Ruth S. Weinstock is SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Division Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse NY. She is also the Medical Director of the Clinical Research Unit and Medical Director of the Joslin Diabetes Center at Upstate Medical University. Dr. Weinstock graduated from Smith College summa cum laude with Highest Honors in the Biological Sciences and received her MD and PhD degrees from Columbia University. She received the SUNY Research Foundation Award Honoring Research in Science, Engineering and Medicine, the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities, the American Diabetes Association Outstanding Physician-Clinician Award, and the Samuel Elchoid II Memorial Award for Contributions in Diabetes from the American College of Physicians. Her research over the past 30 years has focused on the study of new approaches for the prevention and management of diabetes mellitus and its complications, including studies examining the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of telemedicine for different underserved populations with diabetes delivered to a variety of settings. Dr. Weinstock is a member of numerous professional organizations. She has >200 publications and has served on grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health (NIDDK), on the National Board of Directors and numerous committees of the American Diabetes Association over the past >25 years and as Associate Editor of Diabetes Care as well as Section Editor for Endocrinology for the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, on the editorial board of Endocrinology, on national committees for the Department of Veterans Affairs, as well as on other national, regional and local committees and task forces related to diabetes research and improving diabetes care.  

Cynthia E. Muñoz, PhD, MPH, is a bilingual licensed psychologist who holds an appointment as Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine. She has a PhD in Clinical Psychology and an MPH in Maternal and Child Health. Currently, she provides clinical care to children and youth with diabetes at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She also conducts research targeting behavioral health issues associated with pediatric insulin-treated diabetes. Dr. Muñoz co-developed a group intervention, TEEN POWER^®, in 2006 for adolescents and youth with insulin-treated diabetes, siblings, and caregivers. With the generous support of the Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation and the Beatson-ABHOW Type 1 Diabetes Fund, this program expanded to include groups for children starting at 6 years of age. In addition to providing clinical care and conducting clinical research, Dr Muñoz is the ADA’s President of Health Care and Education, President of the ADA’s Community Leadership Board in Los Angeles, and a member of the ADA’s national Safe at School Working Group. She is also a member of the ADA Mental Health Diabetes Education Program’s Steering Committee whose collaborative efforts aim to increase the capacity of mental health professionals who treat people with diabetes. 

Christopher K. Ralston, JD, is a partner and practice coordinator in the New Orleans litigation practice at Phelps Dunbar LLP. Mr. Ralston handles a range of commercial litigation and focuses in the areas of antitrust law, business torts, trade secret litigation and contract disputes, tax litigation, securities litigation and arbitration, direct selling and intellectual property litigation. He also serves as a part of the firm’s appellate practice. Mr. Ralston’s work in the legal field has received recognition in numerous forms: in 2009, he received the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Friend of Pro Bono Award; in 2012, he was named to the New Orleans City Business Hall of Fame; and in 2016, he received both the Federal Bar Association’s New Orleans Chapter President’s Award and the Louisiana State Bar Association’s President’s Award. After recognizing the devastating impact of diabetes in New Orleans, Mr. Ralston joined the ADA’s New Orleans Community Leadership Board (CLB) in 2009, and he has served as Chair of the CLB since 2014.

Glen Tullman is Founder and former Executive Chairman of Livongo and is passionately committed to finding a cure for diabetes and other chronic conditions and keeping people healthy until we do. A visionary leader and entrepreneur, he previously ran two public companies that changed the way healthcare is delivered. Tullman is also a co-founder and partner in 7wireVentures, an early-stage investment firm focused on healthcare He is the author of On Our Terms: Empowering the New Health Consumer, which proposes new solutions to address the chronic-condition epidemic facing our country.

Guillermo Umpierrez, MD, CDE, is professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, and Director of the diabetes and endocrinology section at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta, Georgia.  He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards for Best Clinical Teacher and Mentor at Emory University, and national awards from the American College of Physicians, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, Endocrine Society and the American Diabetes Association. Dr. Umpierrez is a member of the ADA National Board of Directors and will serve as the ADA President-Elect in 2021. 

His research interests include mechanisms for beta-cell dysfunction in minority populations, prevention of acute and chronic diabetic complications, and hospital management of patients with diabetes and hyperglycemia. He is the author of more than 400 scientific manuscripts and book chapters and has presented over 300 research abstracts at national and international scientific meetings. In addition, he heads the Emory Latino Diabetes Education Program, a nationally accredited Spanish Diabetes education program dedicated to providing diabetes education to Latinos.

