Meet our Fitness Instructors
Della Cantafio - Director, Personal Trainer, and Fitness Instructor
Della, Burkwood's Fitness Director, is a certified personal trainer and group exercise instructor.
She had taught group exercise classes on and off for several years before coming to Burkwood in April 2000. When the new fitness facility opened, along with teaching exercise classes, she began working as a weight room attendant. After becoming certified as a group exercise instructor, she then received a personal trainer certification.
Della has been our Fitness Director since December of 2004. If you would like to set up a personal training session with Della or one of the other personal trainers, please call 730-2472.
Catherine Durham - Personal Trainer, Cycling Instructor, Nutrition Consultant
Catherine has been a certified Personal Trainer at Burkwood for 10 years. She is also a Certified Nutrition Consultant and a Certified Cycling Instructor, and she loves to compete in mini triathlons. Her favorite class to teach is Indoor Cycling.
I have trained a variety of clients from high school athletes to elderly people and it is a pleasure to help people reach their fitness goals!
Liz Allen, Nutritional Consultant
Liz holds a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics from JMU. She completed a dietetic internship after college through the Maryland Department of Health. Through her internship, she did rotations in varied clinical settings including Johns Hopkins Hospital where she completed a unit on weight managment. She has worked in local Richmond hospitals in a traditional clinical setting. She currently also serves as the staff nutritionist for Commonwealth Sports Medicine in Innsbrook. In addition to seeing clients for personal consults she leads nutrition classes which are focused on prevention and intentional choices to support an anti-aging lifestyle.
Liz offers a unique blend of traditional and alternative treatments for a holistic approach to health and fitness. She is able to offer testing for the resting metabolic rate which helps clients more effectively achieve thier fitness and weight loss goals. Liz stays busy keeping up with her husband, 5 children, and an active workout schedule! She enjoys whole foods, cooking, and teaching others to do the same. She is currently seeking cerifications with the American College of Sports Medicine as a Health Fitness Specialist. Liz is passionate about helping Americans make the choices that will keep them active, healthy, energetic, and enjoying life to the fullest and spends a great deal of her free time researching and learning how to be even more effective.
Mary Ellen Yates - Group Fitness Instructor
Mary Ellen is a AFAA certified group exercise instructor and she has been teaching for 2 years. She is also a certified consultant through the YMCA. Her other certifications are BTS Systems, Body Pump, and Joseph Pilates. She currently teaches Body Sculpting, pilates, and low impact aerobics. One of the best things she enjoys about teaching is how much she loves it and being able to see her students gaining positive results.
Maria Quintas-Herron - Cycling and Group Exercise Instructor
Maria has been a fitness instructor since 2003 and loves her fitness journey. She is certified with Schwinn (indoor cycling) and with IFA (International Fitness Association) as a Group classes instructor as well as a Personal Trainer. In March 2009 she became an Independent BeachBody Coach after undergoing a drastic change of nutrition and fitness routines.... and finally getting the results she was hoping for.
Maria is married and has 4 wonderful kids, the result of a very fortunate mixed family. She currently works full time for a local heavy equipment manufacturer in the Technical Manuals Department as well as a graphic designer.
Terry Barnes-Pirko - Fitness Instructor and Personal Trainer
Terry has been teaching at Burkwood since the old clubhouse days, before the wonderful fitness facility was constructed.
Terry's certifications include group fitness, personal trainer, as well as Pilates and Tai Chi. She is pleased with the renewed focus on functional fitness movements and seeks to help folks feel stronger in thier daily activities by working out in challenging yet safe ways.
Terry is happily married with two children.
Tom Cartwright - Personal Trainer, Fitness Instructor
Tom has been certified as a personal trainer since 2003. He holds certifications from International Sports Science Association, National Academy of Sports Medicine, and Apex Bodybugg fit pro. He has worked with sports teams at Weber State University, and has worked with the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Utah. Tom runs the youth fitness program, and teaches swim lessons. He is a certified lifeguard with Red Cross and BSA, as well as a water safety instructor.
Tom is an avid outdoorsman and likes to fish, camp, canoe, hike, road bike, and rock climb. He is active with the Boy Scouts as an Assistant Scoutmaster.
Linda Smithson - Massage Therapy
Linda has been a Hanover resident, and Burkwood member since 1984. She began her employment as a massage therapist for Burkwood in 2004. A Registered Nurse by profession, she is currently employed at Memorial Regional Medical Center, in the Birthplace Department. In 2002 she graduated from the American Institute of Massage and became a Nationally Certified Massage Therapist. She specializes in both sweedish and deep tissue massage as well as being certified in Infant, Pregnancy, and hot stone massage.
Linda has been married to John for 35 years and has 2 children. Her hobbies include the beach and traveling.
Linda is available by appointment only, her hours are during the weekdays but she is also available during the evening hours as well.
Robyn Wright - Group Fitness Instructor
Robyn Wright has been a Body & Soul instructor since 1999. She is nationally certified by the American Council on Exercise and receives continuing education credits quarterly through Body & Soul workshops. After teaching in Warrenton, VA for five years, she and her family relocated to Mechanicsville with her husband's job. Robyn started the first Body & Soul class in the Richmond area at New Hanover Presbyterian Church in the fall of 2005. Robyn has been teaching Body & Soul Cardio Strength classes at Cool Spring Rec Center for the past three years. Robyn lives in the Rural Point area of Hanover with her husband, Troy, and their four boys. She and her family are members of Burkwood.
Lisa Weldon-Pringle - Group Fitness Instructor
I have been a certified group fitness instructor and working at Burkwood since 2006. I am currently working on my Personal Training and Sports Nutrition certification. My favorite class is body sculpting and I like to consider myself a student led instructor because I am constantly looking for and learning new things to challenge not only the participants in my classes but myself as well. My husband Lee and I live in Hanover and have 3 daughters.
Dawn Nehr - Aquatics Instructor
My name is Dawn Neher and I am the Water Aerobics Instructor here at Burkwood. I am 35 years old, have a B.S. in chemistry from UCSD and have 2 beautiful children. Water aerobics started out as a neccessity for me back in 1999 because I dislocated my knee and it was the only form of exercise I could do. Well I loved water aerobics so much that I continued to participate in it throughout both my pregnancies and long after. I learned to incorporate many forms of exercise in my daily life and contribute my dedication to exercise and water aerobics to my 50 lb weight loss 3 years ago. A little over 2 years ago, an opportunity opened up to teach water aerobics at my local YMCA and I jumped in with both feet. Since January 2008, I have had the pleasure of teaching water aerobics at Burkwood and plan to continue for as long as possible. My favorite thing about water aerobics is that it can be for the young, the elderly, the injured, the baby on boarders, and anybody else who likes a lower impact but still high intensity workout.