Bay Area Diabetes Summit “Get Out There” Panel
Editor’s Note: Listen to the panelists and hear what they had to share about exercise here.
Beyond Type 1 is excited to be putting on a panel at the Bay Area Diabetes Summit on March 25 at Chabot Community College in Hayward, California. We’d love you to join us for this fun panel, entitled “Get Out There! Exercise for every Type,” to learn about type 1 diabetes and exercise.
From casual hikers to ultra-marathoners, these type 1 athletes will share real-life tips + tricks and inspire you to get out there and get active. We are excited to introduce our carefully selected panelists! Get to know them below and join us on March 25 to hear more.
The Moderator
Monica Mueller, MPT, BSN, RN, CDE
Monica began her career in health care as a physical therapist, initially working with adults and later with children with neuromuscular impairments and their families. Her own physical and emotional outlet is outdoors, especially hiking and biking with her husband and friends. So it was natural for her to support people living with physical disabilities to not only improve their functional mobility and independence but to participate in physical and social recreation within their communities. When Monica developed type 1 diabetes in her mid-40’s, she again found support and an outlet outdoors with Diabetes Youth Families and Bearskin Meadow Camp. After several summers at camp and involvement with other diabetes organizations, Monica was inspired to go back to school, earned her Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing and RN. Monica now works as a Certified Diabetes Educator at the UCSF Madison Clinic for Pediatric Diabetes.
The Panelists
Mary Lucas
Mary Lucas was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1998 at the age of 7. She was always active growing up—participating in competitive swimming, water polo and dance. But the one thing Mary hated with a fierce passion was running. She’d barely do one lap around the track during gym class before walking the rest of the way. Today, she can’t get enough of lacing up my sneakers and hitting the road. In 2017, Mary decided to run the 2017 TCS New York City Marathon with Beyond Type 1, despite never having run a mile in her life before that. Training completely flipped her world upside down, as she discovered a true love for running and pushing her body. She completed the 2017 NYC Marathon and can’t wait to run it again! She has a goal of running a marathon on all seven continents, and when she’s not running she enjoys hanging out with her French bulldog Lola, and connecting with other instagram: @maryalessandraa!
Kirby McKinnon
Kirby recently relocated to Oakland, CA to start her public health career with Kaiser Permanente after graduating with her Master of Public Health degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago last May. She is deeply passionate about public health, sustainability and exploring wild spaces. Kirby was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis in 2014 at the age of 21. Both conditions have only strengthened her passion for health and recreation. Her favorite way to “get out there” is to hike and volunteer as a climbing mentor with the Bay Area Non-profit Girl Ventures. She loves using outdoor recreation as a means of challenging herself emotionally and physically. Getting out in nature has been the single greatest tool she’s used to stabilize her blood sugars and cope with the emotional fatigue that can come with diabetes management.
Katie Teschler
Katie Teschler was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes during her second year of college at 20 years old. She grew up camping, hiking and exploring the outdoors with her family, so after diagnosis she definitely had some fear of continuing to do those things that she knew and loved so much, without constant worry of hypoglycemia. After some hard work and persistence, she has now spent nearly six years working outdoors with the National Park Service on a trail crew, and is currently the manager of the Trail Stewardship Program with the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Through her daily work, she leads volunteer programs in how to build and maintain multi-use trails, while spending a lot of her personal time exploring the outdoor world through camping, backpacking, snowboarding, kayaking and rock climbing. Check out her some of her adventures, while educating about type 1 diabetes (T1D) on her instagram: @k.t1d
John Lynn
Being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 30 has had its challenges for John. For the first few years after being diagnosed he was in denial—he had always lived a healthy lifestyle worked out since he was 14, and was in the Marine Corps. John was a competitive bodybuilder for years, but took a 15-year break to focus on coaching others. He felt that diabetes was a handicap and was preventing him from giving 100 percent to competing. Then he met others with diabetes and learned they had the same struggles in life. He took a long hard look at himself and asked “What is my excuse? I can’t use diabetes as an excuse anymore for not obtaining my personal goals in life. If others see a 42-year-old man go through the torture of prepping for a show with type 1 diabetes, win or lose, then I hope it will inspire other people with diabetes to go after their goals, regardless of their age.” So in December 2014 he decided to give it a go. With a great support system and hard work, he was able to obtain his goal of winning the Masters division! John is currently preparing for another bodybuilding show later this year, with the hopes to inspire T1Ds to live a healthy, fit life.
Sean McPherson
Sean began running seriously in grad school when he trained with the USC marathon team to run the Los Angeles marathon in 2008. His excitement for distance running quickly lead to more marathons, and eventually to trail ultra marathons. His biggest running accomplishment is completing the Angeles Crest 100 mile race in 2014 through the San Gabriel Mountains above Los Angeles. Sean is champion with the Diabetes Sports Project, and lead for the SF/Bay Area chapter of Type One Run. Through these groups Sean strives to encourage and empower other people with diabetes to be active, fearless and lead healthy lives. As Sean says, “I get out there through running and backpacking. Running and hiking in the mountains has brought me to all of the most amazing places I have seen in my life. Running also helps me to maintain better control of my diabetes.”
Leo Shveyd
Leo along with wife, Robbi, own Advanced Wellness (AW) of San Francisco. AW is a personalized training & sports performance gym. After an adolescence spent heavily in athletics, most notably as a high school and college quarterback, Leo was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of 18. As a result, he learned early on that the impacts of health and wellness are the foundation of elite level performance. Leo has worked with a wide variety of clientele (from youth to professional athletes, and everyone in between) to help them “own their potential”. Since opening AW in 2001, Leo gradually transitioned from practicing law in order to follow his passion in improving the lives of others through strength & conditioning/performance training. As Leo says: “I love to appropriately challenge myself in the gym and work on getting BETTER. Whether it be lifting heavy, working on my breathing, mobility work, etc., I enjoy working on the areas that need strengthening in order to improve. That is the same philosophy that we employ with our clients.”
