Tasuma Goodwin

About Laura Goodwin, ACSM Certified Exercise Physiologist B.S

Laura Goodwin has over thirty years of certified professional fitness experience, where she has been honored for her service both in and out of the gym.

Career Highlights

From 1989 to 1991, Laura held the position of Exercise Physiologist at Herald Square Fitness, Inc. In this position, she monitored phase IV cardiac rehabilitation programs, including telemetry, readings of EKGs, and the development of patient/client protocols.

Laura’s path next led her to Salomon Brothers Executive Fitness Center, where, as Assistant Manager and Fitness Specialist, she helped design the 7 World Trade Center program. At Salomon, she trained top–level executives from fortune 500 companies and performed fitness evaluations and exercise tolerance stress tests.

Laura faced one of her biggest career challenges when she met a young investment banker client called “The Central Park Jogger.” Laura is mentioned in Trisha Meili's book ‘I am the Central Park Jogger” Through tough training and a warm approach, Laura was able to assist her client through a sometimes tricky rehabilitation.

She left Salomon Brothers to move on to Home Box Office’s (HBO) Corporate Fitness Center. As Fitness Manager/Specialist at HBO, Laura created a company-wide health and fitness program of seminars, including health fairs, in which over 2500 employees received fitness evaluations and consultations.

While at HBO, Laura also worked as a Strength and Conditioning Coach at Columbia University and instructed Olympic lifting technique and Plyo- metrics.

It was in 1998 that Laura followed her dream to leave corporate America to design and manage her own full-service 14,000-square-foot Fitness Facility: The Training Academy, Inc., located in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York. Opened in 1999, the academy served over 1500 members for over five years.

In 2003, Laura was honored with several awards, including Crain’s New York “Top 40 Business Owners Under 40” award.

Unfortunately, the Academy was impacted by the 911 tragedy and was closed two years later. It was located only 8 miles from “Ground Zero.”

After closing the academy, Laura re-entered the corporate workforce in late 2004 as an Exercise Specialist at the CORE Club, a billionaire social club at 56th St in Manhattan, New York. In 2006, she was promoted to Fitness Manager and Gym Design Specialist.

In 2009, Laura moved to Rhode Island and became the Fitness and Wellness Director at Healthtrax in the Warwick Care New England Wellness Center.

In 2014, Laura opened a private studio space called “EmpowerRI” Wellness, located in historic Pawtuxet Village, Rhode Island. Laura continues to work virtually. Headquartered from her studio, Laura works with private clients while also working with some of Rhode Island’s top fitness companies.

EmpowerRI just received a contract to provide fitness programs to all nine local Senior Centers. Laura is also teaching a virtual college course on “Wellness” at College Unbound. College Unbound is an innovative, degree-granting college for adults who have faced barriers to completing their Bachelor's degree. CU specializes in getting students on a path to a degree, keeping them focused on that goal, and supporting them in every way necessary to achieve it.

Laura also lectures regularly to the international Corporation BD Becton, Dickinson, and Company, from “Racial, social justice” to “How to find stillness and calm in Chaos.”