Mary Ann has extensive experience working with older adults as a member of the Training and Encouraging Senior Activity (TESA) team. Nationwide TESA workshops, sponsored by the Alliance for Physical Activity and Recreation (APAR) and the CDC (Center for Disease Control), are for older adults who are interested in becoming more regularly physically active. Workshops include learning about and experiencing heart healthy activities, muscle healthy activities (including balance and mobility exercises), goal setting, overcoming barriers to physical activity, and nutrition. Mary Ann is also involved with Senior Games on the local and national level. She is a personal trainer for several athletes who are 55+, encouraging and supporting them to continue playing sports they love or to learn to play sports they had never had the opportunity to do earlier in their lives. Mary Ann is also a coach for a 65+ women’s volleyball team who plans to compete in the Colorado Senior Games in 2008. 

Mary Ann focuses her research, writing, and public speaking on the behavioral aspects of health promotion in the prevention & management of chronic disease. Specifically, she studies how to overcome barriers to a physically active lifestyle for older adults.
Topics of special interest are:

1. Understanding what it is like be ‘older’ and physically active
2. How to best support older adults’ discovery and maintenance of a “physically active self” through the later years
3. The role that provider communication plays in the likelihood of older adults feeling physically and emotionally safe in physical activity settings

How culture may influence interactions in physical activity and health care settings.

The philosophy that will underlie all physical activity programming at Palisades will be that of safety first. ‘Safety first’ means that physical safety will be first and foremost. Adaptations based on restrictions that residents may have due to chronic disease and/or acute illness or injury will be made. ‘Emotional safety’ will also be important. Often learning new things may be difficult, challenging, and even embarrassing. Our goals are:

1. To have every resident be treated with utmost respect
2. To meet each person “where they are” and provide the support needed to have success (and FUN) being physically active
3. To never-never be patronizing or to have any other goal than what is best for the Palisades resident in mind

Physical Activity Programming will include:

1. Mary Ann will offer a course for Palisade’s residents called the “Secrets of Stamina” where participants will explore how their bodies feel and how selected activities, both physical in nature and not, can help people discover how to have more energy to do the things they want to do.

1. Mary Ann will also teach a course called “All’s Well” where she and her students from UCCS will provide a variety of activities for Palisade’s residents to sample. Residents will receive up-to-date health information that students are learning in their classes; students will learn from Palisade’s residents about how to deliver health information and physical activity programming to older adults in safe and effective ways. Intergenerational learning such as this has proved to be invaluable for all participants. 

1. Mary Ann will also be involved in determining program offerings and selecting instructors for the variety of classes that will be offered at Palisades. Palisades will strive to provide the most respectful, qualified instructors for activities such as: dance, Pilates, Yoga, Tai Chi, water exercise, among others.

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