Growing up, Derek had an innate passion for health and physical culture excelling as a high level multi-sport athlete and always preferring to be active outside. Despite this, he suffered from chronic illnesses such as asthma, allergies, depression/anxiety, chronic fatigue and lingering musculoskeletal injuries from athletics. Observing too many others suffer similar struggles and attempting largely in vain to find answers within the healthcare industrial complex, he intuited that there had to be a better way.

While studying to become a physical therapist, Derek began his career as a fitness trainer in 2008. With this end in mind, he took on the most challenging special populations he could find ranging from surgical to cancer patients. Soon, he began working with the patients' providers themselves to affect more change. This inspired him to progressively integrate more aspects of wellness in to his coaching practice such as nutrition and functional medicine resulting in the creation of a principled system that honors the whole person.

In so doing, he was able to heal himself and was eager to share this gift with others.

Derek has since worked with a myriad of clients, patients and athletes from all backgrounds, ages, abilities and health statuses. He has consulted healthcare and Fortune companies, advised start-ups, founded multiple successful health-related businesses and even been involved in clinical trials. He finds the most purpose in liberating people from outdated methods while designing scalable solutions to take their place. Derek believes that disease and illness are the greatest rate-limiting factor to human capitol and finds great meaning in being of service in this mission.

Derek's philosophy is that methods, fads, and trends are a distracting many — and that principles are a refreshing few. His system is timeless while being constantly updated to reflect our current understanding of physiology and how it interacts with our surroundings. The system adapts to the student, not the other way around. It is inherently honoring of the biological, psychological and the social.

It isn't about "exercising"or "dieting" but about moving, eating, thinking and living as we were meant and ought to. Our body (Soma) and it's signals (dis-ease) isn't our enemy but our ally and we simply need to remove the barriers preventing us from our birthright that is health.

His ideal student is simply one who is willing to progressively grow wherever they are beginning.

Derek currently resides in NW Florida with his better half, the children she brought him from God, and two furry beasts. His favorite place is anywhere outside with them — ideally on top of a mountain somewhere they might be kind of lost.