in Australia as a Consultant Physician in Endocrinology and became an Associate Professor in Sweden at the Karolinska Institute. She self describes as a “lifelong learner” and is currently enrolled in the doctoral programme in Philosophy at the University of St. Andrews.
Moira’s introduction to Pilates developed when she moved to Scotland and her interest in learning and teaching is invaluable to the development of professional recognition for Pilates teaching. She led a small team in a qualitative study of Pilates teachers which has been published as The Pilates teaching framework: Listening to voices from the teaching community.
Beverley is a Pilates and exercise teacher who enjoyed Pilates so much as a participant, that she’s trained as a teacher. She calls it her “happy place”. Through her company Shapesmith & Well, Beverley creates fad- free, easy-to-follow online Pilates and wellbeing programmes that help people to feel fitter, healthier, and happier.
Beverley said “I found Pilates 20 years ago and started teaching almost a decade ago. In that time, I’ve grown to understand more about Pilates, how it has developed globally and how it fits into the wider world of fitness in the UK. Prior to working in Pilates, I studied for an MA in telecommunications policy and worked in communications and policy-based roles. I hope to base my contributions to the PTA in the breadth of my work experiences.
I’m excited to help the Pilates Teacher Association to maintain and promote standards in Pilates education and practice that will help consumers and Pilates teachers alike.”
LLB Hons Dip LP
With over 25 years experience of corporate, commercial and governance law, Megan has also been an enthusiastic student of yoga and Pilates for more than 17 years and has been a full time teacher of both forms of mindful movement for the last 7 years. Prior to teaching, Megan worked full time as an IP/IT and commercial lawyer for a number of large corporate firms in Sydney, Australia and the UK.
Megan qualified as a Yoga teacher and a Pilates instructor (Mat/Reformer and Studio Pilates) through Tiaki Pilates and Yoga Wellington, New Zealand in 2011 and has completed post-qualification training in pre-natal/post-natal Pilates at Elixir in Sydney Australia plus Yoga for Kids and Families with Rainbow Kids Yoga.
She has also studied with Ana Forrest, Darren Rhodes, Sadie Nardini, Simon Park, Sarah Owens and Don Peers and most recently with BodyMindLife’s Noelle Connolly. In 2016 she completed her comprehensive Rehabilitation/Studio Pilates Certification with Polestar Pilates Australia studying directly under Polestar Educator and mentor Joanne Bezzina who was the Next Pilates Anytime Teacher 2017. Megan has continued to learn from internationally respected Pilates teachers including Courtney Miller, Olga Tamara, Blossom Leilani Crawford, Kathryn Ross-Nash and Amy Havens.
Megan is currently working towards Introductory Level Iyengar Yoga Teacher Training under Senior Level 3 teacher Helen Graham in Glasgow and is studying Complementary Therapies full time at City of Glasgow College.
Cara Hazelton has been teaching Pilates for nearly 20 years and has been a teacher trainer since 2014. A 3rd generation teacher rom Joseph Plates, she has more than 20,000 hours of hands-on teaching experience to guide you to become the best Pilates teacher or practitioner you can be. Cara’s Pilates expertise is met equally by her education in the field of human movement. A Master of Science in Kinesiology (MScKin) graduate you can trust that she teaches with the most recent science at her fingertips. Cara owns two fully equipped Classical Pilates studios and a large Classical Pilates teacher training organisation in Canada.
I don’t really have a favourite as the method works with my body to address its needs on a given day. That said, I always enjoy Open Leg Rocker on the Mat because it feels fantastic on the spine and is always so playful to execute.
Interested in movement and yoga since her teens, Roberta opened her own Pilates and functional movement studio in Bahrain in 2009. She joined the Pilates Teachers Association in 2016 and with specialisms in Insurance, Roberta joined the board at the beginning of 2019. As well as being a teacher trainer in Pilates, yoga, BOSU, BODYFLYING, freeFORM , BARRE she holds certifications in kinesiology, aromatherapy, reflexology, matrix rhythm therapy, barefoot science, pain management to name a few.
Apart from training in her studio on a daily basis, she is a keen golfer, runner and dance. Roberta is committed to working for all in the Pilates Community and developing professional standards of practice.
Steven Devine is a student of the Pilates system and a beneficiary of its life changing impact.
After receiving his PhD in Particle Physics in 2001, he worked with spin-out technology institutes both in Scotland and with CERN, Geneva.
He has over 25 years experience in Education in the Tertiary sector as well as in schools, where he devised the standards for the courses, developed and delivered resources, and written and implemented assessment standards including quality assurance processes. He has a wide range of experience in consulting have supported companies in their development and growth by raising capital and business development.
Having spent a life time in suits, he may now be spotted in sportswear with his navel to spine – all the time! (well, almost!)
Boomerang! I’ve got to work hard to control the different elements-enjoying the challenge.
Lesley has taken a particular interest in the development of standards in the fitness industry – specifically Pilates in the UK and Europe for many years. Her first fitness qualification was group exercise to music in 1989 and was introduced to Pilates based Matwork in the late 1990s. She subsequently retrained with a comprehensive school – Peak Pilates and completed the master’s programme for Comprehensive Pilates Teachers with The Pilates Center of Boulder in 2013. Workshops and continuing education include first Generation Teachers such as Mary Bowen, Lolita San Miguel and Jay Grimes and 2nd generation Teachers including, Blossom Leilani Crawford, Lori Coleman-Brown and Junghee Won. Non -Pilates education includes workshops in golf, running and back pain and UK fitness industry courses in Medical referral, L4 back pain, Assessor and Internal Verifier.
Lesley is the PTA representative at the CIMSPA Professional Standards Development group for Pilates based mat exercise and is currently a 2nd year Undergraduate at University of Strathclyde studying Psychology and Sport. She continues to teach Pilates based mat group exercise and 1-1 Comprehensive Pilates.
Lesley’s ultimate goal is to lead our body of members in gaining a formal professional recognition for the Comprehensive Pilates Teacher.