ABMP School Issues Forum

Featured Speakers

Jan Schwartz

Jan Schwartz is co-founder and president of Education and Training Solutions, a web-based elearning company that designs and hosts online courses. She has worked in education and training since 1988. Jan served as the Director of Education at the Desert Institute of the Healing Arts in Tucson, AZ and as an Executive Vice President of Education at Cortiva Institute.

Jan served as a Commissioner for the Commission on Massage Therapy Accreditation for five years and served as Chair of the Commission for three years. She was the Chair of the Commission when they were granted approval by the United States Department of Education and when the Commission developed the first accepted competencies for the field of massage therapy.

Jan is a founding member of the Academic Consortium for Complementary and Alternative Health Care (ACCAHC) and serves on the executive committee for that organization. She is also the co-chair of the Education Working Group. In addition, Jan contributed to the chapter, “Complementary, Alternative, and Integrative Healthcare Perspectives” in, Collaboration Across the Disciplines in Health Care, as well as the chapter on massage therapy for the Clinicians’ and Educators’ Desk Reference on Complementary and Alternative Healthcare.

Jan received her bachelor’s degree in Economics from Rutgers University and her master’s degree in Sustainable Entrepreneurship at Prescott College. The focus of this degree was in the area of distance education. The research she conducted for her thesis was on the potential for web-based learning in the fields of acupuncture, chiropractic and massage therapy. A portion of her thesis was published in the peer reviewed, International Journal of Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork.

Eric Brown

Eric Brown is a pioneer in the world of massage. With over 20 years of experience in the field, Eric has taught over 1,000 therapists in comprehensive college programs in Canada and thousands more in workshops and conference appearances.

He was a pioneer in the field of chair massage in Canada and was the first doing seated massage in the corporate market. Clients have included some of Canada’s top companies including IBM, Kelloggs, Dell, Levi Stauss, CIBC, BMO, Nortel, Toronto General Hospital, Nortel, WSIB, Workplace Health and Safety Board to name just a few.

Thousands of people have benefited from learning to do his unique style of effective easy to perform chair massage techniques. Eric has recently released three chair massage DVDs and will soon launch two textbooks: The Relax to the Max Guide to Chair Massage Techniques and Chair Massage Marketing 101.

A pioneer in online education, Eric launched BodyworkBiz.com in 2000 – a business and marketing resource for massage professionals. Tens of thousands of therapists and bodyworkers from around the world are regular readers of his monthly Marketing Tips Newsletter.
He continued his development of online resources on the web with the creation of Massage Therapy Radio as a tool to connect massage professionals with some of the most prominent thought leaders in the industry.

This was followed by the groundbreaking World Massage Conference in 2008 – the largest event in the history of massage with over 11,000 participants from around the
globe. This live streaming online conference, which is now a yearly event introduced massage therapists to an entirely new way of learning and interacting online.

His latest innovation is Thermal Palms, a soft alternative to hot stone massage, which has the potential to be one of the industry’s biggest modalities over the coming decade.
He has been featured in newspapers, regional and national television and radio and writes for massage publications around the world. He is a strong proponent for the popularization of massage and his greatest dream is to see touch become a positive social value.

Anne Williams, BFA, LMP, CHT

Anne is a licensed massage therapist, esthetician, certified reflexologist, clinical hypnotherapist, registered counselor, aromatherapist, spa consultant, author, and educator. As the director of education for Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP), she pursues her passion for massage education by developing support materials and resources for massage students, instructors, schools, and professional members.

Before joining ABMP, Anne worked as a massage therapist with a special focus on healthcare massage for people recovering from car accidents. She also worked as a massage instructor for eight years with an emphasis on curriculum development and program implementation for Ashmead College in Washington State. Anne offered a number of different continuing education programs including workshops on hot stone massage, aromatherapy, spa therapies, and reflexology. In 2004, she became Ashmead’s director of education and ran the education program at the Tacoma campus for three years. Anne loved the chance to understand all aspects of the educational program and also to learn how to balance the needs of the school as a business with the needs of students as learners.

Since Anne has been with ABMP, she has served on the Federation of State Massage Therapy Boards’ (FSMTB) test writing committee and developed ABMP’s Student Success Program and a wide range of resources for schools and instructors. She wrote the curriculum and implemented the “Instructors on the Front Lines” massage teacher training program for ABMP and acted as project coordinator and editor for a joint book project between ABMP and Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (LWW) titled Teaching Massage: Foundation Principles in Adult Education for Massage Program Instructors, which was published in October 2008. She published Spa Bodywork: A Guide for Massage Therapists with LWW in 2006 and articles for Massage & Bodywork magazine. When she is not writing or working at ABMP, she loves rock climbing, ice climbing, hiking, camping, trail running, biking, skiing, hanging out with friends, and anything that gets her out into Colorado’s beautiful countryside.

Les Sweeney

Les Sweeney, ABMP president, Nationally Certified in Therapeutic Massage (#505433-06), started at ABMP in 1994. His responsibilities have been wide-ranging, including oversight of massage-school relationships, student-member recruitment, government relations, data processing and database management. He served as ABMP executive vice president from 1999 to March 2006, when he was named president.

Prior to joining ABMP, Les gained association management experience at the Club Managers Association of America (CMAA) in Alexandria, Va. A graduate of the University of Virginia, he earned a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Colorado, Denver, and completed his massage therapy training at The Holistic Learning Center in Evergreen, Colo. He became nationally certified in therapeutic massage in 2006.