2017 MasterLab Leadership Institute

I’d like to share some quick information from the 2017 MasterLab Leadership Institute. I was honored to be able to attend. This year, DHF made 20 scholarships available to participants. Applications were due February 15th and the submission process was rigorous. This MasterLab Leadership Institute was different than in previous MasterLab’s. The focus was more on being sort of an incubator for actual advocacy efforts, bringing in mentors and assistance to enable the fledgling efforts to move from initial forays into viable, funded and sustainable efforts.

Of over 100 applicants, 20 were selected and announced on March 2nd. I was fortunate to be selected for my project entitled “Changing the Diabetes Conversation.” It is focused on the negative feelings of blame, shame and stigma that many of us feel and is an effort to change the words and conversation.

Blame, Shame and Stigma can leave patients feeling depressed, burned out and failures and when they feel that way their quality of life is compromised and they don’t take good care of themselves. To Empower People with Diabetes to Be Both Physically and Emotionally Healthy by Counteracting the Blame, Shame and Stigma Resulting from Negative Conversations about Diabetes.

The MasterLab was Saturday and Sunday April1-2. There was a social event on Friday, I arrived Friday afternoon and ended up coming back Monday. Mandy (aka @TypeJones) posted a summary of the MasterLab over on the DHF Blog. She also posted a topic in our forums. I’m including some additional information as well as my own observations. The presentations varied, but many of the presentations focused on being an entrepreneur and the development of diabetes advocacy as essentially a business. There were some very interesting presentations on how to be a leader, how to partner and collaborate. There was even a spiritual presentation from someone who helped us with Buddhist thought and meditation. One of my favorite presentations was by Grek Makoul who talked about his effort at PatientWisdom as a case study.

I came away from MasterLab with a much better understanding of how to take a fledgling idea and work to create a real effort. It takes a lot more than a good idea to be successful and I really appreciated DHF and Masterlab for the opportunity to learn and practice some of the skills I will need for my effort. My hope is in coming months I can share more of what I am doing with this community and I do hope that some of you will work with me and join me in my efforts.

Below are the agendas for the two days.


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I’ve been talking to one of the attendees from Latam (Daniela from Costa Rica), sounds like you all had a great time and were able to learn a lot in this event. So happy you got to attend @Brian_BSC thank you for sharing your recap :slight_smile:

Brian_BSC,

Congratulations on being selected to participate in the MasterLab Leadership Institute. I am interested in hearing about your ideas about diabetes advocacy as a business. This has been a fledgling idea in the back of my mind that surfaces regularly, given my experience advocating for my son with T1D. Overall, I am considering options of how to make a meaningful contribution to the diabetes community.

Best,
DDMama

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