d18 Participant Biographies

Margaret Anderson
Deloitte Consulting LLP
Managing Director, Federal Health Practice

At Deloitte, Ms. Anderson works across federal health, nonprofit, and the healthcare and life science sectors to help advance improved health outcomes for patients. Previously, Ms. Anderson served as Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director of FasterCures of The Milken Institute. Prior to FasterCures, she served as the Deputy Director and a team leader in the Center on AIDS & Community Health at the Academy for Educational Development, where she led public health projects for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and private foundations. She was a Founding Board Member of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA and served as its President. She currently sits on boards of Act for NIH, Asthma & Allergy Foundation, and Melanoma Research Alliance. Ms. Anderson holds a bachelor’s degree in government and political science from the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in science, technology and public policy from George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs.

Kristen Binaso
Boehringer Ingelheim
Director of Patient Advocacy and Professional Relations-Primary Care

Kristen Binaso is the Director of Patient Advocacy and Professional Relations-Primary Care at Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. based in Ridgefield, CT. In her role, she, along with her team, is responsible for building and maintaining collaborative partnerships with key patient advocacy groups and professional medical associations. Her background includes experience with the American Pharmacists Association, CVS/Pharmacy, Rite Aid, and Target. Ms. Binaso holds a bachelor’s in pharmacy from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and is a registered pharmacist with specialty focuses in immunizations and geriatric care.

Margaret Borys
Sanofi
Vice President and Head of Diabetes Insulins

Margaret Borys leads the US Insulins franchise for Sanofi US, where she is responsible for driving both new product innovation as well as optimizing existing core businesses. As part of the broader portfolio, she focuses on patient affordability and integrated care solutions that go “beyond A1C.” She brings a combination of both strategy and operations to her role and has previously had senior roles at Pfizer, Wyeth, and Pharmacia. Ms. Borys is an experienced business leader with demonstrated strength in driving strategy, teams, and business results in rapidly changing environments. Ms. Borys graduated from Rutgers University – Newark, with a bachelor’s degree in accounting/computer science and has an MBA in marketing from Columbia Business School.

Bruce Braughton
BD Diabetes Care
Worldwide VP and GM, Advanced Diabetes Care and Global Marketing

Bruce Braughton provides general management oversight for the Advanced Diabetes Care Platform and has full accountability as the Global Marketing Leader across Diabetes Care. Mr. Braughton joined BD with more than 25 years of progressive leadership roles in general management, marketing, and sales. Most recently, he was at AstraZeneca as Vice President of the Global Diabetes Injectables Franchise. Prior to that, Mr. Braughton held a number of roles over his 23-year career at Sanofi, including VP, Diabetes Marketing, VP, Sales & Marketing for the Dermatology Business, and VP, Sales & Marketing for the Allergy Business Unit; and he held many other leadership roles across marketing, sales, and operations. Bruce holds an MBA from Bucknell University and a bachelor’s in marketing from Bloomsburg University.

Adam Brown
Close Concerns, Head, Diabetes Technology and Connected Care;
The diaTribe Foundation, Columnist and Senior Editor;
Bright Spots & Landmines, Author

Adam Brown has worked at Close Concerns since 2010. He is the head of diabetes technology and digital health, bringing 16 years of personal experience with diabetes to his work. Mr. Brown has been highly involved in the expansion of technology coverage at Close Concerns, which includes glucose meters, CGM, insulin pumps, automated insulin delivery, diabetes software, mobile apps, and wearables. He also serves as a senior editor and frequent contributor at diaTribe.org, where his acclaimed column (Adam’s Corner) has brought diabetes tips to over one million people since 2013. His first book, Bright Spots & Landmines: The Diabetes Guide I Wish Someone Had Handed Me, was published in May 2017 and has reached over 50,000 people through name-your-own-price downloads and purchases on Amazon. Mr. Brown graduated summa cum laude from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, pursuing concentrations in marketing and health care management and policy. 

Tanisha Carino
FasterCures
Executive Director

Tanisha Carino is a respected senior executive with more than two decades of experience in academia, government, and the private sector. She joined the Milken Institute in January 2018 as executive director of FasterCures, the center devoted to saving lives and improving the medical research system. Throughout her distinguished career, including at GlaxoSmithKline, Avalere Health, and Medicare, Carino has been at the forefront of collaborative efforts to promote policies, research, and business practices that support the fight against disease and improve the lives of patients. Carino earned her Ph.D. in health policy from Johns Hopkins University.

Michelle Carnahan
Sanofi
North America Head, Diabetes and Cardiovascular

As the North America Head of Diabetes and Cardiovascular for Sanofi, Michelle Carnahan leads all commercial operations for the Business Unit in the US. She joined Sanofi in January 2018, bringing deep knowledge across many therapeutic areas including CNS, women’s health, musculoskeletal, and diabetes. Most recently, Ms. Carnahan served as Chief Operating Officer for the international business of Lilly, where she was responsible for driving the commercial operations and strategy. She is recognized for championing women’s issues and education, and served as executive sponsor of Lilly’s Women’s Leadership Network for several years. She also served as a member of the Advisory Council for St. Mary’s Child Center, is currently an Advisor to the JBW Women in Management Center at Purdue University, and serves on the Alumni Board at DePauw University. Ms. Carnahan earned a bachelor’s in economics from DePauw University.

