Keep Your Plates Spinning: First Take Care of Yourself, a panel discussion

Fitness is the focus for Women’s Equality Centennial panel discussion at noon Wednesday, March 17, which will be live streamed on Facebook and available as a recording.

The panel discussion series is designed to to lead up to the  celebration of the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote, but also to say “It’s Your Turn.”

The panel discussions will lead up to the annual Women’s Equality Day celebration on August 26, featuring Astronaut Mae Jemison.

The series, It’s Our Turn: Stepping Up Together, will continue with the panel discussion Keeping Your Plates Spinning:  First Take Care of Yourself from noon to 1 p.m. March 17.  It is free and available on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/steppinguptoequality.

This session is designed to offer tools for busy women, who understand that to be able to take care of their families, businesses and volunteer work, they must first take care of themselves. Since spring is upon us, we will be asking experts for tools for better physical fitness, whole body and nutrition health.

March 17’s panel, Keeping Your Plates Spinning, will feature Dr. Anne Butsch, a family physician who focuses on integrative medicine, Kristi Cirignano, a functional wellness coach, and Helen Shymanski, wellness coordinator and yoga instructor. Shelley Kirk, WEHT/WTVW anchor will moderate.

Dr. Anne Butsch is a retired family physician, who is board certified in Family Medicine, Holistic Medicine, Functional Medicine and Medical Acupuncture. She is at retired attorney and retired community development professional. Today she is an enthusiastic native plant gardener, birder, and volunteer COVID vaccine immunizer. And a frustrated traveler.

Kristi Cirignano is a lawyer and board certified functional wellness coach. She is a passionate researcher, writer, health detective, and educator who empowers her clients to take back the control over their own health and lives. Her specialty is helping women overcome fatigue and other chronic health complaints including thyroid disease and autoimmunity so they can have amazing energy and be vibrantly well. She focuses on 7 foundations of wellness that are essential for every person to be optimally well and also uses advanced functional testing to dig deeper into gut health, hormones and more. Cirignano is a mom of four. When she’s not writing, teaching and coaching, she loves cooking healthy and delicious food for her family and teaching her kids to care for their own body, mind and spirit. See more about her at www.kristicirignano.com

Helen Shymanski graduated with degrees in Economics and Psychology from Duke University. She received her first certification in yoga over 20 years ago from the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY and has taught over 7,000 classes to students from age 3 to 90. Helen is also a board-certified holistic practitioner, Reiki Master, certified in kids yoga, pilates, and other integrative modalities. She has helped launch two wellness centers, St. Mary’s Wellness Center in Evansville, In and Synchronicity, in Charleston, SC. She has been trained through three health coaching programs, Duke University’s Integrative Medicine (2010), The HeartMath Institute (2003, 2014), and the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (2013), and has taught mindfulness programs in schools, fitness centers, hospitals, university settings, and been featured on local news stations. She currently resides in Charleston, SC and works at Ashley Hall School.

 Shelley Kirk is an Eyewitness News anchor for WEHT/WTVW.

Upcoming panel discussions will be on the third Wednesday every other month.

In May, panelists will suggest SuperMom Tools to help women take on increasing roles with their children’s education.

In July the focus will be on your jobs with Owning the Workplace: Reaching Your Potential.

In September, after hearing from STEM-focused Mae Jemison at the Women’s Equality Day, the topic is Engineering Opportunities in Math and Science

In November, we will look back and prepare ourselves for the future with Ready Next Time: Lessons Learned from a Pandemic.

Women’s Equality Day will be Thursday, August 26, and will feature Astronaut and leader Mae Jemison. Dr. Jemison is an engineer and physician who became the first African American woman to be admitted into NASA’s astronaut training program and travel in space. She served as a mission specialist on the Space Shuttle Endeavour and orbited the earth for almost eight days in 1992. Jemison is now focused on encouraging young people to consider careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects to help solve the challenges of the future. Sponsorships are available and tickets will be available soon. Follow the links at SteppingUpEvv.com