Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative

Grace Bennett

Grace Bennett, an employee at BreakThroughT1D (formerly JDRF), had always been fiercely independent, navigating the ups and downs of life with Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) that ultimately caused her to have Diabetic Retinal Disease (DRD). When she began experiencing complications with her vision as a result of DRD, everything changed. The fear was overwhelming—what would happen if she lost something as crucial as her eyesight? On top of the fear, there was the crushing weight of shame and isolation. Grace couldn’t shake the feeling that it was her fault, that maybe she’d done something wrong in managing her diabetes.

Her retinal specialist assured her it was not her fault, telling her that living with T1D for over 20 years—like in her case—very often leads to serious complications like kidney and heart disease as well as vision loss from DRD, even when you do all you can to manage blood sugars. At that moment, Grace felt a wave of relief. This understanding gave her the strength to focus on addressing the complication and moving forward. There’s still so much more work to be done. We must continue to support innovative research and develop new therapies to address the early stages of DRD and restore vision in people who have lost it due to diabetes. Together, we can find new ways to prevent and cure vision loss from diabetes

Arielle Cilaire

Arielle Cilaire is a staff member of our partner Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF). Arielle’s journey with her eye health took an unexpected turn during the pandemic. After years of regular check-ups with an ophthalmologist, she went to a retinal specialist. Just a year after giving birth, she received shocking news: “You have diabetic retinal disease (DRD) in both eyes, stronger in your left.” Arielle had no previous signs and learned that pregnancy could accelerate DRD. The doctor emphasized that all people with T1D should see a retina specialist.

A year later, Arielle had to undergo invasive laser treatments, eye injections, and vitrectomy surgery, in efforts to save her vision. Having lived with diabetes for 32 years, Arielle’s vision-saving interventions reflect progress, but also how much work still needs to be done to offer hope of better ways to diagnose early, predict the risk of progression, and prevent vision-threatening DRD for everyone with diabetes.

Variety Announces: The Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative Launches Diabetes Research PSA Campaign With Kevin Kline, Oprah Winfrey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus

By Variety’s Jack Dunn

The Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative has launched its first public service announcement campaign, which features narration by Academy Award winner Kevin Kline and additional remarks from Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Oprah Winfrey and Reese Witherspoon. The PSA campaign was created to educate the public on the need for medical research toward the cure of diabetic retinal disease, which afflicted Moore toward the end of her life.

Directed by James Keach, the PSA will run for one year to spread the public service message: “The Sight You Save May Be That of Someone You Love.”

“Mary’s passion and dedication inspired me many years ago to advocate for diabetes research and treatment,” said Kline. “This PSA brings Mary’s story to audiences and humanizes her experience living with diabetes while celebrating the collaborative spirit she was known for in the entertainment industry. Through MTM Vision, Mary’s cause shines on reaching hearts far and wide, just as she did on television for all of us.”

Founded in 2018, the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative is a global non-profit dedicated to accelerating the development of new treatments and therapies to help preserve and restore vision in people with diabetic retinal disease. Moore, the beloved star of landmark CBS comedies “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” and an Oscar nominee for 1980’s “Ordinary People,” died in 2017 at age 80.

“Diabetic Retinal Disease is the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults in the world, affecting millions and millions of people, yet we do not know what we must do to prevent and cure it,” added Dr. S. Robert Levine, Moore’s husband and founder and CEO of MTM Vision. “Our new PSA was created to address the critical need to support research for a cure for DRD. We are committed to creating better ways to diagnose DRD, personalize treatments in the early stages, and find ways to restore vision in later-stage disease.”

In June, the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative unveiled its partnership with Variety. Kristen Wiig was honored with the inaugural Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award, presented as part of Variety‘s annual TV FYC Fest. The actor who rocketed to fame on “Saturday Night Live” was saluted for her impact on entertainment as a writer, actor, producer and entrepreneur.

MTM Vision’s Founder and CEO, Dr. S. Robert Levine is featured in “Leaders” Magazine

MTM Vision’s Founder and CEO, Dr. S. Robert Levine is featured in “Leaders,” a worldwide magazine that explores the broad range of leadership thoughts and visions of the world’s most influential people. Here is an excerpt from the article:

“With MTM Vision, Levine is disrupting the status quo, as Mary did throughout her life, to call attention to the fact that: we don’t know what we must about retinal disease in diabetes in order to cure it; the current way we diagnose it and plan treatment is outmoded and directed toward later stage disease; and, there are known obstacles that must be overcome in order to accelerate the development of new treatments that can stop vision loss and ultimately cure blindness from diabetes. He has brought together the best and the brightest scientists and clinicians in the world to solve this life-changing complication of diabetes, the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults globally.”

Kristen Wiig Receives The Inaugural Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award

At this year’s Variety TV FYC Fest, Variety teamed up with the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative to present the inaugural Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award to Oscar-nominated writer, actor and producer Kristen Wiig. Kristen was recognized for her extensive and groundbreaking achievements in storytelling, matching Mary’s continuing extraordinary impact on the entertainment industry.