Colleen Chelini
PwC
Director, Bodylogical

Colleen Chelini is a director in PwC’s Health Industries practice. She has over eleven years’ experience at PwC and has been PwC’s program director for Bodylogical since 2013. She has worked extensively across healthcare and has a passion for how data and analytics can be used to improve health and establish ROIs in the industry. Ms. Chelini has a sports medicine background as a certified athletic trainer working with Stanford’s rugby teams, and has managed corporate wellness programs for Hewlett-Packard. She has a bachelor’s from UC Davis in exercise science, a master’s from SJSU in kinesiology, and an MBA from Duke University.

Kelly Close
The diaTribe Foundation, Founder and Chair of the Board;
diaTribe.org, Editor-in-Chief;
Close Concerns, President

Kelly Close founded The diaTribe Foundation, a nonprofit established in 2013 to improve the lives of people with diabetes and prediabetes and to advocate for action. She is Editor-in-Chief of diaTribe.org, a free educational resource for people with diabetes. Ms. Close founded Close Concerns in 2002; its mission is to make everyone smarter about diabetes. At Close Concerns, Ms. Close and her team write approximately three million words each year on diabetes, prediabetes, obesity, and digital health for Closer Look, a highly praised service covering the field. Ms. Close’s passion comes from her extensive professional work as well as from her personal experience, having had diabetes for over 30 years. Ms. Close’s previous work on Wall Street (investment banking at Goldman Sachs, equity research at Merrill Lynch) and at McKinsey & Company focused on life sciences. Kelly graduated from Amherst College and Harvard Business School. 

Daniela Connelly
The Wonderful Company
Executive Medical Officer

Dr. Daniela Connelly, Executive Medical Officer for the Wonderful Company, is a primary care physician trained in integrative medicine with over 15 years’ experience in public health and lifestyle medicine. The Wonderful Company, a privately held $4 billion company with thousands of employees worldwide, grows, harvests, and markets healthy, real foods, including Halos, Wonderful Almonds and Pistachios, and Pom Wonderful juice. The Wonderful Company’s deep-rooted philosophy of “doing well by doing good” is reflected in its development of a wrap-around health and wellness ecosystem for its employees and their family members in the Central Valley. This ecosystem includes primary care clinics that focus on diabetes, prediabetes, and obesity. Dr. Connelly currently guides this multispecialty team to achieve extraordinary metabolic health outcomes.

James Corbett
Centura Health
Senior VP of Community Health and Values Integration

James Corbett, M.Div., J.D, is a healthcare executive and bioethicist. James has served as a fellow at the Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and at Harvard’s Safra Center for Ethics, and he is currently serving a four-year term on the National Institute of Health’s National Advisory Council for Nursing Research. Mr. Corbett has experience in four health systems, where he provided strategic and operational leadership for behavioral health, consumer segmentation, population health, hospital re-design, hospital-housing development, research, innovation, global health, advocacy, and ethics. Mr. Corbett has established innovative programs in population health, including the home delivery of healthy meals to patients recently discharged from hospitals, hospital-based farmers markets, and veggie/fruit Rx prescription programs. Mr. Corbett earned a bachelor’s in international relations from Syracuse University, followed by his Juris Doctorate from St. John’s University, and a Master of Divinity from Duke University.

Stefanie Cousins
Brighter Bites
Director of Marketing & Communications

Ms. Cousins is the Director of Marketing and Communications at Brighter Bites. She is responsible for the organization’s corporate communications, strategic marketing, and branding. Ms. Cousins launched the Brighter Bites program in Austin in June 2015. Before joining Brighter Bites, she provided marketing and communications services to health sector clients including the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), MD Anderson Cancer Center, UNC Health Care, Baylor School of Medicine, and John Snow Inc. (JSI). For 15 years, she was a news and documentary producer for ABC News 20/20, The New York Times, and NOW with Bill Moyers, among others. Ms. Cousins holds an MPH from the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and a bachelor's in English and Italian from Middlebury College.

Nichola Davis
NYC Health and Hospitals
Assistant Vice President, Chronic Disease and Prevention

Dr. Nichola Davis is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. She is currently a researcher and Assistant Vice President in Chronic Disease and Prevention at the Office of Population Health, part of OneCity Health, at NYC Health and Hospitals. Previously, she was Attending Physician and the co-Director of Adult Weight Management at North Central Bronx Hospital. Dr. Davis has a long record of outstanding ability as a teacher. Since joining the Albert Einstein College of Medicine faculty in 1999, she has participated in teaching the Einstein students in many forums, including serving as the Medicine Clerkship Site Leader, participating as both a preceptor and group leader in the Introduction to Clinical Medicine Course, and giving many lectures over this time. She was recognized as an outstanding teacher with election to the Davidoff Society for Excellence in Clinical Teaching in 2003. Dr. Davis received her medical degree from NYU School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years.

Esther Dyson
HICCup; Way to Wellville
Founder

Esther Dyson, named by Forbes magazine as one of the most powerful women in American business, is regarded as one of the most influential voices in technology. In 1980, Ms. Dyson founded EDventure Holdings, a pioneering information technology and new media company. In 1982, she took over Rosen's Electronic News. In the late 1980s, she became an active investor in Eastern European technology ventures. She also became involved in the public discussion about the future of the Internet. In 2000, she started writing a column for the New York Times. She has a bachelor's in economics from Harvard and was founding chairman of ICANN from 1998 to 2000. In addition, she wrote the best-selling, widely translated book Release 2.0: A Design for Living in the Digital Age, published by Broadway Books in 1997.

