LifeChanger of the Year Nominee Profile

Lynn Barnes-Wallace was featured on the Today Show:
 

Lynn Barnes-Wallace was nominated by a colleague, Kate McDevitt.

Ms. Barnes-Wallace's efforts quite literally saved a life this summer.  In her role as her district's Physical Education Resource Teacher, she serves as a visionary for the development of innovative programs to support student health and academic achievement.  Recently, she established a district-wide CPR program to train teachers and educate students. Ms. Barnes-Wallace worked tirelessly to cooordinate a CPR and AED training program in partnership with the American Heart Association. She recognized the importance of hands-on CPR training and AED awareness for the next generation of lifesavers.

Over the summer, a third grade student saved the life of his mother thanks to the CPR training he received! A couple of months ago, the student's mother collapsed and stopped breathing. He began CPR and saved his mother's life. His family went to his school's office at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year and told the principal their story.

"Being that September is 'Emergency Preparedness' month, I wanted to take the opportunity to not only nominate Lynn Barnes-Wallace for recognizing the importance of CPR training for our students, but highlight the impact her actions have already had," McDevitt said.

In addition to her work with CPR training, Ms. Barnes-Wallace has created a station-based program called IMPACT (Increasing Movement and Physical Activity in Class Time), which is designed to keep local elementary students moving throughout the school day, especially at schools without a Physical Education Prep Time teacher. It has been a wonderful way to help teachers build confidence in providing movement breaks throughout the week. Ms. Barnes-Wallace has since received over $150,000 in grant funding from Target Corporation to expand the IMPACT program in her district.

She recently worked with students in a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) class at Kearny High School to map the BMI for every school in the district, in order to improve health outcomes for those students most at risk.  This summer, those GIS students received two of five state-level awards for the BMI Maps that they developed!

She also established the SDUSD Physical Activity Collaborative, a group that is working across district departments and school sites to identify best practices and strategies for increasing physical movement in the classroom. Additionally, she chairs the Physical Education Sub-Committee of the District Wellness Council. As part of this committee, she launched a program with the Junior Lifeguard Assocation and City of San Diego to teach local students how to swim at nearby city pools. Students who have learned how to swim through the program are encouraged to apply to become junior lifeguards.

"Lynn is an incredible asset to San Diego Unified School District.  I hope that this will be a meaningful way to recognize all that she has done for her community!  We are so grateful to her," McDevitt said.