For 25 years, Nick Cucuzzo Ph.D. has been involved with fitness, wellness and exercise after the method of Joseph Pilates. As a wellness consultant and exercise specialist, he has been employed in various areas of preventive medicine.  Nick has worked with: adults in fitness programs, obese children, substance abusers, stress patients, and severely burned children, in addition to mentoring university students in their internships and practicums.  He danced professionally for 14 years and Nick is now available for private sessions/consults in studio or at home.

Education

Nick holds a Ph.D. and a dual masters; one from the University of Houston in Exercise Science, the other in environmental science and engineering from Manhattan College in New York City .  He was awarded a full graduate stipend from the Florida State University to obtain his doctoral degree in Movement Science. His dissertation study was carried out at the Medical College of Georgia's Preventive Medicine Institute under a grant from the National Institutes of Health in Washington , D.C.   The study focused on the effects of behavior modification in a structured exercise program vs. lifestyle education on selected physiological and psychological variables in obese minority girls ages 7-11.  Nick has attended university and professional language schools in Italy, Greece, Australia, Mexico, and Scandinavia .

Performing Artist   
 As a dancer Nick trained with City Ballet of Houston under Margo Marshall and danced in the southwest USA and northern Europe. He trained with masters teachers such as: Frederick Franklin, Anna-Marie Holmes, Luis Fuente, and the late: Robert Joffrey, Sasha Minz, and George Zorich.  While living in Scandinavia as an artist-in-residence, he became conversational in Norwegian.  He then traveled to Florence, Italy to learn the Italian language and study Cecchetti ballet technique. Upon his return to the USA , he performed with the Houston Grand Opera company during its nationally televised PBS premiere season at the Wortham Center dancing on stage aside Placido Domingo in Verdi's Opera, "AIDA". 

Experience

In addition to lecturing and conducting research at Florida State Univ, he acted as associate director of the successful university-based adult wellness program for three years.  It was during this time that he became the keynote lecturer and acting consultant for the State of Florida Department of Education's nutrition education and wellness program. In 1997 he joined Galveston ’s Shriners Hospital for Children under a grant from the National Institute for Disabilities, Rehabilitation and Research. Dr. Cucuzzo contributed to the Shrine's efforts of creating a model pediatric burn patient’s rehabilitation program by directing the establishment of a Children's Wellness Center . The center took an interdisciplinary and holistic approach to improving a burned child quality of life by increasing their levels of regular, purposeful physical activity which included classical Pilates Reformer and Cadillac work. As a visiting professor in the College of Health and Human Performance’s, Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida, he taught Pilates mat exercise certified through  New York City's Physical Mind Institute. Currently he teaches at John Gossett's Pilates Concepts of Houston and James Harren's Pilates Houston.

Future Aspirations

Nick's future aspirations include achieving optimal wellness and mentoring, educating, and counseling others in the same via physical activity and Pilates exercise. He hopes to publish literary and scholarly works, extending his interests to the national and international arenas.