Graduate furthers her reach

 

Suzanne Kennedy

UWS graduate and Director of PilatesWorks at Emu Plains, Suzanne Kennedy really knows how to stretch – her time that is!

While continuing to build her business and career, Suzanne is currently completing her PhD at UWS, focusing on research in the area of exercise behaviour in chronic low back pain.

Suzanne founded PilatesWorks Exercise Physiology & Rehabilitation Clinic in Emu Plains in 2003 to meet local demand for pilates and personal training. However, the business has since transformed into one that primarily services clientele with musculoskeletal injury (particularly low back pain) and metabolic disease.

“It was this shift in my business that prompted me to go to university and up-skill myself and further my clinical knowledge,” says Suzanne.

“As my expertise in low back pain rehabilitation has become known our clinic has flourished. I currently have a staff of 13 people to service our local community.”

Following her passion and developing her professional knowledge at university, Suzanne says that UWS has provided her with opportunities that she never would have envisaged four years ago. 

“I think the best thing about my experience at UWS is the support of the academic staff within the School of Science and Health. It is an amazing thing to have the opportunity to work with such passionate and caring people with brilliant minds.

They have mentored and encouraged me to stretch and push myself beyond what I thought were my limits, and always understood that I juggle many commitments – business, family and study.”

Suzanne is the first to admit that working towards a PhD was the furthest thing from her mind when she began her undergraduate study, but maintains that it is the ongoing support from her lecturers and supervisors that helped her through her academic journey.

“My degree has opened doors to career paths that I might never have entertained when I first started. Who knows where this will lead to in the future?”