Riva is a diabetes educator, author, advocate, patient-expert and certified Wellcoaches health and wellness coach. Her work is dedicated to bringing hope and education to people with diabetes, and those who help them.
She is an inspirational speaker at conferences, health fairs, hospitals and corporations and conducts workshops on flourishing with diabetes. She speaks to national audiences, including both patients and medical professionals, and she lectures internationally in Australia, Singapore and Europe.
She knows first-hand that we can live an exceptional life, not despite having diabetes but because of it, having done so for many years.
Riva is the author of three diabetes books, Diabetes Do's & How-To's, 50 Diabetes Myths That Can Ruin Your Life and the 50 Diabetes Truths That Can Save It and The ABCs Of Loving Yourself With Diabetes. Riva also writes for The Huffington Post and blogs on her web site DiabetesStories.com. She wrote the quintessential article, "Type 1 Diabetes Fully Explained" that received astounding attention and shares in one day.
Riva has been cited by ShareCare Now as #6 among the Top 10 Diabetes Online Influencers, serves as a Key Opinion Leader for pharmaceutical and other companies and shares behavior-changing strategies on QuantiaMD.
Riva has conducted more than 150 interviews with people living with diabetes, family members and diabetes professionals, to inform her work, she coaches patients to achieve better health outcomes, and helps medical professionals work more effectively with patients, particularly in the area of behavior change.
In 2010, she presented a breakthrough coaching model at the American Association of Diabetes Educators annual conference in San Antonio, Texas, that enables health care providers to support diabetes patients with sustainable behavior change. She is part of the American Diabetes Association's "Stop Diabetes" campaign, and each year she donates part of the proceeds from her books to organizations that help people live well with diabetes. In 2009, she donated 2000 books at the International Diabetes Federation Congress in Montreal, Canada.
Riva is an advisory member of the Diabetes Hands Foundation and a member of Diabetes Advocates and the American Association of Diabetes Educators. She has been an active peer-mentor with the A1C Champion program since 2006. Riva has also lived and worked in Japan, Australia, Denmark and Hong Kong and travels widely in the U.S. and abroad. Multi-culturally sensitive, with a broad and flexible perspective, she values a collaborative approach and believes in the healing power of active listening, empathy, compassion and being positively-focused.
Specialties
Speaking to both small & large groups.
Facilitating workshops that help people with diabetes positively shift their mindset to improve self-care.
Facilitating workshops that help health care providers incorporate coaching methods into their repertoire, to work more effectively with patients.
Coaching individuals with diabetes to set and achieve improved health outcomes.
Research & writing on health and diabetes related issues.
Interviewing key leads to get the story, and patients to foster a healing experience.
International speaking engagements.