Jody Bell

Jody Bell is deeply passionate about InMotion, the welfare of its clients, and takes enormous pride in the organization’s ever-growing footprint on the global Parkinson’s disease (PD) community. Her work with InMotion fills her with a sense of purpose and gratification. She wants InMotion to continue to grow and to continue to set the standard for exceptional well-rounded care for people with PD and their families.

Her father, Allan Goldberg, was diagnosed with the disease in 2001, when it was far less understood and managed. In fact, upon receiving the diagnosis, her parents were advised by a physician friend to “keep it to themselves”. Subsequently, her parents navigated the degenerative effects of PD and the difficulties of daily living on their own, in relative secrecy.

In the last few years of his life, her father became incredibly passionate about the idea of a Parkinson’s “center” of some kind where those afflicted with the disease could obtain information, congregate with others who could relate to the experience, and find hope that their quality of life could improve. In 2014, in collaboration with four like-minded and dedicated individuals, InMotion was founded. Allan wanted no one else to have to “go it alone”, as he and Jody’s mother Terry had. One non-negotiable element was that the organization’s services needed to be provided at no cost to its clients; no one with a PD diagnosis living in the Greater Cleveland area would be turned away.

Jody’s initial involvement with InMotion was as a volunteer in BED fitness classes, and she knew she’d found her next move. In 2018, she became certified by the American Council on Exercise as a group fitness instructor and began assisting and eventually teaching a variety of BED classes, and Mindful Movement adaptive yoga. She then went on to become a certified Parkinson’s Wellness & Recovery (PWR!) instructor, gaining an even better understanding of the disease and its degenerative effects - and how to actually slow the progression. Shortly thereafter, she completed a 200-hour Yoga Teacher Training to better understand physiology, anatomy, and movement, and how to best incorporate it into her teaching.

Jody graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelor of science degree in psychology. After graduation she worked as an advertising assistant at Axelband & Brown in Beachwood, then as an account executive at Glazen Advertising in Cleveland. As she and her husband, Eric, started their family, Jody worked part-time at her family business, Goldberg Companies, Inc. overseeing advertising and marketing in-house. She eventually left the business world to focus on raising their children.