Student Spotlight: Cheryl Kerrigan (’16), Bedford Campus

When Cheryl Kerrigan was dealing with anorexia for over 30 years she could not find the right guide book that had tools and skills she needed to help her out in her recovery for her to use as a go to guide. She kept a journal of tools and exercises she used during her recovery and compiled them in a book calling it Telling Ed No! Telling Ed No! includes over 130 tools and exercises on how to overcome an eating disorder.

It took Cheryl about three and half years to write Telling Ed No! She gave herself a year to find an agent and a publisher. During that time she sent out 350 letters to different publishers. After getting mostly declined letters and more information she decided to self-publish her book. The first edition came out on March 2010. A couple of months later a publisher called Gers who publishes only one to two books a year contacted Cheryl to republish her book. Since Gers specializes in eating disorders Cheryl thought this was the perfect fit. She signed a contract with them and wrote 13 more chapters and updated the afterword. The second edition of Telling Ed No! came out in October 2011 at the National Eating Disorder conference in Hollywood CA.

She is now coming full circle doing her internship at an inpatient eating disorder unit at Walden Behavioral Care in Waltham where Cheryl had been patient. Cheryl plans on writing more books in the future. She will graduate this May from the Off Campus Programs Bedford location with her MSW.

Congratulation Cheryl on your tremendous accomplishments!

To purchase Telling Ed No!, click here.