Stephanie Edwards
Eli Lilly and Company
Project Manager, Innovation

Stephanie Edwards is the project manager for Innovation New Product Research, Connected Care/Innovation, at Eli Lilly and Company based out of the Lilly Innovation Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Prior to Lilly, Ms. Edwards worked at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, where she was a Senior Project Manager responsible for diabetes technology clinical research studies and industry projects. She has also worked for small community organizations focusing on public health projects in childhood obesity prevention and the social determinants of health. She has a master’s of public health from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s in English from Providence College.

Laura Martin Feinberg
Sanofi
Lead, US Public Affairs, Diabetes and Cardiovascular

For more than 20 years, Laura Martin Feinberg has focused on strategic alliance development and communications with the goal of helping individuals and organizations meet business and policy objectives. She has extensive experience supporting local, national, and international policy change and raising issues awareness through public education campaigns, advocacy, and media outreach. Ms. Feinberg has a passion for connecting communities, uniting voices, and creating meaningful improvements in health outcomes. Previously, in her role as a Managing Director at Burson-Marsteller, Ms. Feinberg supported communications for Sanofi’s US diabetes franchise. She also worked as a Vice President at Merritt Group where she developed expertise in health IT with an emphasis on healthcare reform and disease management. In addition, she served as the Communications Director for Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure (ABC2) and has supported several not-for-profit initiatives.

Christine Ferguson
Leverage Global Consulting
Principal

Nationally recognized as an innovator in high-profile executive roles, Christine Ferguson has served as a director on the corporate boards of two health insurance companies. She has held key leadership positions with three governors and has served on a US Senate staff, and she has been a consultant and advisor to private and non-profit executives, to the Congressional Budget Office, to The Institute of Medicine, to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and to numerous state and national organizations. Under her leadership, Rhode Island took a unique approach to building a health insurance exchange (HSRI), which was recognized as one of seven global examples of innovation and disruption in health care by the Imperial College of London and the WISH Foundation. In 2015, she co-founded LEVERAGE with two primary goals: to provide comprehensive support for leaders and decision makers in a time of uncertainty and dynamic change, and to develop and bring to market on-the-ground solutions that bridge the gap between business and technology. 

John Dee Fair
dQ&A
Advisor

John Dee Fair (nickname: “John Dee”) has over 30 years of experience in market research and analytics. Before immersing himself in diabetes treatment as Chief Research Officer and then Analytic Advisor at dQ&A, he led the Retail Analytics team at Apple, including a special focus on launching Apple Watch. Mr. Fair was also Vice President of Customer Insights for the beauty retailer Sephora, after managing research/analytics teams for Telephia/Nielsen Mobile, Wells Fargo, and Williams-Sonoma. He began his career working on patient satisfaction measurement for many Midwest hospital chains and helped establish one of the first accepted methodologies for FDA approval of “cosmeceutical” products. Mr. Fair’s personal and family history have contributed to his passion for improving diabetes outcomes.

Faith Foreman
Houston Health Department
Assistant Director

Dr. Faith Foreman is Assistant Director of the Houston Health Department and a seasoned public health practitioner and academician with more than 20 years of community and coalition building experience. In 2013, Dr. Foreman was tapped to lead the Cities Changing Diabetes (CCD) Global Public-Private Partnership aimed at reducing the burden of diabetes in urban populations. As the Assistant Director of the Houston Health Department, Dr. Foreman leads a team of nurses, health educators, wellness professionals, community health planners, and dieticians. Dr. Foreman has a special passion for reducing health disparities among marginalized communities. Dr. Foreman earned her masters and doctorate in public health from the University of Texas School of Public Health, and her bachelor’s in sociology from Texas Southern University. She was also a National Institutes of Health Fellow. Dr. Foreman is licensed to practice nursing in Texas.

Tim Garvey
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Chair, Department of Nutrition Sciences

Dr. Timothy Garvey is Professor of Medicine and Chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Dr. Garvey has achieved international recognition for his research in insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. He has served as the PI of an NIH-funded Program Project to study markers and mechanisms of diabetes vascular complications in collaboration with two national trial cohorts. Dr. Garvey also has a track record of community based research and outreach in the context of two notable initiatives, Project Sugar (a genetics study among Gullah-speaking African Americans) and MUSC/HBCU Partners in Wellness (a program in community health at six historically black colleges and universities in SC intended to engage minority students in careers in the health professions). Dr. Garvey obtained his MD from St. Louis University and completed residency training in Internal Medicine at Washington University and fellowship training at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and at UCSD.

Edward Gregg
Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Chief, Epidemiology and Statistics Branch, Division of Diabetes Translation

Dr. Edward Gregg serves as Chief of the Epidemiology and Statistics Branch in the Division of Diabetes Translation at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where his current efforts involve oversight of the National Diabetes Surveillance system and the integration of surveillance, epidemiology, health services, and economic studies at CDC to better guide health policy for diabetes. His research interests include surveillance of national and international trends in diabetes and related risk factors as well as the impact of lifestyle interventions on the risk of diabetes and related complications. Dr. Gregg has published over 190 articles and chapters in chronic disease epidemiology and prevention and is a lead or co-investigator in several national multi-center studies. Dr. Gregg has a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh, a master’s from Wake Forest University, and a bachelor’s from the College of William and Mary.

