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About

Paula Rice Biever

Paula began attending an LBD Support Group in 2008 after her father was diagnosed with the disease. Now, she and her husband Erik co-facilitate the Minnesota LBD Caregiver Support Group. Paula also facilitates the Twin Cities Support Group for Persons with LBD.

She also volunteers as a Lewy Buddy, responding to phone calls and emails from Midwesterners to the Lewy Body Dementia Association (LBDA). In 2018, Paula was named LBDA Volunteer of the Year and spoke at their 15th Anniversary Gala for LBDA.

Over the years, Paula has attended numerous conferences and seminars, including the International Conference on LBD in 2015 and 2019 and Rochester Mayo Clinic’s annual LBD Knowledge and Support Summit. She has also given presentations to various groups and care residences.

In addition, Paula is an administrator for two LBD Facebook groups — Lewy Body Dementia Carers and Meaningful Activities for Seniors with Dementia.

She’s also a member of the Dementia Friendly Airports Working Group and helped create material for TSA National Shift Briefs that explain best practices for interacting with persons living with dementia and their care partners, which all TSA agents received in October of 2020. Another group she is actively involved with is the Roseville Alzheimer’s & Dementia Community Action Team.

Creating a podcast about LBD was a project that Paula had wished to start for awhile. When Ann and Linda brought the idea to her, things finally got off the ground!

Linda Olsen Engel

Linda lost her husband to LBD in December 2017. She met Paula and Ann while attending the Minnesota LBD Caregiver Support Group.

Earlier in life, before navigating the Lewy Body Dementia rollercoaster as a caregiver, Linda worked in the public schools as a speech/language pathologist and coordinator. During that time, she helped plan and organize statewide professional meetings for Minnesota Speech/Language Pathologists and spoke at women’s community workshops.

In 1991, she and her husband adopted two children. A lifelong writer, some of her essays and interviews have been published in magazines and books.

Ann Brucciani Lyon

Ann has had family members and friends who were suspected of having or have been diagnosed with LBD. She says suspected because some of these loved ones displayed symptoms of LBD before the medical field had a diagnostic term for the disease.

Ann met Paula and Linda while attending the Minnesota LBD Caregiver Support Group in 2017 and immediately felt a deep connection to them based on the shared experience of navigating LBD symptoms.

While performing online research to learn more about the disease, Ann noticed that most of the information covered the medical aspects of LBD but didn’t cover the intimate details of what caregivers encounter or how LBD was going to affect daily life.

To help bridge this gap, she reached out to Paula and Linda and suggested creating an LBD podcast series — and the Lewy Body Life podcast series was born.

By leveraging Ann’s experience in marketing and communications and Paula and Linda’s extensive knowledge and experience with LBD, this trio hopes to provide information and support to those who need it most.