Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Health Care
Dependable Health Services
Physical Therapists Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Construction
West-Press
Printing Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic

A nationally recognized fitness expert has updated her online biography after retired University of Arizona professors disputed whether she graduated from the institution.

Denise Austin, who spoke at the UA's December 2006 commencement, received her undergraduate degree from California State University-Long Beach in 1979.

A previous version of Austin's biography posted on her Web site said she graduated from the UA that same year, a mistake created by the site's management company, a spokesman said.

The erroneous information on where Austin graduated was repeated in numerous articles in the Arizona Daily Star for several years, using her online biographical information to verify that she graduated from the UA. The information also has been used by several other publications around the country.

After recent articles about commencement appeared in the Star, several retired professors contacted UA officials with concerns that Austin had only attended the UA and had not graduated.

The UA's registrar, who is in charge of academic records, later confirmed that while Austin spent time at the Tucson campus, she never received a degree from the institution.

California State University-Long Beach officials confirmed that Austin graduated from that institution in 1979 with an undergraduate degree in physical education.

Austin attended the UA on a gymnastics scholarship, but she broke her ankle during her sophomore year, causing her to give up the scholarship. She returned home to California to complete her degree.

Officials with Waterfront Media, an online health company that manages Austin's fitness Web site, said the confusion was the result of a mix-up in her biography over where she graduated that went uncorrected for some time.

"It was an oversight from an older biography that new editors inherited," said Dan Wilmer, a general manager for the company. "We've updated the biography to reflect the correct information."

Austin is a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and has sold nearly 20 million exercise videos and DVDs.