Weight Stigma Awareness Week names Sharon Maxwell as 2026 keynote speaker

Weight Stigma Awareness Week will run Sept. 8-10, 2026 as a free virtual event focused on recognizing and reducing weight stigma across healthcare, schools, workplaces and daily life. Sharon Maxwell will deliver the opening keynote and serve as a public-facing ambassador for the initiative.

Why it matters: - Weight stigma can affect how people are treated in healthcare, workplaces, schools, relationships and public life. - The event is designed to move the conversation from awareness to action through education, storytelling, professional training and community participation. - Organizers say the goal is lasting change, not just a single week of programming.

What happened: - Weight Stigma Awareness Week announced its 2026 speaker lineup on Sept. 1, 2026. - The three-day virtual event will run Sept. 8-10, 2026. - Sharon Maxwell will serve as keynote speaker and as a public-facing ambassador for the initiative. - Maxwell will open the event on Tuesday, Sept. 8, with a 90-minute keynote from 10:00-11:30 a.m. EST. - Registration is free and open to the public.

The details: - The program will bring together experts, advocates, clinicians, writers and community members. - Sessions will focus on recognizing, challenging and reducing weight stigma. - The lineup includes a mix of continuing education sessions, a panel and a writing workshop. - Tuesday's schedule includes a CE session with Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt from 12:00-1:00 p.m. EST. - Tuesday also includes a panel with the Weight Stigma Awareness Week co-creators from 1:15-2:00 p.m. EST. - Wednesday's sessions include Dr. Monica Peralta's CE session, "Healing Intergenerational Body Shame: Breaking the Cycle of Weight Stigma Across the Life Span," from 10:00-11:30 a.m. EST. - Wednesday also features Carianne D'Oriano from 12:00-1:30 p.m. EST. - Sophia Apostol will lead a 90-minute writing workshop focused on FatJoy from 2:00-3:30 p.m. EST. - Thursday's live-streamed session, "Ask The Alliance: Weight Stigma Awareness Week," will run from 8-9 p.m. ET / 5-6 p.m. PT. - More information is available through the Weight Stigma Awareness Week website.

Between the lines: - Maxwell's keynote centers on Fat joy as a form of resistance and belonging. - In a quoted statement, Maxwell said Weight Stigma Awareness Week invites people to imagine a world where every body is welcomed, respected and free to experience joy without apology. - Dr. Wendy Oliver-Pyatt said the event is meant to surface how weight stigma shapes how people are seen, heard, treated and cared for. - Oliver-Pyatt said this year's speakers combine lived experience, clinical expertise, advocacy and storytelling. - The speaker mix suggests organizers want the event to appeal to both professionals and people with personal experience of weight stigma.

What's next: - Participants can register now for the free virtual event. - Organizers will use the week to extend discussion and education beyond the September program. - The initiative aims to keep the conversation going through the rest of the year.

The bottom line: - Weight Stigma Awareness Week is pitching a broad, free, three-day forum to challenge bias and turn awareness into year-round action.