Meredith
As the youngest of 4 kids in a rambunctious household, 6-year-old Meredith was used to blending into the crowd. Four children running, shouting, playing, and jostling for tasty treats make a great smokescreen for all sorts of things.
During vacation one year, however, her mother noticed something was amiss.
Meredith was eating and drinking the right amounts for someone her age but losing significant weight. Concerned, the family left vacation and went home, where she was immediately admitted to the hospital. It was then that Meredith was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
As she grew, her mom enrolled her in studies to research treatments and new ways of managing diabetes while also encouraging her to do anything a child without diabetes would do. Meredith took that support to heart, eventually playing competitive volleyball on scholarship at the University of Iowa. While there, she continued to take part in studies, one of which was a trial investigating continuous glucose monitoring, an advance in medicine that has revolutionized life for patients with diabetes.
After graduating, Meredith went on to work for Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), an organization dedicated to research and advocacy in support of people with type 1 diabetes. There, she made connections with children with diabetes and their caregivers, mentoring them through a very tough time in their lives.
Eventually, Meredith moved to work at Lockwood. Here, she continues to educate and lend a hand to people with diabetes and other conditions, saying “I feel like I can give back and use some of my personal experience and how it has affected me and changed my life.” She finds great meaning in her work and seeks to “bring education and awareness to HCPs and patients alike and be involved in an aspect of healthcare that a lot of people don’t know about.”
Meredith’s dedication is unwavering, whether she is guiding patients or updating slide decks. She has spent significant time helping others study diabetes and still devotes time volunteering with JDRF and helping children and adults newly diagnosed or struggling with diabetes, encouraging them as her family did: “Managing this disease is really hard, but you are stronger than you think and are going to be OK. Look at my experience; I have lived nearly my entire life with diabetes and have thrived while doing so.” Knowing how to rise above adversity while providing passionate support to those around her informs Meredith’s work to this day.