“Kristen is indeed a true Mary. A multi-hyphenate, critically acclaimed creator of moments of joy and occasions of reflection that move and make us better,” said Dr. S. Robert Levine, founder and CEO of the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative. “Kristen also shares a creative driver with Mary, what Kristen has called ‘the need to be a little uncomfortable.’ Or as Mary once put it, ‘Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.’”

“I’m a little speechless,” Wiig said upon receiving the award. “I grew up watching Mary, and she was such an unbelievable performer in person, and this business is weird. It can be hard to navigate, especially as a woman, especially back then, and she just did it so full of grace. So this just means so much to me.”

Dr. S. Robert Levine Presents Variety Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award to Kristen Wiig

In her heart, Mary was a dancer.

She worshipped Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Ginger Rogers, and Cyd Charisse and wished she could dance like them.

Mary had a dancer’s discipline, work ethic, drive to perfection, and willingness to take risks — literal leaps of faith — with a clear understanding of what every ballerina knows… that to create something that will move people and bring audiences to their feet, your toes were going to get bloody.

But most of all… it was in dance that Mary found her true joy….

Diabetes stole this joy from her… because it stole her vision

Over time, it became a great challenge for her to walk across a room and avoid obstacles, judge changes in grades, walk down stairs, or be physically active in low light… making a once fiercely independent woman, unable to get around on her own, unable to read, and unable to sustain her autonomy…

As International Chairman of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, now Breakthrough T1D, Mary voiced the fears and hopes of people and families affected by diabetes. She helped raise awareness of it’s devastating consequences and the promise of research.

Sadly though, diabetes remains the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults, with tens of millions of people, globally, suffering vision stealing diabetic retinal disease and with every one of the hundreds of millions of people with diabetes being at risk of vision loss and blindness….

Despite her challenges, Mary believed the best way to heal ourselves was to do what we could to help others.

Her wish was that future generations with diabetes would not have to experience the challenges she had, and she dreamed that one day there would be a world without vision loss and blindness from diabetes.

The Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative was launched to honor Mary’s contributions to diabetes awareness and research – and our mission is straightforward: To accelerate the development of new treatments to prevent and cure diabetic retinal disease.

When Dea Lawrence, the amazing COO of Variety, came to me with the BIG IDEA of partnering with the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative to create an award in Mary’s name to recognize a new generation of entertainment industry leaders, I, of course, said “yes.” But then my thoughts turned quickly to the question, “Who would be worthy?” One thing was sure, though: they had to be “a Mary.”

So, I wrote down a list of Mary attributes to share with Dea to inform our selection process… that list included:

Brilliant, Beautiful, Accessible;

Generous, Kind, Compassionate;

Honest, Brave, Real;

Innovator, Role Model, Risk-taker;

Actor, Comedian, Dancer, Singer, Writer;

Or as James L. Brooks, who with Allan Burns, created the Mary Tyler Moore Show put it only a few nights after Mary’s passing upon his receiving the Producer’s Guild’s Norman Lear Achievement Award:

“I promise you as a woman, she was everything you sensed. She had dignity, worth, wit, she was intrinsically valiant, she was the woman who was at the center of the work and who never complained. She made grace contagious”

Well, Dea, Michelle, and the Variety team came through big time in selecting Kristen Wiig for the Inaugural Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award.

All it took for me to know that Kristen was truly “the one” was watching her evocative dance with Maddie Ziegler for Sia’s performance of “Chandelier” at the 2015 Grammy Awards, and witnessing the perfectionist detail in her brilliant Ann-Margaret impersonation, the joyfulness of Target Lady, the physicality of her Gloria Swanson, Katherine Hepburn, Aunt Sue, and Gilly…and the creative genius of so many more of her other sketch characters.

But then there was also her “can’t take your eyes off her” performance as Alice Klieg, a lottery winner with borderline personality disorder in Welcome to Me and her multi-layered performance as Annie joined with her honking, laugh-out-loud funny, Oscar nominated writing for Bridesmaids.

And then, finally, there is this quote from comedy icon and “friend of Mary”, Carol Burnett about her co-star, Kristen’s performance in the Season 1 finale of Palm Royale: “That scene is one of the greatest pieces of acting I have ever seen in my life,… it was a masterclass in acting, with being funny, with being in tears, with losing it.” Reading this quote gave me chills, as it flashed fond memories of Mary’s comedy breakout scene in the “My Blonde Haired Brunette” episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show’s first season.

So Kristen is, indeed, a true Mary – a multi-hyphenate, award winning creator of moments of joy and occasions of reflection that move us and make us better.

Kristen also shares a creative driver with Mary — what Kristen has called “the need to be a little uncomfortable” or as Mary once put it:

“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.”

