This Weeks Cartoon by Theresa L. Garnero, ARNP, CDE.

Theresa L. Garnero got her start as a cartoonist by receiving rejection letters from Walt Disney when she was 8 years old. As the youngest of 7 children, raised in a humorous environment, it’s no wonder she aspired to make people laugh. Even comedians realize the seriousness of making a living, however, so she eventually went to college and found her passion: nursing. She completed her Master of Science in Nursing degree, became a Certified Diabetes Educator and an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse, Board Certified in Advanced Diabetes Management. She is the current President of the California Central Coast Chapter of the American Association of Diabetes Educators. She has 18 years experience as a nurse.

Theresa has worked with people who have diabetes throughout the continuum of care: Emergency Medical Services, Emergency Department, ICU/CCU, med-surg, homecare, hospice, and inpatient/outpatient diabetes education programs. Theresa combined her science background with her artistic ability and fulfilled her dream to become an internationally published cartoonist. She found people responded positively to her cartoons which were incorporated into Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula’s Diabetes Program. In addition, Theresa works as a freelance writer and diabetes humorous illustrator for several diabetes-related companies and journals. She also wrote scripts for dLife, a weekly cable television program about diabetes.

In her attempts to impact the diabetes community on a larger scale, Theresa Garnero decided to author and illustrate a diabetes education cartoon book, filled with visually inviting information and multicultural characters. Her hope is to inspire diabetes self-management and raise money for research. She will donate half of her profits back to diabetes research.

The retail price of a paperback version of DIABETease is $16.99. The book is available at select bookstores, by contacting the author directly at 1(877)765-4386, or at www.tgarnero.com.

Theresa recently was honored with two American Association of Diabetes Educator’s (AADE) prestigious awards: the 2004-2005 National Diabetes Educator of the Year and the Allene Van Son Award for best education tool in using diabetes cartoons to promote diabetes self-management. She lectures nationwide about Humor and Diabetes Education.