Francesca Farrugia
MSc. Sport Physiotherapist
Francesca brings a wealth of sporting experience and physiotherapy expertise to our team. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Physiotherapy from the University of Malta and a Masters in Sports Medicine, Exercise, and Health from University College London, her academic journey has enriched her practice, equipping her with the latest advancements in sports rehabilitation and performance enhancement.
Francesca’s immersion in the competitive arenas of Malta’s top division Soccer league for five years ignited her passion and drive in the world of sports medicine. Her own international sporting career, representing her country in Netball, Handball, and Water Polo, has provided invaluable insights into the demands of high-level sport. Francesca now leverages her professional and personal experiences to improve outcomes for all types of clients she works with.
Now based in Canada, Francesca’s unique blend of academic rigor and hands-on experience informs her approach to physiotherapy. Leveraging her international sporting achievements, she tailors treatment plans to optimize performance, prevent injuries, and accelerate recovery for all her clients.
Beyond her professional achievements, Francesca’s love for travel, culinary adventures, and outdoor pursuits reflects her holistic approach to health and wellness. Join Francesca at Scienced Athletics, where her international sporting prowess translates into exceptional care and outcomes for clients striving for peak performance and vitality.
Jermaine John
B.Kin MAJ, CSEP-CEP, CSEP-HPS – Senior Strength & Conditioning Coach / Clinical Exercise Physiologist
Jermaine John comes to SCIENCED-Athletics as an experienced dancer and high-performance specialist for Artistic Athletes. With a career built on creating longevity in artistic sports and the performing arts, Jermaine has worked with many athletes and artists in a wide range of settings. He hopes to encourage mindfulness in load management, body & spatial awareness, and movement competency within a strength and conditioning environment to create longevity in artistic sports.
As a clinical exercise physiologist, Jermaine structures his training with results-based feedback. He teaches from a holistic perspective on health and wellness, athletic-aesthetic-artistic awareness, and skill mastery. Building on his interests in human kinetics and metabolism (and the balance between them), Jermaine has an extensive understanding of healthy living practices coupled with a physiological and biochemical approach to sport performance and quality of life.
Jermaine has previously worked with amateur and professional athletes/teams from the Bolshoi & GOH Ballets, Artistic Swimming & Gymnastics, Climbing Escalade Canada, Karate Canada, NLL, NHL, MLS, Skate Canada, Special Olympics BC, Cheer Canada, Sionnaine Irish Dance Academy & BC Highland Dance, Team Canada Dance, Ottawa School of Dance as well as National and International Figure Skating and Ice Dance Champions with Finland, Japan, Korea, Estonia, Germany, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Australia, and Team Canada.
Jermaine works with individuals at all levels of personal fitness, and has a special interest in helping those with medical concerns (especially metabolic conditions, such as diabetes), and improving the performance of artistic athletes. His clients benefit from his guidance, as well as his friendship, as he encourages them to improve active daily living and performance outcomes. Let’s inspire from a belief rooted in self-empowerment.
Margaret Chang
B.Sc.Kin, DPT – Senior Registered Physiotherapist
Margaret is an active and energetic person who makes you feel like a comedian because she laughs at everything and enjoys creating personal connections with the people around her. Margaret’s journey to pursue physiotherapy first started by completing her undergraduate degree at Simon Fraser University where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Sciences concentrating in Active Health and Rehabilitation Kinesiology. After working as a Kinesiologist and Physiotherapy Assistant for a few years, she flew to Gold Coast, Australia where she completed her Doctor of Physiotherapy Degree at Bond University.
Treating various varsity sports teams in the past including volleyball, softball, and Australian football, Margaret has a special interest in treating sports injuries and providing training programs for injury prevention. Margaret prioritizes client-centered care and values listening and connecting with her clients so their main concerns are fully addressed. While staying up to date with the latest evidence-based research, Margaret’s treatment approach utilizes manual therapy, movement therapy, and education to rehabilitate her clients. Meeting them at their starting point, she hopes to empower her clients to reach their personal goals or carry on with what they love to do.
Margaret enjoys treating clients from all walks of life from infants to adults. She has completed additional training to treat the pediatric population and provide concussion management, baseline testing, and persistent or complex pain syndromes.
On her days off, you can find her doing a number of physical and creative activities such as playing beach volleyball, swimming, running, hiking, baking, cooking, sewing, and eating
Seán Mc Keown
M.Sc, CSCS, IRFU-CCC – Applied Sport Scientist / Sport Performance Coach
Seán brings over 15 years of experience as a strength and conditioning coach and applied sport scientist to SCIENCED Athletics. Following on from 6 years at the former multidisciplinary Fortius Sport & Health, Seán has provided strength and conditioning and integrated sport science support to practitioners, sport medicine professionals, athletes, organizations and individual clients.
Seán is a graduate of the BSc in Sport and Exercise Science and MSc in Sport Performance from the University of Limerick in Ireland and has worked extensively with ice hockey, field hockey, rugby, soccer and winter sport athletes as well as personal training clients. Applying a scientific approach, Seán’s philosophy emphasises the need for appropriate assessment and informed programming for all clients. In particular Seán has developed work processes using sport science technologies, data analytics and the most modern sport science research to develop athletic profiles to inform and individualize training for clients.
In his downtime Seán is an avid rugby player, enjoys cycling and most of all spending time with his wife Joanna and daughter Emily.
Tony Giannikouris
B.Kin, CSCS – Strength and Conditioning Coach
Tony brings extensive experience working with varsity soccer, rugby, and football athletes, winning two national championships, and coaching track sprint disciplines at McMaster University. As a former sprinter himself, he has a special interest in speed, power, and movement skill training. In his time at the former Fortius Sport & Health Tony also specialized in performance rehabilitation, working closely with physiotherapists and other practitioners to help people get back to the activities they love.
He’s driven by getting to know a person’s motivations and goals and crafting purposeful workouts to help achieve them, using assessments for targeted programming. He will work with you to find the right balance between training and recovery for long term injury prevention and performance optimization. Having worked with everyone from recreational to professional and Olympic athletes, he’s a strong believer in fundamentals, consistency, and incremental progress adding up big over time.
Whatever function and performance means to you, Tony has tools to get you moving and feeling better. He takes a lot of pride in watching clients grow not only in their abilities, but also their knowledge, feeling a real sense of control and mastery over their own training.
Amanda Jones
M.Kin, CSCS – Strength & Conditioning Coach
Ontario born and raised, Amanda completed her BSc Kinesiology at McMaster University before moving to the west coast to complete her Master of Kinesiology in Coaching Science from the University of British Columbia. During her studies Amanda worked at Fortius Sport & Health as the KidsMove Coordinator and Strength and Conditioning Coach. There, she was responsible for the development and implementation of a physical and health education program in the Burnaby School District for children aged 9-12. In addition, Amanda worked with a with a wide variety of national, collegiate, and youth athletes as well as private clientele.
Currently, Amanda is the Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach for the University of British Columbia’s Varsity Athletics program. In this role, she oversees the Women’s Basketball, Field Hockey, Rugby, Soccer, Softball, and Volleyball teams S&C program. She works closely with the integrated support team to carry out training plans and supervises a team of Graduate and Undergraduate student coaches.
As a former varsity soccer and rugby player, Amanda is passionate about youth athlete development, injury prevention, and sports performance. She is dedicated to helping all individuals optimize their health, well-being, and performance goals, whatever they may be. Amanda welcomes you to SCIENCED Athletics!