Kristina Lyman is a breast cancer survivor who was diagnosed when her two daughters were 1 and 4 years old. With an aggressive and fast-spreading form of cancer, she underwent two rounds of chemotherapy, a bilateral mastectomy and radiation — all while caring for her children and working as a magazine editor and college instructor.

A journalist, Kristina is the editor-in-chief of Nspire Magazine, a lifestyles publication capturing the spirit of living in the Pacific Northwest. She also teaches reporting and writing at the University of Idaho and has taught journalism at Arizona State University.

Kristina is a former newspaper editor in New York, Phoenix and Detroit, where she has led reporting teams on major stories of national interest including the 2001 terrorist attacks, serial killers in Phoenix and the deaths of Pope John Paul II and civil rights heroine Rosa Parks. She’s also reported internationally, covering life after the Bosnian War. Her writing and editing projects have earned her numerous awards.

Kristina lives with her husband, children and chocolate lab in Coeur d’Alene, a small but growing city in the panhandle of Idaho that Barbara Walters once called “a little slice of heaven.”

Whether she’s writing, editing or teaching, Kristina routinely reflects on the things she’s learned during her cancer journey and works hard every day to not only stay cancer-free but, as she says, “to live my best life!”