Anders Hvelplund
Novo Nordisk
Executive Director, Clinical Development & Research

Dr. Anders Hvelplund is Executive Director of Clinical Development and Research in Novo Nordisk North America. In his current role, he and his team have medical oversight of all Novo Nordisk clinical trials in North America within Diabetes, Obesity, NASH, and cardiovascular disease. His career at Novo Nordisk has spanned from medical affairs to product safety, with key activities in clinical development leading teams to support phase three programs, submissions, and regulatory interactions through approval and into lifecycle management. He is a medical doctor by training, and before joining Novo Nordisk he completed his PhD in cardiology using innovative registry solutions combined with clinical trial methodology to gain insights into inequality in patient care.

Carl Rashad Jaeger
Scott Street Films
Creative Director

The Big Idea of Carl Rashad Jaeger’s life is that moving images (film, TV, and video) can create fundamental change. As the VP of Marketing and PR of the Penfolds Group, Mr. Jaeger helped to build the Australian category of wine in North America through his work with global brands such as Lindemans and Penfolds. At Robert Mondavi, Mr. Jaeger was selected to redesign all consumer facing media (web, video, print, packaging) for this global brand and succeeded in reinvigorating sales growth in every region. These global brands in the wine industry awakened his creative soul, and he has helped businesses, charitable foundations, and television programs thrive. He earned his MBA from the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College and his bachelor’s from Georgetown University. He and his team created the videos about d16 and d17.

Marcia Kadanoff
Maker City Project
CEO

Marcia Kadanoff is a change agent and innovation advisor to nonprofit and for-profit companies. She has served as a Chief Marketing Officer and CEO to many early-stage companies, with a focus on metrics, measurement, and data analytics. Previously, Ms. Kadanoff worked as a marketing executive at Apple Computer, as a VP of Marketing at Sun Microsystems, and co-founded the largest independent direct and interactive agency on the West Coast, which was sold to Draft and became the basis of Draft FCB. She built and sold a marketing analytic consultancy as well as the fastest growing content-marketing agency. She has a strong interest in equitable development inside our cities, having served on the board of Rebuilding Together SF and having worked as a communications advisor to the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. Ms. Kadanoff has a bachelor’s from Harvard and an MBA from Stanford.

Conrod Kelly
Merck Diabetes Franchise
Executive Director, US Marketing Leader

Conrod Kelly is the Executive Director, US Marketing Leader for the Diabetes Franchise at Merck. His marketing career in the pharmaceutical industry spans cardiovascular disease, migraine, general anesthesia, surgery, and Alzheimer’s disease. Prior to joining Merck, Mr. Kelly worked at Lifescan, a Johnson & Johnson company, where he worked on the OneTouch brand of blood glucose monitors. He also worked at GlaxoSmithKline in the Vaccines Division. Mr. Kelly holds a bachelor’s and an MBA from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University’s School of Business and Industry. He is on the board of Big Brothers Big Sisters -- Independence Region and a member of COMPASS, where he does pro bono consulting for non-profits.

Sophie Koontz
dQ&A
Vice President, Operations

Sophie Koontz leads dQ&A’s research and production processes, product management and innovation, brand and product marketing, and recruitment and staffing. She previously managed the dQ&A Diabetes Connections – United States product, which synthesizes data and insights from over 5,000 people with diabetes every quarter. Prior to joining dQ&A, Ms. Koontz worked at a health technology non-profit and at the Department of Health and Human Services, where she analyzed data related to the Affordable Care Act and the Children’s Health Insurance Program. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University with a bachelor’s in human biology. 

Ed Liebowitz
Becton Dickinson
Product Leader, Digital Diabetes

Ed Liebowitz leads Becton Dickinson’s digital diabetes platform and is responsible for launching the company’s first consumer facing branded mobile app. He is leading BD’s strategy to develop and commercialize an interconnected diabetes management system which will leverage BD’s portfolio of connected insulin delivery devices. The full solution includes the consumer app, regulated connected devices, clinical decision support and population health management. Mr. Liebowitz has led product efforts across the spectrum of stakeholders for digital health: consumers, corporate wellness, payers and providers. Prior to BD, Mr. Liebowitz led the diet and fitness subscription business at Everyday Health and helped to build their Payer & Provider business unit, offering SaaS solutions to healthcare enterprise. He received his MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and holds a master’s in political science from Fordham University and a bachelor’s in economics from Hobart College.

Klaus Madsen
Madsen Health

Klaus Krøyer Madsen is an independent population health and public policy consultant. Currently, he serves as the Stakeholder Engagement Consultant to the Cities Changing Diabetes Houston initiative, and the primary consultant to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Healthy Cities Research Hub at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. The Healthy Cities Research Hub focuses on extracting and translating the findings from the Novo Nordisk Cities Changing Diabetes initiatives in North America (Mexico City, Houston and Vancouver) and sharing the results to help other cities advance into action. Cities Changing Diabetes is a partnership program to address the urban diabetes challenge. Mr. Madsen received his bachelor’s in business, language, and culture from Copenhagen Business School. He was an exchange student in the MBA program at The University of Texas at Austin, and received an MPH in health policy and management from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health.

Jed Miller
3 Bridges
Digital Strategist

 

Jed Miller advises mission-driven organizations on creating strategic alignment between their vision, their tools, and the communities they serve. He has consulted to groups including the Open Society Foundations, Greenpeace, and the World Bank, with a specialty in open data and transparency. He previously served as digital director for the American Civil Liberties Union and as the first interactive editor of the New York Times. Mr. Miller taught advocacy communications at Columbia’s School for International Public Affairs and has written for the Guardian, the Civicist, and the General Services Administration. Mr. Miller graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College with a BA in English. He can be found online at @jedmiller and jedmiller.com. 

