Mari Ruddy of Team WILD: Women Inspiring Life with Diabetes
Mari; Type 1 Diabetes, 1981
“WILD empowers women with Diabetes through athletics & cutting edge Diabetes education. We are national, virtual and open to women of all abilities.”
Mari Ruddy has successfully lived with Type 1 Diabetes for thirty years. However, since her father was diagnosed with Type 1 when she was 1 year old, technically, she has lived with Diabetes her entire life. Mari was diagnosed with Diabetes when she was sixteen. Her brother was diagnosed with Type 1 when he was twenty. When she was thirty nine, she found out she had breast cancer, for the first time. She then founded the Red Rider Recognition Program for cyclists with Diabetes now used at over eighty Tour de Cure events put on by the American Diabetes Association. When she realized most of the cyclists were men, she founded Team WILD: Women Inspiring Life with Diabetes, a fitness and wellness organization for women who want to take charge of their health. Mari has been a high school principal, a high school Spanish and Leadership teacher, a strategy consultant for small education and family wellness non-profits and is currently coaching education leaders at colleges, high schools and non-profits throughout the United States. She plans to do her first Ironman event in 2012.
