The American Diabetes Association® (ADA) welcomes the 2024 principal officers and board of directors. The 15-member board is comprised of forward-thinking and innovative medical, scientific, education, and executive business professionals who will strategically lead and focus efforts to ensure the ADA continues to advance the mission upon which it was founded.
"We are so excited to announce our 2024 board of directors,” said Charles “Chuck” Henderson, the ADA’s chief executive officer. “We look forward to the insight and skills each of these thought leaders will provide to help move the needle and improve the lives of all people living with diabetes. We also want to thank our outgoing board members, Otis W. Kirksey, PharmD, RPh, CDCES, BC-ADM and Marshall Case. We are very appreciative of their hard work, dedication, and commitment to fighting for all people affected by diabetes.”
The 2024 principal officers of the board of directors who start their terms of service this month are:
- Rhodes B. Ritenour, JD, Chair of the Board
Rhodes B. Ritenour is the vice president for external and regulatory affairs for Bon Secours Health System in Virginia. He represents the system before local, state, and federal governments in the communities it serves and to corporations. He also provides regulatory legal counsel and manages corporate governance. Living with type 1 diabetes since the age of five, Ritenour has served the diabetes community as chairman of the ADA board in Central Virginia, a member of the ADA National Advocacy Committee, and a member of the ADA Legal Advocacy Network. A former deputy attorney general of Virginia, Ritenour and his wife are the co-authors of the children’s book series, The Adventures of Rhodes and Alana. He earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia.
- James Tai, Secretary/Treasurer
James Tai is a managing partner for a life sciences venture capital fund, and he has broad health care experience that spans a wide array of outpatient provider services for chronic diseases. Tai is an advocate for combining innovations in health care technology with updates to public health policy in order to transform health care. He is currently the chair of both the ADA Innovation Committee and the ADA Finance Committee. Tai received a bachelor's degree in business economics and an MBA from UCLA, and he earned a Master of Science in biomedical and clinical informatics from Stanford University.
- Mandeep Bajaj, MBBS, President of Medicine & Science
Dr. Mandeep Bajaj is the vice chair for clinical affairs in the Department of Medicine and a professor of medicine and molecular and cellular biology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He is the chief of the section of endocrinology at Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center, as well as medical director of the Baylor St. Luke's Medical Center Diabetes Program and Baylor Medicine Endocrinology and Diabetes. Bajaj is a medical graduate of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi and received his fellowship training in endocrinology and diabetes at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. He has served on the ADA’s Scientific Sessions Meeting Planning Committee, Finance Committee, and the Research Grant Review Committee, and he currently serves on the Science and Health Care Executive Council. Bajaj has also been awarded the Outstanding Physician-Clinician Award by the ADA.
- Patti Urbanski, MEd, RD, LD, CDCES, FADCES, President of Health Care & Education
Patti Urbanski is a certified diabetes care and education specialist and registered dietitian currently working as diabetes staff development coordinator at St. Luke’s Hospital Diabetes Care Program in Duluth, Minnesota. She was a member of the ADA’s Nutrition Science Review Committee and the writing committee for the ADA’s 2019 nutrition consensus statement. Urbanski currently serves on the ADA’s Science and Health Care Executive Council and has served on the ADA’s Scientific Sessions Committee and Professional Practice Committee. She has a master’s degree in adult education from the University of Minnesota, a Bachelor of Science degree in applied nutrition from the Pennsylvania State University, and she completed her dietetic internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinics.
The elect officers for 2024 are:
- Todd F. Brown, PMP, Chair-Elect
Todd F. Brown is the founder and chief executive officer of Urban Edge Network, LLC, a Black-owned media company focused on serving 101 historically Black colleges or universities. Brown holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Oklahoma State University, and he completed executive management programs at Harvard Business School and UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. Brown was the ADA’s 2023 secretary/treasurer and serves on the finance, investment, and board development committees.
- Robin Richardson, Secretary/Treasurer-Elect
Robin Richardson is a senior vice president at Moda where he leads the organization’s key Medicare and Medicaid departments. He is also responsible for Moda’s major state accounts, including the Oregon Educators Benefit Board, the Public Employees Retirement System, the Public Employees Benefit Board, and all strategic Systems of Care initiatives. Among his many innovations at Moda, Richardson was the founder and continues to be the chairman of the Board of the Eastern Oregon Coordinated Care Organization and the co-founder of the Portland Metropolitan region’s Oregon Health and Sciences University’s Integrated Delivery System. A graduate of Oregon State University, he is also a proud citizen of the Cherokee Nation.
- Rita Rastogi Kalyani, MD, MHS, President-Elect of Medicine & Science
Dr. Rita Rastogi Kalyani is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Kalyani has been a dedicated ADA volunteer for two decades and served on multiple committees. Notably, she was chair of the ADA’s Professional Practice Committee which was responsible for developing the ADA Standards of Care in Diabetes—2018. Kalyani has served as president of the ADA’s Maryland’s Community Leadership Board. She was previously on the editorial board of Diabetes Care® and is currently an associate editor for BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care. Kalyani holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard, and she completed all her medical training at Johns Hopkins.
- Joshua J. Neumiller, PharmD, CDCES, FADCES, FASCP, President-Elect of Health Care & Education
Joshua J. Neumiller is vice chair and Allen I. White Distinguished Professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy at Washington State University and lead pharmacist researcher at Providence Medical Research Center in Spokane, Washington. Newmiller is a contributing author for the ADA’s books, Medications for the Treatment of Diabetes and Practical Insulin, and past editor-in-chief for the ADA’s journal, Diabetes Spectrum®. He has served on multiple ADA committees and work groups, and notably served as chairman of the ADA’s Professional Practice Committee from 2018–2019. Neumiller received his Bachelor of Science and PharmD degrees from Washington State University.
The remaining 2024 board members are:
- Janet Brown-Friday, RN, MSN, MPH
- Rodica Busui, MD, PhD
- Rone Luczynski
- Sean Pittman, JD
- Franciso Prieto, MD
- Madi Rajulapalli, MD, MBA
- Christopher K. Ralston, JD
“This talented group has tremendous experience in a variety of areas including science, medicine, health care, and business.” said Rhodes B. Ritenour, 2024 board chairman of the ADA. “We will work together to cure diabetes, improve the lives of people living with diabetes and those who love them, and strengthen the ADA’s ability to provide impact, inspiration, and hope in the diabetes community.”
For more details about the ADA board of directors, visit diabetes.org/board.
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About the American Diabetes Association
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) is the nation’s leading voluntary health organization fighting to bend the curve on the diabetes epidemic and help people living with diabetes thrive. For 83 years, the ADA has driven discovery and research to treat, manage, and prevent diabetes while working relentlessly for a cure. Through advocacy, program development, and education we aim to improve the quality of life for the over 136 million Americans living with diabetes or prediabetes. Diabetes has brought us together. What we do next will make us Connected for Life®. To learn more or to get involved, visit us at diabetes.org or call 1-800-DIABETES (1-800-342-2383). Join the fight with us on Facebook (American Diabetes Association), Spanish Facebook (Asociación Americana de la Diabetes), LinkedIn (American Diabetes Association), Twitter (@AmDiabetesAssn), and Instagram (@AmDiabetesAssn).