Alan Moses
Novo Nordisk
Senior Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Alan Moses is Senior Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer at Novo Nordisk. Trained in internal medicine and endocrinology, he spent the early part of his academic career at Harvard doing bench research. Dr. Moses co-founded and directed the Clinical Investigator Training Program at Beth Israel Deaconess-Harvard Medical School-MIT until joining Novo Nordisk in 2004. From 1998 to 2004, Dr. Moses also served as Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of the Joslin Diabetes Center with specific responsibility for the Joslin Clinic. During his 14 years at Novo Nordisk, Dr. Moses has served in multiple roles beginning as Associate Vice President of Medical Affairs in the US and rising to the position of Senior Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer working in Copenhagen. Dr. Moses earned his MD from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, worked for three years at the National Institutes of Health, completed his clinical endocrine/diabetes training at Tufts New England Medical Center, and studied Health Care Strategy at Harvard Business School. Since January 2018, he has returned to the US as a Senior Scientific Advisor within Novo Nordisk Inc.

Angela Moskow
Milken Institute Resnick Center for Public Health
Senior Advisor

Angela Moskow is currently serving as a Senior Advisor at the Milken Institute in The Lynda and Stewart Resnick Center for Public Health. Ms. Moskow has worked in healthcare for nearly three decades focused on building strong brands that meet patient and marketplace needs. Ms. Moskow was a principal in the launch of Sanofi’s blockbuster 24-hour insulin, Lantus, shepherding the brand for over 10 years. In 2011, Ms. Moskow started focusing on chronic disease prevention and wellness, specifically looking to prevent conditions like diabetes and obesity altogether. Most recently, Ms. Moskow led the Sanofi US Government Relations team. Ms. Moskow is a member of the Northwest Missouri State University Foundation Board, a member of the Alliance for a Healthier Generation Board of Directors, and she serves as a Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Mentor. Ms. Moskow recently received awards from both The Women’s Venture Fund and Leading Women Entrepreneurs.

Jennifer Nadelson

Jennifer Nadelson has more 20 years of experience in mission-driven, fast-paced organizations, where she has served in leadership roles in education and healthcare. She was formerly the Executive Director of Primary Care Progress (PCP), a national social enterprise whose vision is to create and enhance leadership development for primary care clinicians. In that role, she established the foundational structures, systems, and culture that PCP needed in order to expand offerings. Prior, she was the Director of Operations at the renowned Ariadne Labs, Atul Gawande’s research think tank, where she shepherded the organization through a challenging joint venture structure and a quadrupling in size and capacity. She assumed these roles after almost nine years in various senior levels of hospital administration at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Ms. Nadelson holds an MBA from Northeastern University, a master’s in urban planning from Columbia University, and a bachelor’s in history from Barnard College. 

K.M. Venkat Narayan
Emory Global Diabetes Research Center
Director

Dr. Narayan is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine and has roots in three different continents. He is currently Ruth and O.C. Hubert Chair of Global Health, Director, Emory Global Diabetes Research Center and Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology at Emory University in Atlanta. He was formerly chief of the diabetes science branch at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and intramural scholar at the US National Institutes of Health. With more than 425 publications, including several high-impact studies, his work exemplifies his leadership in inter-disciplinary diabetes and NCD research and public health. He was the recipient of the American Diabetes Association’s Kelly West award for outstanding achievement in epidemiology in 2015, the Danish Diabetes Academy Visiting professorship 2015-17, the Jawaharlal Nehru Chair Visiting professorship 2016, and the Marion Creekmore award for internationalization in 2017.  

Brendan O'Connor
Quantified Ventures LLC
Director of Strategic Partnerships

Brendan O’Connor is Director of Strategic Partnerships at Quantified Ventures, where he works with health plans, health systems, social enterprises, and community-based organizations to structure outcomes-based strategic partnerships. These are often centered on prevention of chronic disease and impacting the social determinants of health, leveraging Pay for Success (aka Social Impact Bond) financing to enable scale and unlock sustainable funding streams for high-performing organizations. Mr. O’Connor is inspired by forging unique and unexpected partnerships to bring people and groups together to create a collective impact that benefits the health of people and communities. In 2012, he co-founded Raise Your City, a social venture that raised significant funding for DC-based nonprofits by lowering barriers for young DC residents to engage directly in local philanthropic initiatives and events. A North Carolina native now residing in Denver, Mr. O’Connor earned a bachelor’s in International Studies from Elon University.

Wizdom Powell
University of Connecticut Health Disparities Institute, Director;
University of North Carolina Center for Health Equity Research, Associate Director;
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Associate Professor

Wizdom Powell is Director of the Health Disparities Institute and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Connecticut. Formerly, Dr. Powell spent over a decade at UNC-Chapel Hill’s Gillings School of Global Public Health, where she held a tenured appointment in the Department of Health Behavior and was Research Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Center for Health Equity Research in the Department of Social Medicine. In 2011-2012, she was appointed by President Obama to serve as a White House Fellow to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. Her community-based research focuses on of the role of modern racism and gender norms on African American male health outcomes and healthcare inequities. She has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including ones in the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Behavioral Medicine, and Child Development. In addition to being a White House Fellow, she is an American Psychological Association (APA) Minority, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Kaiser Permanente Burch Leadership, Institute of African American Research, and Ford Foundation Fellow. She received a PhD and master’s in clinical psychology and an MPH from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Robert Ratner
Georgetown University School of Medicine
Professor of Medicine

Dr. Robert E. Ratner, MD, FACP, FACE, is a Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University Medical School in Washington, DC. He recently stepped down after serving five years as Chief Scientific & Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association from 2012-2017. At the Association, he provided leadership and oversight of scientific and medical activities, including research, clinical affairs, program recognition and certification, medical information, and professional education. In this capacity, he oversaw the Association’s support of a broad range of professional education activities and the development of the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Recommendations, clinical consensus reports, and expert opinions.

