Meet Our Mentors -

Meet Our Mentors

Listening with Empathy

Mentor #1

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) June 2018. With the support of family members, this was a scary, but manageable diagnosis.

Prior to my diagnosis, I worked in Human Resources as the Director of Benefits, Compensation, and HRIS. I taught our employees about their health plans, ADA, HIPPA, COBRA, ACA, and many other acronyms. I retired 10 years ago.

My father was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. He was active his whole life but gave up following his diagnosis. I was not going to give up. I was not a consistently active person like my dad, so I knew I had to change my lifestyle if I was going to live with this disease. I researched and attended any PD class, meeting, and seminar I could find and found the Arizona PD community extremely strong and helpful.

I heard about Rock Steady Boxing and joined with my whole heart. I now coach part-time, which I love. I became a planning committee volunteer with the Parkinson’s Foundation Moving Day Walk. I attend speech therapy weekly to keep my voice strong and love being part of the Parkinson’s Peer Mentor AZ program.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and knowledge with those newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

Mentor #2

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in February 2014. I was having tremors in my right hand and left leg, as well as balance issues. I had taken a fall on the golf course. My mother had PD, and her father had PD. So, it was no surprise that at the age of 60, what my journey was going to be.

I was a retired Medical Technologist who always worked in a teaching hospital. I treasure my skills of time management, attention to detail, and flexibility to adjust and accept the changes in my life.

I have always dedicated some of my time to volunteer work, such as feeding the homeless with my church or having a community senior to assist in the Duet program. I am thankful for having a good life with family and friends. I also enjoy giving back to others. I helped teach a course called “PD Self” for seven years. The course helped give people with Parkinson’s an in-depth understanding of the disease while also giving them tools to manage it with confidence. In becoming a mentor, I am choosing another path to give back and support individuals, like me, who are living with Parkinson’s.

I look forward to sharing my experiences and knowledge with those newly diagnosed, as well as those with established Parkinson’s.

Mentor #3

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in May of 2017. Like many others, there were symptoms quite a few years before my diagnosis. Not knowing what to do, I sought out individuals who could help me as well as organizations that provided guidance and education in the specifics of living well with a diagnosis of Parkinson’s. I consider myself lucky to have learned of the vast resources available to the Parkinson’s community,

As a retired teacher, I appreciate the skills I sharpened like listening, adapting, and communicating (English and Spanish). The skills of empathy and patience were invaluable. I find that I need all these skills and more to navigate the everchanging landscape of my Parkinson’s. In my 8 years of living with Parkinson’s, I continually learn more and consider it a blessing to assist others in their journey. It is one way that I “pay it forward”.

I have a positive perspective of living with Parkinson’s. I know that life does go on with purpose and meaning. I believe we are all here to help each other and I invariably see my life through a lens of gratitude. For me, gratitude changes the world I see.

I am comfortable being a mentor for individuals with Parkinson’s, individuals who are newly diagnosed, individuals with DBS, and individuals who are more comfortable with Spanish.

Mentor #4

I began experiencing symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in 2017 and was officially diagnosed in September 2019. At the time, I wasn’t sure how I was going to live with this diagnosis or what my future would look like.

I chose to educate myself and reach out to the Parkinson’s community, where I found support, connection, and hope. Along the way, I met my boxing coach—who specializes in Parkinson’s-focused training—both of whom have played a significant role in helping me move forward.

At first, I didn’t want people to know I had Parkinson’s disease. Over time, that changed. Today, my employer, friends, social media community, and even the owner of my weightlifting gym know about my diagnosis. I share openly not only to help others, but also because connection brings knowledge, resources, and strength.

I work full time and remain actively involved in the Parkinson’s community. I have participated in and fundraised for Box 4 Bucks, Moving Day, and Michael J. Fox Foundation walks, and I have been a guest on the 17 Branches Podcast. Throughout the year, I rotate through physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy—care I consider the best—at the Barrow Neurological Institute / Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center. I also box once a week and strength train regularly, making movement and exercise a priority.

My family, friends, and faith are the pillars of my support system. I am grateful I was diagnosed because now I know what is happening to me and can move forward with purpose. I do everything in my power not just to slow the progression of Parkinson’s—but to fight it. I truly believe there will be a cure for Parkinson’s disease.

Most of all, I am grateful for the opportunity to help others. As a peer mentor, I am committed to supporting, encouraging, and walking alongside others on their Parkinson’s journey, reminding them that they are not alone.

Mentor #5

I was diagnosed with Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease (YOPD) in February 2021. The diagnosis left me with far more questions than answers. Along the way, in my search to understand more about my PD, I found that other people were searching too. I know that, together, we can help each other through the twisting roads on this journey of life with Parkinson’s. So, I became an advocate and started speaking about my life with PD through social media.

I have found great purpose in Parkinson’s Awareness, advocacy, and public speaking. I serve as a volunteer for the Parkinson’s Foundation in several capacities. I have also been fortunate enough to be the guest on several podcasts related to Parkinson’s.

My experience goes beyond my own personal battle against the disease. I was also a caregiver for my grandmother when I was younger and my grandfather had Parkinson’s Disease. When you sum up my journey, you could say that I know what it is like to fight this disease from different perspectives.I look forward to sharing my experiences and knowledge with those newly diagnosed.