Otis W. Kirksey currently serves as the Director of Pharmacy Services for Neighborhood Medical Center in Tallahassee, FL. He brings 25 years of experience in academia as a former Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Florida A&M University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Prior to his faculty appointment he was a clinical pharmacist in Research and Information Services at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. He served more than 11 years on the board of Neighborhood Medical Center and is currently the director of the Prince Hall Shriners' National Diabetes Initiative. In this role, he has led the organization's effort to fulfill its 10-year, $1 million-dollar commitment to the American Diabetes Association, to support research and outreach efforts in underserved communities, particularly African American and Hispanic.

Marshall has a passion for improving the lives of those with Diabetes and has been a volunteer with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) since 2008 serving as a Tour de Cure Corporate and National Team Captain, Silicon Valley Tour Volunteer Chair, Community Leadership Board member, and National ADA Finance Committee member for the past two years. He is an operations-oriented business management leader with strong business acumen. He led public, private, and divisional executive leadership teams through growth and restructuring transformations. Case retired from Lockheed Martin in 2016 as Vice President of Infrastructure Services for the $8B Space Systems Business. Prior to that he was Vice President of Finance and Operations for two Lockheed Martin business units and Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for private and public high technology companies. He started his career on the Financial Management program at General Electric Company in Erie, PA. He now resides in Savannah, GA and is actively involved in community service and pursuing his lifelong love of triathlon competition. 

Todd F. Brown is the Founder and Chief Executive Office of TheYard Inc., a private equity strategy consultancy. In the role, he draws upon 20 years of venture capital and C-suite leadership experience at Fortune 50 companies to help Silicon Valley startups develop business plans, raise capital, and execute their business ideas.

Prior to starting his firm, Todd was the Chief Executive Officer of TheGrio, a former division of NBC News and the largest online media company geared toward African American audiences. He also held a board-level position at Johnson Publishing Company, where he increased the digital footprint of Ebony, Jet, and Fashion Fair magazines by rolling out technology to increase reader engagement. He also helped revitalize the public’s perception of the publications by building an experiential marketing division for the business.

Earlier in his career, Todd held senior leadership roles at Fortune 500 companies including Comcast, Viacom, GE Capital, Comdisco, Dell, and HP, where he streamlined processes and drove tangible financial results. He is an expert in the development and implementation of corporate strategy and cultural transformation initiatives, management operations, and technology disruption.

Todd holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Oklahoma State University. He completed executive management programs at Harvard Business School and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. As a diverse executive, Todd founded the Diversity Special Interest Group at the Project Management Institute that now has seven chapters at historically black colleges and universities. He has served on nonprofit boards at Boulder Special Transit, Oklahoma University, and the University of Texas and is an active member of the National Association of Corporate Directors.

Martha Parry Clark is a retired CEO with global executive experience that spans the asset management, health non-profit, banking, and strategy consulting industries. For the American Diabetes Association, Clark serves as Chair of the Finance Committee, and served previously as interim Chief Executive Officer, and as Chair of the Community Leadership Board for the San Francisco Bay Area. She also serves as Co-Chair of Project Redwood, a non-profit that provides grants and advisory services to early-stage social entrepreneurs focusing on extreme poverty.

Mary de Groot, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Acting Director of the Diabetes Translational Research Center at Indiana University. She received her Master of Education degree from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 1989 and her doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of Rhode Island in 1999. Dr. de Groot is a clinical health psychologist whose research focuses on examining the mechanisms that link diabetes and depression as well as the development of accessible interventions to treat depression among adults and socioeconomically and culturally diverse populations with diabetes. Since 2017, Dr. de Groot is a member of the American Diabetes Association National Board of Directors. 

Robert Eckel is a distinguished Alumnus of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; Professor of Medicine Emeritus with appointments in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes and Division of Cardiology, and former Charles A. Boettcher II Endowed Chair in Atherosclerosis at the University of Colorado School of Medicine Anschutz Medical Campus. He also was a member of the Scientific Advisory Council of the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. In addition, he served as President of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and President of the American Heart Association.