So let me please share my gratitude to Dea, Michelle, and Variety for making this moment possible, and introduce to you, the recipient of Variety’s Inaugural Mary Tyler Moore Visionary Award – the singularly talented, remarkably funny, truly brave, Kristen Wiig.

-Dr. S. Robert Levine

TODAY Show: Dr. S. Robert Levine Speaks with Jenna Bush on the Life of Mary Tyler Moore

By Liz Calvario and Erin Farley

Mary Tyler Moore and her husband, Dr. Robert Levine, were married for more than 30 years before her death in 2017.

The beloved comedian revolutionized the role of the modern American woman, breaking barriers with her performances on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.”

But to Dr. Levine, as he told TODAY’s Jenna Bush Hager, his Mary was “someone who had (an) enormous heart, great grace… extraordinarily generous and kind.”

The former couple got married in 1983. They met by coincidence after Moore’s mother, Marjorie Hackett Moore, was sick and needed a doctor. Dr. Levine was on call.

“When I was about to leave, I said what you would expect a doctor to say, ‘Mary, if you have concerns or any further questions, just give me a call,’” he recalled. “And she turns to me and says, ‘Is acute loneliness a good enough reason to call?’”

“And I said, ‘I can’t think of a better reason to be calling at 3 a.m. And so in fact, a couple of days later, at 3 a.m., she called me,” Dr. Levine said, adding that he was “absolutely” shocked.

Mary Tyler Moore and husband Dr. Robert Levine attend the 13th Annual Television Academy Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in 1997.Ron Galella, Ltd. / Ron Galella Collection via Getty

The doctor revealed that he had no idea Moore was such a huge star, but knew their relationship was special.

“In that first moment, I recognized it was different and certainly our first date… it was so easy,” he said. “Because I didn’t really know Mary as a star, so there wasn’t (a) fan-star thing going on.”
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Dr. Levine had barely seen any episodes of “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” explaining how he was busy with college and medical school. “(It) really wasn’t what I was doing, watching TV on Saturday nights.”
Moore was previously married to Richard Carleton Meeker from 1955 to 1961, and Grant Tinker from 1962 to 1981. However, Moore previously said Dr. Levine was her first true love.

“You must feel really lucky and blessed that that was you,” Hager Bush said, with Dr. Levine replying, “Yeah, yeah I was. Absolutely.”

In a new documentary, “Being Mary Tyler Moore,” fans will get to see never-before-seen pictures and archival footage found in Moore’s own basement that shows more of the woman behind the smile.
“I suggested we call the film, ‘Being Mary Tyler Moore,’” Dr. Levine, who serves as an executive producer, said. “The thing about it was, being Mary, because everything Mary did, she was authentic. She was being herself.”

Dr. Levine is now carrying on his late wife’s legacy, working to find a way to cure complications from diabetes with the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative.

Moore was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes in her early 30s and faced other challenges throughout her life. The television icon struggled with alcoholism and suffered the death of her only son, Richie Meeker, who died at the age of 24.

“If you look at her from physical challenges, from health challenges, but also from emotional, she never shied,” Dr. Levine said. “I wanted to reflect on what Mary’s life was, remind people of her importance and her impact, and encourage them to be a Mary too. To stand up for what you believe and to always present the world with a smile, but to not be shy from the battle.” Read more.

Chris German

Meet Christopher German, PhD, a passionate advocate for diabetes awareness and a lay advisory committee member for the Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative. Chris has been living with Type 1 diabetes for over 35 years since he was diagnosed at just six years old. For the past 15 years, he’s faced bi-annual assessments, which, while helpful for tracking the disease’s progression, often fall short of offering guidance for prevention of future complications.

Chris explains that having diabetes is a constant balancing act that affects every aspect of life. The financial strain, the looming risks to eyes, kidneys, and heart, and the daily management can be overwhelming. Yet, Chris remains steadfast and deeply invested in finding better ways to support those like him.

Spring 2024 Workshop

We’re pleased to share that The Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative held a “Workshop on Data” in Seattle, WA on May 7. The workshop was entitled: “Data Harmonization, Standardization, and Collaboration for Diabetic Retinal Disease: accelerating the Development of New Indications, Therapies, and Regulatory Pathways.” We are grateful for the contributions of our 60 attendees who represented research expertise from industry, academia, government, and non-profit organizations. We all need to work together to bring us closer to finding a cure for vision loss and blindness caused by diabetes and how we handle and manage our research and real-world patient data is key to accomplishing this goal.

Mary Tyler Moore: Diabetes Educator and Advocate

“Who can turn the world on with her smile?” So began the theme song for the popular The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which aired on the CBS television network from 1970 to 1977. With the passing of Mary Tyler Moore, the show’s star, on 25 January 2017, the diabetes community lost an individual who for decades not only brought smiles to her audiences, but also changed the world for people living with diabetes, researchers seeking its cure, and health care providers for those with the disease.