Mentor #6

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease on April 27, 2023, at the age of 48. The day I was diagnosed is a day I will remember for the rest of my life.

It was some time after the diagnosis that I finally started to work through the reality of having Parkinson’s. Some of my thoughts focused on how this diagnosis would impact my ability to work, how it would affect my friends and family, and how I would deal with the changes that would be happening.

After a period of mourning for what I had planned for my future, I vowed that I would move forward by getting involved in volunteering and joining activities that would slow down the progression of Parkinson’s. In other words, I wanted to take control of my life. To do this, I had to educate myself, so I began looking for resources. What I quickly realized was that there were many resources available and on multiple platforms. My challenge was to determine which resources were reliable. As much as possible, I wanted to be educated on Young Onset Parkinson’s. With so much out there, it can be overwhelming and misleading.

I am currently working full-time in Human Resources (HR) in the role of Sr. HRIS Administrator. I have worked in HR for over 25 years and during that time have gained many skills in working with people. Overall, I would say that communication is the key in all my interactions.

In charting a course forward, I want to help recently diagnosed Young Onset individuals acquire the tools necessary so they can also move forward in a positive direction.

Mentor #7

Since my diagnosis in 2019, and as I navigate my new normal, I have found talking to others with Parkinson’s to be both educational and reassuring. Along the way, I have discovered that everyone has different, yet in some ways similar, experiences with PD. We can all learn something beneficial from each other.

I am a problem-solver by nature and my work in Human Resources has allowed me to connect with people, learn different ways to attack challenges, and enjoy helping others. Work-life balance is important to me, and I like to discuss the ways I have found to prioritize everything that is important to me: family and friends, my health, and getting the most out of life.

Learning more as we compare our Parkinson’s experiences is something I’m really looking forward to during the mentor process. We can all find ways to make life better for ourselves and others on this journey!

Mentor #8

I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in January 2021. I remember clearly the first time I noticed a small tremor in my left hand’s pinky finger. It was January 2017, and I was typing at my computer’s keyboard. My first thought was, “oh $#!* this can’t be good.” I also had several other Parkinson’s symptoms at that time: REM sleep disorder (acting out my dreams, yelling, punching), severe constipation, loss of smell, and frequent urination. I just didn’t know they were all related to Parkinson’s. Like many people, I associated tremors with PD. I was concerned that I might indeed have PD. I didn’t see a doctor about my tremors because I was scared and didn’t want to be told what I feared. As the tremors became worse, I could no longer ignore them, and I just hoped they were not anything serious. So, after 4 years of tremors, I went to a doctor and was diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I think the biggest challenge for me is the mental aspect of PD. It is easy to feel down, depressed, and apathetic. What helps me with those feelings is exercise. I exercise at home every day. I attend Rock Steady Boxing (RSB) 3 times per week. I play pickleball 3 or 4 times per week, and I golf.

I retired in November 2022. My profession was hardware engineering and software development. As an engineer, I faced a lot of challenging technical problems. To solve problems, I learned to research and investigate and to go to experts for help. I apply these same skills to Parkinson’s. I review news articles, scour websites, dialogue with others who have PD, and read books in search of potential solutions that will help mitigate my PD symptoms. It is this skill that I bring as a mentor for individuals living with Parkinson’s.

My current view of Parkinson’s is to focus on the here and now and to take it one day at a time. I know I am going to have good days and not-so-good days. I try to enjoy and appreciate the good days and not allow the not-so-good days to drag me down. Another reason I decided to become a mentor is that I wanted to use my PD experience over the last 8 years to help others who are newly diagnosed deal effectively with PD. I think I can be a good mentor to those who are newly diagnosed by listening to their concerns and sharing my personal experiences.

Mentor #9

In 2005, I started to experience all kinds of health changes, i.e., voice changes, GI issues, head fog, handwriting difficulty, walking, gait, etc. I went to every specialty doctor, and no one was able to pinpoint the problem. In 2008, I started to experience tremors in my right hand and noticeable changes in my handwriting. This led me to believe that I needed to see a neurologist. I visited a neurologist, just to be informed that I had Parkinson’s disease. He prescribed Carbidopa Levodopa and advised me, “to learn to live with it”. It was devastating news to me. That’s when I started to learn about Parkinson’s Disease and ways to navigate my life forward.

I have an Aerospace Engineering degree. I worked at Boeing for the last 25 years of my professional life. Out of those 25 years, I worked for 10 years as an International Program Project Engineer. One of the aspects of this job is to deal with sub-teams’ emergencies. This required interacting with the management of the sub-team emergency, the actual engineers’ emergencies, the production-line team, and its members’ emergencies. In essence, I had to deal with multiple professional skill levels and personal levels. I believe these experiences provided me with the skills to battle my way through, get the best outcome possible, and live with Parkinson’s disease. I believe that Parkinson’s can limit an individual physically and even mentally, but Parkinson’s cannot limit the individual’s aspirations and soul.

I think these attributes qualify me to support a mentee. This could be a mentee who has been living with Parkinson’s for a while, an individual newly diagnosed, or a Young Onset individual newly diagnosed with Parkinson’s. I can also help individuals who might have concerns regarding DBS surgery, a treatment for tremor in a Parkinson’s individual.