Who We Are
The Personal Trainer Development Center team includes fitness, marketing, and publishing professionals with decades of experience in our specialties. We combine the skills we honed at some of the world’s top brands to bring you the most complete and authoritative career guidance in the fitness industry.
Jonathan Goodman
Jon launched the Personal Trainer Development Center in 2011 with the goal of bringing his fellow fitness professionals the information, support, and business guidance they needed but couldn’t find anywhere else. He published Ignite the Fire, the first of his 11 books for personal trainers, in 2012; and founded the Online Trainer Academy, the first-ever certification for online fitness and nutrition coaches, in 2016. Originally from Toronto, Jon spends his winters traveling the world with his wife Alison and son Calvin. They’ve lived in 10 countries, including Mexico, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Thailand, Greece, and Montenegro.
Alex Cartmill
Alex has worn a lot of hats since he joined the PTDC in 2014 as an intern while he was still training clients. The biggest one began in 2016, when he got in on the ground floor of the Online Trainer Academy. He’s overseen the operation ever since, and now manages a team of eight coaches and mentors. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his dog Charlie.
Amber Reynolds
Amber is an OTA Level 2 graduate, OTA coach, podcast production manager, and our team’s gifting guru. When she’s not helping students, she’s running her own online personal training business and managing the chaos of a toddler and three rescue dogs.
Avigayil Basser
Avigayil not only has the longest title in PTDC history, she’s the only full-time staffer who’s trained to beat people up. She currently applies her BJJ skills at home in Toronto, where she and her husband tag-team against their two kids.
Joey Bene
Joey’s life changed at 12, when he stumbled across a copy of Photoshop. He’s been designing ever since. After surviving a detour into accountancy, he joined the PTDC in 2019, where he learned to say “brand” at least three times an hour and lose to Jon at basketball. He lives in Toronto with his family.
Jason Maxwell
Jason studied to be a rocket scientist, but quickly decided his future was in fitness. After building a multiple-six-figure fitness business, he joined the Online Trainer Academy in 2019 to create the OTA Level 2 curriculum. Originally from a tiny Canadian town, he currently resides in Toronto, but in the past has lived off the beaten path in Malta, Ukraine, Slovenia, Sicily, and Nicaragua.
Jerilyn Covert
Jerilyn is a writer, editor, and copywriter with more than 15 years of experience in publishing. She’s written hundreds of articles for Men’s Health (where she was an editor for more than 10 years), Women’s Health, Runner’s World, ONE37pm, and many more. She joined the PTDC in 2018. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and their three cats.
Alina Paredes
Andrea Maxwell
Buddy Hammon
Carin Timskog
Chloe Shovein
Christa Baker
Jasneet Jhinger
Jeff Hoehn
Jim Gazzale
Joe Dowdell
Jon Vlahogiannakos
Kaye Otis
Katie Prendergast
Misch Parsotham
Nelao Nengola
Ren Jones
Senka Stevanovic
Sven Drumev
Swati Gupta
Tanvir Hasan
Yegor Adamovich