Sherita Hill Golden, MD, MHS, joined the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Board of Directors in 2018. Dr. Golden is the Hugh P. McCormick Family Professor of Endocrinology and Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer for Johns Hopkins Medicine.  A clinical endocrinologist cross-trained as a diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) epidemiologist, Dr. Golden has devoted her career to studying endocrine risk factors for diabetes and CVD, with a focus on improving the care and outcomes for patients through academic excellence and healthcare delivery. She holds joint appointments in the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research, in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and in the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. Dr. Golden is also Director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Inpatient Glucose Management Program. The author of more than 180 articles, 12 book chapters and 4 monographs, Dr. Golden’s research seeks to understand the risk factors that connect diabetes and CVD; examine the mental health complications of diabetes and the biological, hormonal and behavioral factors that explain these associations; eliminate health disparities in diabetes; and implement and evaluate systemic interventions to improve patient safety and quality of care in hospitalized patients with diabetes.

Amparo Gonzalez is the Head Global for the LifeScan Diabetes Institute. In her role, Amparo has strategic oversight for all initiatives related to diabetes professional education activities globally, including the direction of the Institute.

Prior to joining LifeScan in 2012, Amparo was affiliated with Emory University School of Medicine as the Program Director of Multicultural Diabetes Education and Professional Diabetes Education where she designed and implemented diabetes education programs for HCP’s and for PWD, in Spanish and English, with a variety of models that address different practice needs. By partnering with sites, the programs administered self-management education to Latino, low socio-economic English-speaking white, black and African-American patients. HCP programs included programs to train diabetes educators and medical assistant training in diabetes.

She served as the President of the American Association of Diabetes Educators in 2008 and held several volunteer leadership positions within the organization.  Gonzalez has published in peer-reviewed journals on the topic of diabetes in vulnerable populations. She is a national and internationally recognized speaker in the subject of diabetes education. Amparo obtained her nursing degree in Colombia and her Master of Public Health from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She is a fellow of the American Association of Diabetes Educators since 2009.

Rone Luczynski has spent most of his last 30 years helping major retailers manage and reengineer their supply chains to operate more efficiently and profitably.  Currently Rone is the Assistant Vice President of Supply Chain Management (SCM) at Service Corporation International, Inc. (SCI), North America’s largest single provider of funeral, cremation and cemetery services. He also holds the title of President of SCI Shared Resources, LLC., which is SCI’s Procurement Corporation. SCI has over 2,000 locations and 24,000 employees in 45 states, eight Canadian provinces, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In his current role, Rone is responsible for all Procurement and Supply Chain activities at SCI. Rone oversees a dedicated team of individuals that manage over $1.0 billion in spend and supports our 2,000 locations with products and services. SCM is also responsible for continuous process improvement having moved SCI from a decentralized purchasing company to a center-led end-to -end supply chain organization to Leverage Scale, one of the three major strategies for the corporation. The supply chain team are also the co-owners of Procure to Pay, Inventory Management, Vendor Management among other functions. Rone and his team have been instrumental in driving out millions in costs and expenses as well as driving revenue increases for SCI.  

Rone currently serves on the ADA’s South Texas Community Leadership Board (CLB) and the Houston CLB where he was Past Chairman. Rone was head of the SCI Team Dignity Tour de Cure team which is the largest corporate fundraising team in the nation. Rone is also a member of the ADA national Volunteer Committee for 2020.  Rone was a founding Board Member of SCI’s Dignity Memorial Foundation and currently serves on the US Bank and Boundless Customer Advisory Boards.

Stephanie Silverman founded and leads Venn Strategies, the Washington, D.C.-based policy and public affairs firm named twice to the Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest-growing companies.

A graduate of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (MBA 1992) and Duke University (BA 1986), Silverman’s current practice focuses on designing and executing public affairs, thought leadership and policy-driving programs for national health advocacy organizations, industry leaders, Fortune 100 businesses and mid-cap companies.  Her work incorporates multi-dimensional tactical programs, from political advocacy to policy analysis, from brand-building to coalition-orchestration, all designed to give her clients a seat with impact at the national policy table. 

Umesh Verma is chief executive officer of BLUE LANCE, Inc., a leading developer of cybersecurity governance, assurance, audit, and compliance automation software. He is the founder of Cyber Houston and the Houston Cyber Summit. A national leader in emerging technologies, Verma serves on the Boards of The Center for Houston's Future, University of Houston College of Technology, and the Greater Houston HealthConnect. Verma is passionate about helping improve the lives of people with diabetes and serves on the executive committee of the Houston Diabetes Resource Center. Verma has served the American Diabetes Association as chair of the Houston Community Leadership Board, Chair of the Finance Committee, and as the 2017 secretary/treasurer for the national board of directors.