Academia Hernando Presents “Fighting the Rise of Diabetes” by Laura Gamba

As its Spring 2024 Lecture Series continues, Academia Hernando hosts a compelling presentation regarding a vital health issue that affects millions of people across the nation. Laura Gamba will present “Fighting the Rise of Diabetes” at 10 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 19, at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, 2301 Deltona Blvd., Spring Hill.

Academia Hernando is a not-for-profit lifelong learning organization providing quality instruction and learning experiences for adult students throughout Hernando County and beyond. Their goal is to inform, educate and inspire adult learners through a series of weekly lectures on a wide variety of topics.

“About 422 million people worldwide have diabetes. Diabetes is a silent epidemic that kills nearly 1.5 million of us each year. The CDC’s 2023 National Diabetes Statistics Report estimates the number of people with diabetes and prediabetes in the United States to be 133.3 million people!” stated an event notice. “The more you know about diabetes, the more you can do about preventing it, delaying it or lessening its harmful effects. It’s all about connecting the diabetes dots and taking control of your life instead of allowing diabetes to control you, after all, you are the captain of your own boat when it comes to diabetes!”

Laura Gamba accrued more than sixteen years of experience with the Health Services Advisory Group (HSAG), the Medicare Quality Innovation Network–Quality Improvement Organization (QIN-QIO), spanning four scopes of work and five innovation projects with the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the QIN-QIO. She served as the HSAG task chair for the CMS diabetes contract and director for the Florida diabetes task force. Gamba, a certified Master Senior trainer with the University of Illinois Chicago’s Diabetes Empowerment Education Program™ (DEEP™), has trained 11 senior trainers, 80+ lead trainers and 400+ peer educators in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, New York, Tennessee and Texas, in addition to providing Diabetes Empowerment Education Program™ (DEEP™) classes for 500+ community members and their supporters throughout Florida.

Previous work at HSAG included oversight and management of a CMS chronic kidney disease (CKD) project to detect incidence and decrease the progression of CKD among Medicare beneficiaries, Medicare beneficiary education, outreach campaigns throughout Florida and implementation of evidence-based weight loss programming for Florida African American, Hispanic, rural, and low, socio-economic communities. She has co-authored published abstracts for the American Public Health Association and the American Society of Nephrology.

When not conducting DEEP™ training of trainers, she provides no-cost, community-based DEEP™ Matter of Balance, Tai Ji Quan Moving for Better Balance, and Tai Chi for Arthritis classes throughout Florida for departments of health, area agencies on aging, physician practices, hospital networks and area health education centers.

Laura Gamba promises an informative presentation about an issue that impacts the lives of so many. “I just wanted to share a bit about the Diabetes Empowerment Education Program™ (DEEP™) classes,” she said. “The classes are engaging, infotainment, at its best and are designed to help all participants to connect all the diabetes dots in a fun, interactive format.”

Gamba promises that all lessons relayed through her diabetes education program are communicated in relatable and accessible language.

“Participants will learn, in ‘living room language,” to understand the human body as it relates to diabetes, risk factors for developing diabetes, self-management, fun physical activity to better manage diabetes, health management through meal planning, identifying and avoiding complications from uncontrolled diabetes, learning about medications and working with their health care team, living with diabetes, and mobilizing family and friends,” she said.

Sharon Printz, a board member of Academia Hernando, looks forward to welcoming this popular presenter back to the Academia stage.

“Diabetes is a health issue that affects so many people, especially as they age,” she said. “Laura Gamba is an excellent speaker who always delivers info-packed presentations.”

“Fighting the Rise of Diabetes” is the second presentation of the Spring 2024 series of Academia Hernando, which features a brilliant spectrum of topics delivered by the experts who know them best.

The season will continue on Jan. 26 with Dedee Aleccia’s “Catherine the Great of Russia”; Feb. 2 with Mary Peter, CMDT Founder/Exec. Director’s K9 Partners for Patriots, Inc., presenting “The Healing Power of Service Dogs”; Feb. 9 with Michael Hayes’ “Americapalooza: Talk About Our Generation”; Feb. 16 with Don Philpott’s “Coastal, Inland and Freshwater Florida”; Feb. 23 with Sheryl Long’s “A Visual History of Mapmaking”; March 1 with Bruce Gobioff’s “The Science of Star Trek”; and a March 8 bus excursion or event.

“We always aim to be educational and inspiring,” Printz said. “Those who attend will be entertained.”

Academia Hernando presentations begin promptly at 10 a.m. and last two hours with a 15-minute intermission. To register for the entire lecture series in addition to a March 8 mystery bus trip or event, print the registration form found at https://www.academiahernando.org/spring-series and mail with your check for $80 payable to Academia Hernando Inc. to Bev Nuzzi
15027 Middle Fairway Drive
Brooksville, FL 34609

Checks can also be brought to an Academia Hernando presentation; in addition, walk-in admissions are available at $15 per presentation. Visit https://www.academiahernando.org/ for more information, or call (352) 345-8345 or (352) 515-0300.