Strong Survivors Director

Dr. Phil Anton, Director

I am originally from Hastings, Michigan, and my wife, Dr. Julie Partridge (PhD in sport and exercise psychology), and I have two four-legged children, Booker (~7-year-old male), and Bonnie (~5-year-old female). Both are beagles and are rescues from shelters in the region. I have been conducting research and supervising exercise testing and training for cancer survivors/caregivers since 1999, when I started work on my doctoral degree at the University of Northern Colorado Cancer Rehabilitation Institute (UNCCRI) on the campus of the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. In 2004, my wife and I moved to Carbondale to take teaching/research positions in the Department of Kinesiology at SIUC.  At the time, I was working on my doctoral dissertation through Northern Colorado (the impact of exercise on ADL performance in cancer survivors going through chemotherapy) and discovered that Chris Georgantas and Jerry Bechtel of John A. Logan were interested in starting an exercise program for cancer survivors (they had actually been to visit UNCCRI a few months before). Through the two of them, I found out that SIH had applied to the Live Strong program for a grant to fund a program for cancer survivors based on the You Can program.

At that point, I offered the exercise expertise of myself and my student staff, and a few meetings later, the Strong Survivors program was born, offering its first class in the fall of 2005. We have offered at least one class per term (fall, spring, summer) since that inaugural semester.  Since that time, we have expanded the program to include cancer caregivers, opened the SIUC Cancer Rehabilitation Laboratory (SIUC-CRL) in Davies Hall on the SIUC campus, and started a program that allows Strong Survivors participants to continue their involvement in the program beyond the initial 12 weeks (Survivors Forever). My cousin, Julie Honerkamp (my best friend during my adolescence), passed away from cancer when I was a sophomore in college after a 5-year battle, and that experience has inspired me to devote my life to working in this area.

How It Got Started