Meet Our Bloggers

Guests of Lake Austin Spa Resort will experience a diverse and highly-trained staff of fitness experts and trainers. Our intimate size allows for a high degree of personal attention and our nurturing staff is available 7 days a week to answer questions and address personal fitness needs. Each instructor brings his/her unique background and perspective to our fitness classes – get to know them before you arrive!

Tracy York, General Manager

As general manager of Lake Austin Spa Resort, Tracy York oversees all aspects of the daily operation of the resort as well as the LakeHouse Spa. During her tenure, she has overseen a multimillion dollar renovation of every building and the addition of the LakeHouse Spa, a 25,000-square foot spa facility and the Pool Barn in 2004. Prior to her appointment at Lake Austin Spa Resort, Tracy was the director of The Spa at the Crescent, a luxury spa, fitness and wellness facility managed by Rosewood Hotels and Resorts. In this role she managed all aspects of the private fitness facility and the public day spa. Tracy has also served on the development team for Rosewood Hotels designing spa and fitness facilities for new hotels and resorts around the world. She is a contributing author for the ACSM's Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 5th ed. (Williams and Wilkins, 1995) and a textbook for wellness professionals entitled Health Fitness Management (Human Kinetics, 1997). Tracy also served as a section editor for the ACSM's Resource Manual to the Guidelines, 3rd and 4th ed. (Williams and Wilkins, 1998, 2001).

Terry Conlan, Executive Chef

As executive chef at Lake Austin Spa Resort since 1992, and with 30 years of experience at mainstream restaurants in Austin, ranging from barbecue to New Orleans, Caribbean, Mexican and Continental cuisine, Chef Terry Conlan's philosophy is to produce healthy, low-fat food that people will enjoy eating, and will be able to maintain as part of an overall healthy lifestyle and not as a short-term diet.

Bringing his expertise to Lake Austin Spa Resort, Chef Conlan takes the guesswork out of healthy eating by creating a veritable cornucopia of gourmet meals, many of them enhanced by the vibrant textures and flavors of the vegetables and herbs from the resort's organic gardens. Using regional and seasonal ingredients, guests will find a wide variety of selections on the menu, including Thai, Cajun, Mediterranean, Mexican, Italian and regional American cuisine, as well as a choice of vegetarian dishes and superb tasting, but guilt-free desserts.

His philosophy is simple: "Wonderfully nutritious and delicious food abounds all over the planet. Ironically, some of the more technologically advanced countries, with emphasis on fast and convenient foods, have gotten away from many of these traditions, so a big part of our mission is to simply reawaken peoples' interest in the possibilities of genuinely good eating," says Chef Conlan. "I am not interested in diets or gimmicky foods; I want to produce healthy, relatively low-fat, absolutely delicious meals that everyone will enjoy eating on a long-term basis. Not just the best spa food that they have ever eaten, but some of the best food that they've ever eaten anywhere."

In addition to the resort's menu and daily specials, Chef Conlan shares his wealth of knowledge with guests through our Culinary ExperienceTM at Lake Austin Spa Resort. The popular week-long Culinary Experience program begins on the second Sunday of every month. The program, dedicated to healthy cooking and healthy living, features special guest chefs, daily cooking demonstrations and more than 20 other activities centered on the celebration of all things culinary.

Chef Conlan regularly teaches cooking classes throughout Texas, and during selected weeks each summer, the real "foodies" can take advantage of a more intensive Summer Cooking Workshop Series developed by Chef Conlan and taught by him and his staff, as well as featured guest chefs.

He has published articles and recipes in magazines such as Cooking Light, Eating Well, Shape and Prevention, and has also been acknowledged with a five-star review from Weight Watchers magazine, as well as been featured in Cooking Light and other culinary magazines.

In addition to these efforts, he has been featured on national television with appearances on both The Learning Channel ("Laurie's Light and Easy") and the Food Network ("The Best Of" series), as well as numerous interviews on a variety of Texas radio and television stations.

On November 1, 2003, Chef Conlan's first hardback cookbook published in nine years was released - FRESH, Healthy Cooking and Living from Lake Austin Spa Resort. Prior to that, Chef Conlan authored Lean Star Cuisine, as well as the 1998, 2000 and 2002 Summer Cooking Series recipe books.

When asked to what he attributes whatever measure of success he may have achieved, he responds simply, "Well, I truly enjoy every aspect of what I'm doing, but in the end, what it all boils down to is that I'm funnier than Julia Child and a better cook than Dave Barry."

Trisha Shirey, Director of Flora and Fauna

Trisha Shirey's 25-year association with Lake Austin Spa Resort has resulted in organic herb and vegetable gardens, an organic orchard and a wealth of flowers to enhance the grounds and brighten the delicious low-fat dishes served in the dining room. Plantings are designed to be Texas tough, but beautiful. Despite the foraging deer, flowers are in evidence year round. Many of the gardens are designed to delight butterflies and hummingbirds, which are seen in abundance. Crafts are another of Trisha's interests, and she teaches classes such as pressed flower designs, potpourri, painting pots and herbal swags, to the guests at LASR. She has participated in the writing, editing and testing of two cookbooks for the resort, and teaches cooking classes as well.

Sharon Rekieta, Ph.D., Fitness Director

Sharon Rekieta is a native Texan who recently joined the Lake Austin Spa Resort as the Fitness Director. Her professional experience spans 25 years and includes owning and operating a fitness facility in Houston for 12 years, training and supervising diverse personnel, developing and presenting corporate wellness curriculums, instructing a variety of fitness classes, leading conditioning workouts for endurance athletes and counseling professional and recreational fitness enthusiasts. Sharon teaches a variety of workouts and considers the time interacting with guests during the various activities as the best part of her day.

Robbie Hudson, Director of Programming

Robbie Hudson began her career with Lake Austin Spa Resort in 1989 and has been the Director of Programming for over 10 years. She attended Texas Tech University, received a BS in Education and holds a Texas Teaching Certificate. Electing not to pursue the conventional classroom, her love for movement led her to begin teaching aerobic dance classes when it was a brand new idea back in the early 1980's! In the mid eighties she taught franchised classes for Body Business, Inc. in the Lake Travis area before joining Lake Austin Spa Resort.

Starr Kunkelmann, Spa Manager

Starr Kunkelmann is the LakeHouse Spa Manager. She still does massage two days a week and manages the massage therapists the other three. She is married and has a nice little house in south Austin with a big backyard. You can find her in the yard, or swinging on a hammock chair on her porch, enjoying the company of her pug Pedro Sanchez or her little girl dog, Emma Longbottom.

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