Wendy Bevier
I graduated from UC Davis in 1974 in Human Physiology and then worked at the Primate Center in perinatal biology. I did not get into veterinary school which had been a goal, so I went to the University of Oregon to start a graduate program in therapeutic recreation. Unfortunately, the graduate fees were increased, but I found a program that would pay your student fees if you took classes in “gerontology”. I ended up getting a Masters degree in Recreation and Gerontology. I moved back home to Santa Barbara in 1978 and worked for the City of Santa Barbara in Recreation. I then worked for a retirement residence as an activities director.
Science called me back, and I started a PhD program in Physiology at UC Santa Barbara in the Institute of Environmental Stress (good grief) in 1980. I met Doug Bradley in grad school, and we moved in together. I graduated in 1985, with an emphasis on sleep, exercise, & aging, and then got a postdoctoral fellowship in the Stanford Medical School in the sleep disorders center. We moved to Redwood City & got married, and Maia Bradley was born in 1986. Doug got his Masters & Teaching credential while at Stanford, and I changed emphasis to bone density, exercise, & aging (I was sleep deprived enough). Austen Bradley was born in 1988.
Doug got a job in San Luis Obispo teaching high school, and we left Stanford. We lived in Morro Bay, and I taught part-time at Cal Poly. In 1990, we moved to Solvang (Danish capital of America), and I started working at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute (SDRI) in Santa Barbara with Dr. Lois Jovanovic on diabetes and pregnancy studies. In 1995, I was laid off and decided to stay home with kids. I worked part-time at the YMCA as a swim instructor, youth swim team coach, lifeguard & then lifeguard trainer, aqua aerobics instructor (anything water related), and CPR/First Aid/AED instructor.
In 2004, Dr. Jovanovic asked if I wanted to come back to SDRI; she had a new grant to investigate the possibility of an artificial pancreas for people with type 1 diabetes. I am still at SDRI, and the artificial pancreas is now a reality. So much has changed in the world of diabetes, and treatment for all forms of diabetes has improved a great deal. This year is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of insulin. Little known fact – in early 1922 Dr. William Sansum (founder of the Institute and Sansum Clinic) brought the insulin recipe back to Santa Barbara and became the first person to make insulin in the US and treat his patients. My research emphasis has changed from type 1 diabetes to type 2 diabetes and health equity.
Doug and I divorced in 2007. Maia is an RN in the Emergency Department at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD and has seen enough COVID to last a lifetime. Austen is/was a musician, is now taking construction technology classes, and working at Hitching Post II in Buellton (from the Sideways movie). I still live in Solvang, so please call or text if you are ever in town.
