Power in Motion

Campus exercise class empowers community members with Parkinson's—as participants and students teach each other.

From the fall 2025 issue of Sacred Heart University Magazine

Key Highlights

• SHU’s Parkinson’s disease class is operated in partnership with Parkinson’s Body and Mind (PBM), a nonprofit that provides medically designed fitness programs across Fairfield County
• Participants often see significant improvements—PBM data shows 93% of attendees maintain or improve function, with some achieving dramatic gains through consistent effort
• This is the first community Parkinson’s exercise class supervised in a college environment with professional therapists, integrating safety, expertise and student involvement
• Students assist briefly through academic requirements, but many continue volunteering or interning through exercise science programs

By Melissa Ezarik

When Sacred Heart junior Katie Cronin arrived at the Pioneer Performance Center (PPC) to attend a Parkinson’s disease (PD) exercise class last spring, she was unsure what to expect—or even how to make small talk. But before long, she felt energized helping the class participants, and engaged in their lives and goals. Motivating one woman, for example, was an upcoming Disney vacation, where her wish was to have the strength to walk around the parks with her family.

Without a magic wand, participants with mobility goals like those of the Disney visitor dedicate themselves to work-outs that are far from easy while managing a condition that impacts movement, flexibility and balance.

Cronin got to know participants well. After helping in the three required sessions for Dr. Joshua Lander’s Neuro Control of Human Movement course, she kept returning to the PPC all semester. Many of the participants reminisce about their own school days, such as the onetime high school hockey player who now boxes to maintain his strength. “I was able to meet these amazing people and impact them in a meaningful way,” Cronin says.

According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, studies show exercise and physical activity can help maintain and improve both motor and non-motor Parkinson’s disease symptoms, including depression.

^{Forming Community: Parkinson's can feel isolating, so the exercise class offers a valuable opportunity to make connections}

“Parkinson’s comes from a lack of dopamine in the brain, and exercise fires it up,” explains Elaine Grant, executive director of Greenwich-based Parkinson’s Body and Mind (PBM), which launches and runs exercise and wellness programs, designed with medical professionals, at community organizations in Fairfield County. The nonprofit worked with Sacred Heart professors to bring a class to campus.

Volunteering consistently, Cronin found herself guiding shy first-time peers in conversation with PD participants. “I was able to help bridge the gap a bit. I started making some introductions,” she says. When she once missed a class due to car troubles after a track meet in Boston, participants noticed. “They were like, ‘Where were you last week? We missed you!’” Cronin recalls.

“This is the first community Parkinson’s exercise class supervised in a college setting with professional therapists, which brings a level of competence, an air of professionalism and also safety,” says Lander, a neurologic chiropractor and exercise scientist who earned an exercise science & nutrition master’s degree from SHU and is a physician with a specialty degree in neurology.

The class initially met in 2023 at the PPC, within SHU’s Center for Healthcare Education, and has always been free for PD participants. The class benefits both participants and student assistants—providing experiential learning and career exploration. And it exemplifies Sacred Heart’s vision of “cultivating a campus community that is recognized as caring and creative.”

Stronger Together

A SHU adjunct professor since 2010 whose medical practice is in Westport, Lander has had patients connected with PBM and has sent students to volunteer in local exercise classes. In 2022, he heard the organization was looking to expand into the Bridgeport/Fairfield area. A physical therapist then teaching at SHU also had students assigned to the organization’s Westport YMCA class to conduct assessments and help track how exercise might slow or halt PD, explains Grant. “She started getting exercise physiology colleagues involved.”

That led to a kickoff event organized by Eric Scibek, PPC’s clinical education coordinator and an associate clinical professor in the exercise science program.

Pioneer Performance Center Sport Scientist David Kell—an endurance coach, strength and conditioning specialist, and physical therapy assistant—currently oversees the PD class.

Students are generally there briefly for a course, but they can also be interns from Kell’s exercise science capstone class. “We look to provide clinical opportunities to see different aspects of fitness and exercise science. Many undergraduates are on track to be physical therapists,” he says.

Most PD participants can travel to class on their own. Kell will tell them, “You’re in the right spot, doing the right thing to create the best outcome.”

Twice-annual assessments at PBM’s YMCA locations have shown “93% of people either stay the same or get better,” says Grant, who first got involved in helping this population when her mother had Parkinson’s. The 7% assessing worse had experienced exercise disruptions, often after a fall. One participant, though, unhappy with her “sit-to-stand test” score, began doing 25 of these movements daily. “Six months later at her next assessment, her score had more than doubled,” Grant reports.

While Parkinson’s can feel very isolating, classmates often connect and form a community, she says.

Hands-On Learning

Student wins include the feel-good factor. “There’s a reward for providing the service, helping people take care of themselves,” notes Lander.

Adds Cronin: “Volunteering and giving back have always been super important to me, ever since I was little. Getting to make an impact on someone’s day means a lot.”

The experiential learning piece provides a more realistic picture of the work, Kell says. “A key thing is getting real-world individuals and real-world situations in front of our students. In labs, if we say, ‘Do this test on your classmate,’ there’s only so much applicability. But if you get someone in here with an actual condition like Parkinson’s, it’s more of a realistic picture. Now, we’re going from practice to working with the real deal.”

Some initial nerves are beneficial for safety, Kell says, but “after two, three, four sessions, [students] start to understand why [participants] have this difficulty. Or they start to challenge participants. We help people realize they can do more than they think they can.”

If a participant struggles, say, to stand up, adds Kell, students learn to encourage and guide, perhaps saying, “This happens; this is how we get through it.”

Because of the class, Lander knows of students who decided to pursue careers in neurological care. Students are curious, and they also see the potential reward. “Neuroscience is a very hot topic,” Lander notes. “It fascinates people but also scares students sometimes. It has the reputation of being difficult, and it is, because we’re still figuring out how this beautiful machinery works.”

The exercise class reflects SHU’s care for the surrounding community, Lander adds. “It shows the commitment to student engagement with the community and that Sacred Heart is committed to providing students with the best possible learning experience.”

Reaching Further

In public health, a socioeconomic divide often exists. With fewer resources, becoming aware of a class or getting to it can be barriers. The next steps for the Parkinson’s exercise class at Sacred Heart involve expansion, including bringing in a more diverse group. “That’s the goal for this year: What do we need to do to make this sustain-able, make it grow—and what does growth mean to us?” says Matthew Moran, director of SHU’s exercise science program. Ideas include:

• Adding more classes, perhaps at different times of day
• Creating an immersive camp-like experience during summer semesters
• Obtaining funding for a graduate assistant to run the class and lead expansion efforts

The overall goal is to bring the opportunity “to those who can benefit from it most,” Moran adds. “This program is one of a long line of programs Sacred Heart has created for the local community. We’re not just pioneering; we’re staying true to our mission at Sacred Heart.”

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While the PD program is free, community members can access the Pioneer Performance Center at Sacred Heart for a variety of fee-based services, including: personal training, testing for endurance athletes (such as lactate threshold and running gait analysis), sport-specific testing (for power, strength and mobility), retuning-to-sport testing (for injured athletes) and body composition testing.