Meet our team
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Meet our team /
OUR COACHES
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CARLY BLANCHETT
General Manager & Full Time Coach at Noble Clay Summerhill
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EMILY GRAVINO
General Manager & Full Time Coach at Noble Clay City of Refuge
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BRADY SHACKELFORD
Full Time Coach at Summerhill
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SARAH COLBERT
Full Time Coach at Summerhill
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GABI DOLAN
Full Time Coach at Summerhill
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TAYLOR ALLEN
Full Time Coach at City of Refuge
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MAX RYERSON
Full Time Coach at City of Refuge / Summerhill
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KRISTI WALKER
Full Time Coach at City of Refuge
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MARIELA SMITH
Director of Finance, Part Time Coach at Summerhill
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Taylor Galmarini
Part Time Coach, Doctor of Physical Therapy
LEADERSHIP TEAM
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Ben Davis
Founder & Chief Encouragement Officer
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CARLY BLANCHETT
Director of Operations, General Manager & Full Time Coach at Noble Clay Summerhill
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EMILY GRAVINO
General Manager & Full Time Coach at Noble Clay City of Refuge
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BRADY SHACKELFORD
Director of Development, Full Time Coach at Summerhill
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MARIELA SMITH
Director of Finance, Part Time Coach at Summerhill
BOARD of directors
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Board Chairman
Carl grew up with a love and passion for sports playing baseball, basketball and football throughout his childhood and focusing on baseball and football through his high school and college years. At 14 years old, Carl was introduced to strength training as a way to “get better” at sports. From that day he was a gym rat training 2x per day as a high school freshman.
Carl studied Kinesiology and played football at Saint Mary’s University where he found success as a 3-time All-Conference receiver. His strength and conditioning coach introduced him to Charles Poliquin, took his PICP, and began his journey to find the higher order in fitness. With hopes of becoming a collegiate strength and conditioning coach, Carl acquired his Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist before realizing the tight ropes of the NCAA were not for him.
After his stint playing Canadian football, Carl joined the US Army in the medical field, while in the Army, he spent a tour in Afghanistan, ran the physical fitness program for his Battalion, and was introduced to OPT and James Fitzgerald. While in the Army, Carl made fitness a business by opening multiple gyms and eventually multiple OPEX gyms.
It was an easy decision when the opportunity arose to work for OPEX full-time. His experiences as an athlete, coach, soldier, father, husband and business owner helps him in being a part of the engine that allows OPEX to continually move forward.
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Vice Chairman
Ryan is responsible for the end-to-end management of the development lifecycle for multiple Columbia Ventures projects, from acquisition through disposition. This includes, in close collaboration with the Columbia Ventures team, the assembly and orchestration of the professionals for due diligence, design, financing, construction, marketing, and property management while serving in whatever capacity is necessary along the way.
Ryan grew up in Florida and holds degrees from the University of Florida (BSME) and Georgia Tech (MSME). He is a graduate of the 2023 class of the ULI Atlanta Center for Leadership and holds a certificate in Commercial Real Estate Development and Finance from MIT. Ryan and his family live in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood of Atlanta. He serves on the board of Noble Clay Fitness, a local non-profit gym. Ryan enjoys learning new skills, building relationships, adding value through driving processes, financial modeling, and collaborating with experts in their respective fields throughout each project lifecycle.
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Fundraising Chair
Areas of expertise: Finance, private equity, general management, operations, M&A, strategy, business development, oil & gas, commercial real estate
Throughout his career, Andrew has focused on growing companies in a number of ways – by building solid growth strategies, finding and structuring the right funding no matter how complex, identifying and integrating accretive acquisition targets, and building the right corporate structure and infrastructure for success. He has been in both financial and operating roles for 17 years, and has experience in a number of industries, including financial services, private equity, oil & gas, commercial real estate, and distribution.
He has been involved in transactions valued at nearly $4B, acquired 4 companies, built two start-up businesses, and raised over $25M in private equity.
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Finance Chair/Treasurer
An experienced leader, recently retired, with a financial management background, as a CPA, CFO, auditor, and consultant.
With MAG Bookkeeping, working with churches and faith-based non-profits
Consultant with Towers Watson, KPMG, and his own firm
A CFO with an Assurant company and others
A CPA and auditor with Ernst & Young
An active board member with several faith-based non-profits
Taught accounting at Georgia State University as adjunct instructor
MBA from Georgia State University, BBA in Accounting from University of Georgia
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Secretary + CMO
Alex is Founder/CEO of the Edge Agency in Buford, GA. She is passionate about community, being a good neighbor, creativity, facilitating relationships, and empowering women in the inner-cities, and urban context.