Matthew John Rice
Merck
Team Leader, Medical Affairs

Matthew John Rice is a team leader of Medical Science Liaisons (MSLs) at Merck & Company Inc., a global healthcare company. In his role, he manages field-based MSLs that support diabetes scientific leaders and healthcare decision makers. As part of the Merck Diabetes US Medical Affairs Team, he assists in the development of Global Medical Affairs strategy to promote improved diabetes care. Mr. Rice has been at Merck for 27 years. He earned a bachelor’s in chemistry from Albion College.

Kathleen Regan
The Commonwealth Fund
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer

Kathleen Regan is Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that aims to promote a high performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality, and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable. Ms. Regan has been advising, and investing in, healthcare companies for the past 25 years. She served as a senior advisor to the U.S. Department of State Global Health Initiative and led the development of a $200 million public-private partnership, Saving Mothers, Giving Life, to address maternal mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa. Ms. Regan graduated from Princeton University cum laude with a bachelor's in history and received an MPH in health policy and administration from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Susan Roberts
Tufts University, Professor of Nutrition and Professor of Psychiatry
iDiet weight loss program, Founder

Susan Roberts is an internationally recognized nutrition and weight management researcher. She developed the online iDiet program, which is proven to achieve high levels of weight loss with novel retrain-your-brain methodology. In her research lab at the USDA Human Nutrition Center at Tufts University, she studies how to improve behavioral weight management programs by combining research advances in the science of behavior change, clinical nutrition, and neuroscience. Her goal is to make clinically significant weight loss easier and more sustainable. She has published more than 250 research articles in scientific journals and three popular books, has an H-index of 61, and has been a member of national committees making dietary recommendations.

Lisa Rotenstein
CareZoom
Co-Founder

Lisa Rotenstein is an Internal Medicine Resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Co-Founder of CareZoom, which focuses on improving healthcare delivery through a databank of innovation “recipes” and a consulting network of on-the-ground innovators.  Her award-winning research and writing has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and The Lancet, and is spotlighted by a 2017 NEJM article on the potential of patient reported outcomes and a 2016 JAMA meta-analysis on depression in medical students that was featured in over 70 major news outlets, including Time Magazine, Forbes, and CNN. Dr. Rotenstein's care delivery innovation work has spanned complex care planning, patient reported outcomes, physician wellness, and clinical pathways. She received her MD/MBA with Honors from Harvard Medical School and Harvard Business School, and graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard College. 

Austin Sabattis
Area 23
Copy Supervisor

Austin Sabattis works as a creative supervisor at Area 23, an FCB Health Network Company. During his time with Area 23, Mr. Sabattis has worked on a variety of diabetes advocacy initiatives designed to drive policy change and help curb the prevalence of diabetes worldwide. Austin first partnered with The diaTribe Foundation in 2014 on an awareness initiative that petitioned the United Nations to recognize the nearly 350 million people with type 2 diabetes as a sovereign nation known as The State of Diabetes. Beyond his work in the advocacy space, Mr. Sabattis has worked intimately on a range of branded and unbranded type 2 diabetes projects in the pharmaceutical space. Austin graduated from Temple University with a degree in advertising, with additional focuses in copywriting and digital media communications. 

Laura Schmidt
University of California at San Francisco
Professor of Health Policy

Sociologist Dr. Laura Schmidt is dedicated to understanding how changing lifestyles are contributing to globally rising rates of chronic disease and seeking options on what to do about it. Dr. Schmidt bridges the worlds of biomedical research and population health in exploring the growing pressures of globalizing economies, rising inequality, and the marketization of products that are undermining our health. A professor at the UCSF School of Medicine, Dr. Schmidt holds a joint appointment in the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies and the Department of Anthropology, History and Social Medicine. She is the lead investigator on SugarScience, which educates the public about the latest science on sugar. Dr. Schmidt also works directly with decision makers to promote scientifically substantiated social policy reforms. She holds a bachelor's in psychology and English, an MSW, an MPH, a DrPh, and a PhD in Sociology – all from the University of California, Berkeley.

Marjorie Sennett
The diaTribe Foundation; QuinStreet, Inc.
Board Member

Marjorie Sennett’s strategic business skills in the diabetes industry stem from her roles as an operating executive and an institutional investor. She served nine years as CFO of Amylin Pharmaceuticals, which successfully developed three novel drugs for diabetes. As a former Managing Director of Farallon Capital, she managed a $700 million portfolio of investments in healthcare products companies, including a number of them in the diabetes industry. She understands the unmet needs of people with diabetes, the operational challenges of building entrepreneurial companies, and the return expectations of institutional investors. She is a member of the Board of Directors of The diaTribe Foundation and of QuinStreet, a performance marketing technology company. Ms. Sennett earned an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a bachelor's, magna cum laude, in Biology and English from Vanderbilt University.

