November 2018: Leadership Institute Recap

2018 Leadership Institute During the weekend of September 28, we were excited to welcome 20 PODS leaders to Chicago for our fourth annual Leadership Institute! Attendees were some of our key volunteers, all women living with diabetes who offer their time each month leading PODS (Part Of DiabetesSisters) Meetups in their communities. PODS Meetups provide peer support, education, and encouragement for women with any type of diabetes or prediabetes. This year’s attendees traveled from 17 locations in 12 states: Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas, Virginia. The attendees shared over 600 years of experience with living with diabetes.

Leadership Institute faculty included diabetes advocacy expert Leyla Mansour-Cole, Esq., from the Diabetes Patient Advocacy Coalition (DPAC), and certified diabetes educator Kathy Warwick, RD, CDE, of Professional Nutrition Consultants LLC. Attendees also learned from two panels of their peers on topics including best practices in promoting and leading PODS Meetups, and living with diabetes for more than two decades. Erika Armani, Diane Bajalia, Diane Berinato, Jo-Nette Boyd, Jane Dyson, Clare Fishman, Connie Hanham-Cain, Andrea Herndon, Daphene Kimball, Shelby Kinnaird, and Denise Scheffler served as panelists who shared their experiences from several years of PODS leadership and/or advanced duration diabetes.

“We look forward to this weekend each year, where we can gather, learn from one another, and engage in ways to empower our community of women living with diabetes,” said Anna Norton, CEO. “Our fourth Institute continued to provide support and education to our Leaders, and supplied them more resources for the women we serve nationally. We are grateful for their time and dedication, and the support of our industry partners who provide the necessary funding for a program of this caliber.”

A DiabetesSisters signature program, PODS Meetups started in Raleigh, NC, in 2010 and has grown to support nearly 40 monthly meetups in various locations throughout the United States, including one that meets online. The program provides peer support, education and advocacy to women living with diabetes and prediabetes and serves more than 1,300 women annually.

For more about this year’s Leadership Institute, check out what several of our attendees had to say:

Anna Norton shares her insights: DiabetesSisters 4th Annual Leadership Institute

Find pictures from Leadership Institute in our 2018 photo gallery.

*** A special thank you to the sponsors of our 2018 DiabetesSisters Leadership Institute, without whom this event would not be possible. ***