Business Website: https://theedgeagency.net/
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OPEX CCP L1 Coach, Precision Nutrition Level 1, FMS Level 2, NASM CPT, and CrossFit Level 2 trainer
Ben Davis is a husband, a father of 4, a lover of people, and a strength and conditioning coach and social entrepreneur. From 2008 to 2014 he led a team of coaches to build No Excuses CrossFit, in Suwanee, Ga. to over 200 members. From 2014 to 2017, Ben Davis led a team of coaches to develop two of the Atlanta area Iron Tribe Fitness Franchises to over 300 members collectively. In 2017, he left the For-Profit fitness model to pursue building a Non-profit called Noble Clay. Noble Clay provides individual design (100% personalized) fitness to all members, regardless of income or fitness ability. Noble Clay’s mission is to enhance human movement and connection. The Noble Clay dream spawned out of an angry passion in Ben's heart from seeing many injustices in the city regarding healthcare, fitness, nutrition, and a lack of positive social community available to many. Noble Clay will not stop until everyone has access to a professional fitness coach; and fitness equal opportunity is achieved. He believes a compassionate and competent fitness coach IS the solution to one of the most vexing problems in our community, chronic disease and loneliness. Noble Clay will fight the crisis of chronic disease, and any other ill that faces humanity.
Outside of the gym, Ben loves to play with his kids, play soccer, adventure in nature, camp, hike, and do dangerous things, to his wife’s dismay..
BOARD OF ADVISORS
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Serial Entrepreneur
Austin L. Wright, originally from Atlanta, GA, is a Texas-based entrepreneur and investor. He spent over 15 years in the health and wellness industry before branching out and opening his own fitness clubs (currently owns 6 with 18 more in development). He is also active in buying and selling eCommerce brands. At home, he is happily married and has a 9-year-old boy who is the center of his world. While focusing on leading his family and growing his businesses, he is also passionate about helping others and giving back. He currently serves on the board of a California non-profit that furnishes homes for families transitioning out of homelessness.
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Seven Oaks Company is a private entrepreneurial commercial real estate firm specializing in acquisition, development and re-development of mixed-use and commercial projects, land and mixed-use office development, and asset management.
Bob and his fellow principals have spent their career working in the Southeast and share a strong commitment with to executing high-quality, community enhancing projects that deliver a superior return for their investors.
www.sevenoakscompany.com
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Vikings Head Strength Coach
Josh Hingst enters his 8th season as the Head Strength & Conditioning Coach with the Philadelphia Eagles bringing 10 years of NFL experience. In 2013, his first year with the Eagles, Hingst played a major role in the implementation of the NFL’s first sports-science driven training system, introducing technologies such as Catapult-GPS Tracking, Omegawave, Eliteform and Coach-Me Plus that culminated in an NFC East Championship that year.
Hingst continued to help the Eagles remain on the forefront of new sports training technologies by utilizing Forcedecks, Nordboard, Blood Biomarker & Microbiome testing and Zebra Tracking Systems. The Eagles finished as the healthiest team in the league in 2016 based on games lost due to injury. The team finished 3rd and 5th in 2013 and 2014 and overall in the top 10 five times while leading the program. During this time, the Eagles succeeded on the field becoming Superbowl Champions in 2017, returning to the Divisional Round in 2018 and winning 3 NFC East titles. After the 2017 season Hingst was awarded the Professional Strength & Conditioning Association Champions Award. Hingst utilizes a variety of strength, speed, and power methods to individualize programming for each athlete.
Prior to Philadelphia, Hingst served as the Assistant Strength Coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars (2011-12) where he played an integral role in implementing GPS tracking to monitor player training loads, the first use of this technology in the NFL. Prior to joining the Jaguars, Hingst was the Director of Sports Nutrition at the University of Nebraska Lincoln (2009-12) where he directed fueling practices for all 21 Sports. Before his time at UNL Hingst served as the Team Nutritionist for the Atlanta Falcons (2008-09) overseeing nutrition and assisting in strength and conditioning capacities. He began his career as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning coach at Florida State University (2004-08).