Shreela Sharma
Brighter Bites, Co-Founder;
University of Texas School of Public Health, Associate Professor

Dr. Shreela Sharma is the Co-Founder of Brighter Bites, a program that delivers fresh produce combined with nutrition education to children and families in multiple cities. Dr. Sharma is responsible for making operational the Brighter Bites formula. She developed the research infrastructure for the program and continues to ensure rigorous replication of Brighter Bites across all of its sites. Dr. Sharma is also currently Associate Professor of Epidemiology at UTHealth School of Public Health. She is a behavioral epidemiologist, trained dietitian, and physical therapist. Her research interests include understanding food systems and developing sustainable strategies to address childhood obesity via school, family, and community-based approaches. Dr. Sharma also serves on the Mayor of Houston’s Go Healthy Houston Task Force. Dr. Sharma holds a BSc in physical therapy from the University of Mumbai, an MA in physical therapy from the University of Iowa, an RD in nutrition and dietetics from the University of Houston, and a PhD in epidemiology from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

Stephen Shaya
J&B Medical 
Medical Director

Since 2004, Dr. Stephen Shaya has been the Chief Medical Officer and EVP of Corporate Development of J & B Medical, a global healthcare solutions company. His role oversees all strategy, innovation and growth. Dr. Shaya has received many recognitions including becoming a Knight of Grace for the Knights of Malta, the 2015 Global Distinguished Health Care Award from the Center of Economic and Leadership Development, and a United States Congressional Commendation. Dr. Shaya received the Global Medical Innovation and Leadership Award at the United Nations along with a commendation from the New York State Senate. In 2017, Dr. Shaya was named the American Diabetes “Father of the Year.” In 2018, Dr. Shaya spoke at the Vatican on ways that technology and unique collaborations could provide opportunities to extend care to the most remote, undeveloped areas around the world.

Alex Slater
Clyde Group
Founder and Managing Director

Alex Slater is Managing Director of Clyde Group, a Washington, DC-based communications and public affairs agency, advising global corporations, major non-profits, advocacy groups, and start-ups. Mr. Slater helps build, enhance, and protect reputations, engage stakeholders, activate customers, and navigate complex situations. Mr. Slater started his career as the first employee of Glover Park Group, leaving a decade later as Managing Director of Public Affairs. In 2011, he was tapped to grow a public affairs practice at SKDKnickerbocker. He went on to found Clyde Group in 2014. Mr. Slater holds a BA and MA in History from the University of Cambridge as well as an MA in Communications, Opinion Research, and Corporate and Political Communications from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Robin Smith
The Cura Foundation
President and Chairman of the Board

Dr. Robin L. Smith is a global thought leader in regenerative medicine. Dr. Smith founded the Stem for Life Foundation (SFLF), a nonpartisan 501(c)3 educational organization devoted to fostering global awareness of the potential for regenerative medicine to treat and cure a range of deadly diseases and debilitating medical conditions. In 2010, in order to bring the charity’s mission to a global audience, Dr. Smith forged a historic, first-of-its-kind partnership with the Vatican. As part of this relationship, the Vatican and SFLF collaborate to create high-profile initiatives that help catalyze interest and development of cellular therapies that could ultimately reduce human suffering on a global scale. Dr. Smith has served as Chairman of the Board and President of the Stem for Life Foundation since its inception and is expanding its mission further under the Cura brand. She received her MD from the Yale School of Medicine and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.

Lorraine Stiehl
National Diabetes Advocate

Lorraine Stiehl was recently appointed by the US Secretary of Health and Human Services to the NIH’s NIDDK Advisory Council. Over the last 30 years, Ms. Stiehl has provided management, marketing, fundraising, and strategic planning guidance to dozens of non-profits, government entities, and academic institutions and currently consults for UCSF on diabetes clinical trial recruitment. Ms. Stiehl helped to create the Florida Diabetes Prevention Program, working with the CDC and Florida Department of Health, and serves as a trained DPP Lifestyle Coach. Ms. Stiehl was employed by the UCSF Diabetes Center for 13 years, and she has worked with JDRF for over 30 years, receiving both the “National Staff Member of the Year” award (1992) and the “National Volunteer of the Year” award (2010). Ms. Stiehl recently co-published a book, What to Do When Your Partner has Diabetes: A Survival Guide. 

David Lee Strasberg
Lee Strasberg Institute
Creative Director & CEO

David Lee Strasberg serves as Creative Director and Chief Executive Officer of The Lee Strasberg Theatre & Film Institutes in West Hollywood and New York. The world-famous Institutes were founded in 1969 by his parents, Lee and Anna Strasberg, and they serve as international centers for training Method actors. Mr. Strasberg and his son, Sawyer, both have type 1 diabetes. Mr. Strasberg presented at the 2014 Diabetes Advocates MasterLab and at the 2015 ADA Scientific Sessions. He received a bachelor's in international relations and affairs from Brown University and an MBA from the University of California Los Angeles. 

Gary Taubes
Nutrition Science Initiative
President

Gary Taubes is an investigative science and health journalist and co-founder of the non-profit Nutrition Science Initiative (NuSI.org). He is the author of The Case Against Sugar (2016), Why We Get Fat and What to Do About It (2011) and Good Calories, Bad Calories (2007), published as The Diet Delusion in the UK. Mr. Taubes is the recipient of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Investigator Award in Health Policy Research, and he has won numerous other awards for his journalism. These include the International Health Reporting Award from the Pan American Health Organization and the National Association of Science Writers Science in Society Journalism Award, which he won in 1996, 1999, and 2001. (He is the first print journalist to win this award three times.) Mr. Taubes graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor’s in applied physics, and he received a master's in engineering from Stanford University and in journalism from Columbia University.

