I am excited to begin my role as 2024 ADCES President. I spent the last year “ramping up,” and now I’m here. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you about myself and how I got here.
I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1975. My “nurse educator” (at the time) was Sheila. She taught my parents, and my parents taught me, that diabetes did not have to stop me from anything in my life. I didn’t know that until pretty recently, when my dad shared this with me. The truth is, my parents never told me directly that diabetes wouldn’t stop me from living. They just made that message and my diabetes part of life.
I probably don’t stop and think about things like this often enough. I just do my work and don’t really consider where my “philosophies” or “approach” on things came from. It makes sense, though, that my (very) firm belief that we need to fit diabetes into life and not the other way around came from my parents, who learned that from a diabetes care and education specialist (DCES). And that makes me incredibly proud to be a DCES and to have a role in the leadership of our specialty organization, the Association of Diabetes Care & Education Specialists (ADCES).
I grew up in New England, went to undergraduate school in Minnesota, and then moved back to New England, where I went to graduate school (twice). I married a man who was living and owned a business in Colorado, so I moved out to the Wild West, where I’ve lived in the Rocky Mountains since 1998.
In the mid-1990s I was the clinical director for a nonprofit diabetes education center that focused on programs for youth with type 1 diabetes and their families. When I relocated to Colorado, I proposed, launched, and directed a hospital-based diabetes education program. In 2011, I began a remote position as program director of an online master’s of science in diabetes education and management program, and in 2023, I became director for an online doctoral program in nursing education.
When I’m not in virtual meetings or reading dissertations, I am passionate about research and projects related to the language movement in diabetes. I am committed to changing the conversation around diabetes—the way we talk to and about people with diabetes—because I know that it makes a difference.
I have a son who just finished college in 2023 and a daughter who is in her last year of college. I love music (listening and singing!), reading good novels, adult coloring, and walking. Fall is my favorite season, and navy blue is my favorite color.
I served on the ADCES Board of Directors from 2020 through 2022, and when I ran for President-Elect in 2022, I said I wanted to help DCESs learn about and increase their comfort level with the emotional side of diabetes. Diabetes is a lifelong, day-in-day-out disease that affects everything and is affected by everything. People with diabetes often say that no one asks them how they’re doing. We DCESs do! Unfortunately, we often don’t know what to do next when we find out that someone is having a hard time emotionally. We may not have professional resources available, especially behavioral health experts who have knowledge of diabetes. My goal this year is to work on ways to help DCESs become aware of resources available to them, feel comfortable using those resources, and have a better understanding of the emotional side of diabetes.
My goal this year is to work on ways to help DCESs become aware of resources available to them, feel comfortable using those resources, and have a better understanding of the emotional side of diabetes.
I am incredibly grateful to Sheila and to all of you, for caring enough about people with diabetes to dedicate your careers to helping make the world a better place for those who live with diabetes. And now, as my kids used to say, “Let’s get this party started!”
