About Stacy

Hi! I am originally from Connecticut, USA. My husband Denny and I have lived overseas for nearly twenty years. We have a son Sullivan, born in Scotland and a daughter Nola, born in Australia. We have proudly called Perth, Western Australia home since 2010 and became dual citizens as a family in 2015.

A Bachelor of Science in Exercise Physiology and Human Movement has provided me with the opportunity to explore a vast range of sport and fitness related careers around the world. I am fortunate to have found a way to share my passion for physical education to both young and old in every community we have lived.

Australia was where I discovered that being a strong swimmer was commonplace but swim lessons don’t always go hand in hand with drowning prevention. My young children were enrolled in traditional swim lessons which are most commonly offered in communities. As parents we were unaware of any opportunities to learn survival swim or self rescue skills on an island country where many families have pools at their homes (including us!)

In 2012, I first saw a video of a family member’s toddler learning a survival swim method and I was in awe. Years later, I watched a fellow IA instructor become certified to teach in her home pool. The babies soon became toddlers, the young families had more babies and I then joined her in the pool to progress these little swimmers along.

I very quickly became fascinated with the Swim FLOAT Swim! method while working together. The fact that the program was built on muscle memory made complete sense to me scientifically. I knew that I needed to get to Colorado to become a certified Infant Aquatic Survival specialist so that I myself could spread awareness and equip families with this essential water safety skill.

In 2021 I founded The Aquatics Academy from my home pool where I focus on stroke development. Once the international travel ban in Australia was lifted after COVID, I left my family to travel overseas for 6 weeks and over 160 hours of hands-on training with Judy. After achieving my certification, I introduced the Rebel Turtles Infant Aquatics program to my swim school in Perth.