Virginia Valentine
Advanced Practice Nurse-Clinical Nuse Specialist

Virginia Valentine is a Clinical Nurse Specialist with Clinica La Esperanza in Albuquerque. She is also a volunteer clinician with Endo Echo with University of New Mexico. Project ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) is a collaborative model of medical education and care management that empowers clinicians across New Mexico to provide better care to more people, right where they live. Ms. Valentine received her master’s in nursing from the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing. She is board-certified in Advanced Diabetes Management and is a Certified Diabetes Educator. In 2006, the American Association of Diabetes Educators recognized Ms. Valentine with its Distinguished Service Award and awarded her Fellow status in 2010. She has been living well with type 2 diabetes for over 35 years.

Ruchi Varshneya
Abbott Diabetes Care
Senior Director, Global Market Insights and Strategy

Ruchi Varshneya is Senior Director of Global Market Insights and Strategy at Abbott Diabetes Care, where she is responsible for driving insights based product innovation and strategic planning. Ms. Varshneya has led insights and teams in diverse industries including consumer packaged goods, application software, pharmaceutical and medical devices. She has a reputation of being an authentic voice of the customer, and is regarded as an inspiring and collaborative leader who is respected for setting high goals for her team and consistently delivering on them. Ms. Varshneya is passionate about volunteering in her local community as well as for a variety of causes in India. She earned her engineering degree from India Institute of Technology, an MBA from XLRI school of management, and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University. 

Carolyn Walsh
Fitbit Health Solutions
Senior Director, Global Market Insights and Strategy

Carolyn Walsh serves as the VP and Head of Sales and Business Development for Fitbit Health Solutions, Fitbit’s enterprise solution that enables organizations to increase the effectiveness of and engagement in wellness programs. Prior to Fitbit Health Solutions, Ms. Walsh served as senior director of global marketing for Qualcomm Life, Inc. She joined the Qualcomm Life leadership team from HealthyCircles, an enterprise healthcare software-as-a-service platform company, where she led Business Development and Client Services. Prior to HealthyCircles, Ms. Walsh was the global director of New Ventures, Franchise Development for Johnson & Johnson Diabetes Care. Before transitioning into the healthcare industry, Ms. Walsh was a versatile executive with Coca-Cola with a proven track record of success in sales management, strategic marketing, brand building and channel development in a major U.S. market along with international assignments in Poland and New Zealand.

Melissa Wikman
Muskegon YMCA
Executive Director

Melissa Wikman is Executive Director of the Muskegon YMCA, specializing in implementation of evidence-based health interventions. She is especially focused on innovative scaling of the YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program, including layering curriculum to maximize lifelong impact. Ms. Wikman spent several years in marketing for major global brands in the United States and abroad. She was the Worldwide Retail Marketing Director for Fisher-Price toys, creating marketing initiatives with partners such as Target, Wal-Mart, and Procter & Gamble. She led children’s book marketing for Disney and Sesame Street brands, and served as Marketing Director for Whirlpool, the world’s largest appliance brand. Ms. Wikman graduated with a bachelor’s in economics from Hope College and earned an M.B.A from the State University of New York. In addition to her leadership responsibilities at the Y, she is a certified YMCA trainer, YMCA Diabetes Prevention Lifestyle Coach, and LIVESTRONG with the YMCA Coach.

Kristen Williams
AstraZeneca
Director, US Alliances & Advocacy

Kristen Williams joined AstraZeneca in May 1998 as a Marketing Communications manager and brought with her nearly 10 years of experience in public affairs. She has held various public relations, strategic planning, and fund development positions with the United Way of Delaware, The Office of the Governor, The U.S. House of Representatives, Office of Michael N. Castle, The College/UNCF, and the YWCA. Currently, Ms. Williams is the Director of Alliances & Advocacy for AstraZeneca’s US business. She has been responsible for leading efforts across the US in alliance building with patient, civic, and professional organizations important to AstraZeneca’s patient health objectives across therapeutic areas. Ms. Williams received a bachelor’s in political science from Spelman College and an MPA from the University of Delaware’s College of Urban Affairs and Public Policy.

Richard Wood
dQ&A
CEO

Richard Wood is CEO of dQ&A, the diabetes market research company that he founded with Kelly and John Close in 2009. dQ&A focuses on helping companies understand the diabetes patient and healthcare provider landscapes through syndicated and custom research programs. Mr. Wood was previously Vice President of Consumer Insights at Nielsen, where he managed all consumer market research programs for the mobile telecoms industry in the USA, Europe, and Asia. He has extensive experience from a 20-year career in consumer and industry research, software, and publishing; and he holds an MBA from INSEAD.

Deana Zabaldo
Capacity for Success
Advisor, The diaTribe Foundation

Deana Zabaldo has been a catalyst for change at diverse organizations in both the U.S. and Nepal. She currently coaches leaders and entrepreneurs towards greater success and also spends time each year in the Himalayas, as an award-winning professional guide and as founder of the grant-making fund Changing Lives Nepal. Ms. Zabaldo’s prior experience includes expanding education and training in a manufacturing facility for Lucent Technologies, launching cross-cultural programs as a Director for Intrax Cultural Exchange, building classrooms as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer, and launching a grassroots non-profit to address poverty Nepal. She holds a master's in behavioral psychology from the University of Florida, has practiced meditation and yoga for over 20 years, and has an abiding dedication to make a positive impact in people’s lives.