In 2013 Hingst published “The Athlete’s Guide to Sports Supplements” and has written for industry publications throughout his career. He speaks regularly at conferences, holds a master’s degree and is working towards a doctorate. Hingst is a Registered Dietician, a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and has completed a number of professional development courses in the areas of speed, movement development, postural restoration, and functional manual therapy techniques.
A native of Hooper NE, Josh and his wife, Megan, have one daughter, June.
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Senior Vice President at Merill Lynch
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Senior Fellow at Jackson & Spalding PR Firm
Will is a Client Advisory Professional at Jackson Spalding, one of the largest independent marketing and communications firms in the Southeast, with offices in Atlanta, Dallas, and Athens. As a Client Advisor, he works to form lasting relationships with clients and serve and support them by helping them receive the maximum benefit of JS’s capabilities as an agency.
Will currently leads accounts with Delta Air Lines, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, The Warrior Alliance, and more, and has worked with other major brands including Chick-fil-A, Orkin Pest Control, and Piedmont Healthcare. In addition, Will also contributes to JS’s Coaching practice and has helped spokespeople and executives from major brands prepare for TV interviews, keynote presentations, podcast interviews, partner activations, and more.
Before arriving at JS, Will spent 5 years working in the nonprofit space with North Point Ministries and is deeply acquainted with event production, service programming, content development, community engagement, and volunteer coordination.
Will also harnessed his passion for creative storytelling to help him launch Blue Jean Media in 2017 - specializing in podcast production - and has since helped countless organizations, nonprofits, business professionals, and influencers launch and grow podcasts from the ground up. Will has produced interviews with celebrity guests ranging from NFL stars to New York Times best-selling authors and even hosted a few shows of his own.
Away from work, you can find Will looking for the perfect happy hour with his wife, Jean, exploring new cities, or on the golf course still chasing that hole-in-one.
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Commercial Real Estate Executive & Advisor / Helping occupiers optimize their workplace and workforce / Founder, CFO Forum
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Real Estate Developer
Mr. Shaw is a senior managing director with Bridge Investment Group and serves as the CEO of BRIDGE Commercial Real Estate (BCRE), the office operating platform for Bridge Investment Group’s (Bridge) office funds. Bridge is a public company (BRDG:NYSE) with $49.4 billion in assets under management in the 3rd Qtr 2023. Bridge manages private equity funds, separately managed accounts, co-investments, and joint ventures. A vertically-integrated real estate platform, Bridge and its affiliates collectively employ over 2,250 people and manage assets across 22 states and over 50 metropolitan statistical areas. In addition to his leadership, Mr. Shaw provides leasing demand analysis and ownership strategies for BRIDGE’s office investment funds, acquisitions and investment sale initiatives. He is an Atlanta native with 29 years in the US real estate community, where he has developed strong relationships with the business and brokerage community, allowing him to be consistently in front of leasing and investment opportunities across the United States.
Mr. Shaw now leads the operations team at BCRE and is responsible for over 12 million square feet of commercial office property in 2023. Mr. Shaw has personally completed thousands of leases in his career as a commercial real estate broker and has held executive positions with COMPASS Management & Leasing/JLL, Insignia/ESG/CBRE, and Cushman & Wakefield, where he was responsible for leasing tens of millions of square feet of primarily office assets across the country, while focusing on substantially increasing portfolio occupancy, equity returns and capitalized value. Mr. Shaw is the vice president of the Atlanta Commercial Board of REALTORS 2023/2024 and was recognized as top ten commercial office leasing broker by volume in 2021 and 2022. He was awarded the "Most Admired CEO 2022," by The Atlanta Business Chronicle and is a member of the Bridge Office Board of Directors and Investment Committee. Mr. Shaw Chairs the National Corporate Council for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society 2022/2023, chairing Light The Night in 2020 and 2021 in Atlanta. He is also a board member of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce 2022/2023, and volunteers as Chair for Leadership Ministries in Atlanta, Georgia.
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Healthcare | Leadership Development | Medical Device
Experienced Healthcare Leader l Adjunct Professor | Speaker | with a demonstrated history of leadership in, Orthopedics, Sports Medicine surgery/non op, Spine, Cardiac Rehabilitation Clinical Exercise Physiology, and higher education. Skilled in leadership development, Cardiac Rehabilitation, Operation Mgt. My interest includes: Digital Health, process improvement utilizing lean methodology, operations management, and improving health disparities among minorities.
