Adam Brown has lived with diabetes for over 20 years. His first book, Bright Spots & Landmines: The Diabetes Guide I Wish Someone Had Handed Me, offers actionable diabetes tips related to food, mindset, exercise, and sleep. To date, over 300,000 copies of Bright Spots & Landmines have been sold/downloaded, with reader access at the center of the book's mission (free PDF, free audiobook, priced at-cost on Amazon).

Adam currently works in teenage eating disorders as a registered associate marriage and family therapist (AMFT), offering individual, group, and family therapy. He earned a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychology from The Wright Institute in 2021.

From 2010-2019, Adam worked at two mission-driven diabetes publications: Close Concerns and diaTribe.org. At diaTribe, he served as Senior Editor, regular contributor, and the author of Adam’s Corner. As the Head of Diabetes Technology & Connected Care at Close Concerns, he wrote extensively about continuous glucose monitoring (CGM), automated insulin delivery, mobile apps, wearables, and the latest in diabetes research and care. Adam also brought a diabetes perspective to numerous public venues, including FDA and NIH meetings, international scientific and industry conferences (ADA, AADE, ATTD), and local events for people with diabetes and healthcare providers. He'd love to hear from you! Contact him through his website: helloadam.org.

Dr. Mark Heyman is a diabetes psychologist and a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist. He is the CEO of the Center for Diabetes & Mental Health (CDMH) in San Diego. He is passionate about providing diabetes education and evidence-based mental health treatment and online programs to people with diabetes. Mark received his PhD in Clinical Psychology from The George Washington University and completed his psychology internship at the UCSD School of Medicine. He is the host of the Live Free with T1D podcast (formerly known as The Diabetes Psychologist Podcast) and the author of Diabetes Sucks and You Can Handle It: Your Guide to Managing the Emotional Challenges of T1D. Mark has been living with Type 1 diabetes since 1999.

mark@cdmh.org

Mila Clarke is a diabetes patient advocate, author and self-taught who started her food blog, “The Hangry Woman,” after being diagnosed with diabetes and struggling to find approachable resources to help her manage the chronic condition in 2016.

Hangry Woman aims to take away the shame and stigma that comes with a diabetes diagnosis and covers topics like diabetes management, cooking, and self-care from the perspective of someone living with the chronic condition.

Mila has been featured by CNN, The New York Times, Eat This Not That, USA Today, Good Housekeeping and WebMD. She contributes to Healthline, The Washington Post and EatingWell Magazine. Mila lives in Houston, Texas.

mila@hangrywoman.com

Anna Sabino has been living with T1D for over 30 years and proudly offers both individual and group mental health support and diabetes education services virtually for parents, teens, and their families living with T1D through her private practice called Finding Smiles Coaching.  She spent most of her childhood summers attending, volunteering, and working directly with diabetes summer camps and has nearly 20 years of experience creating and overseeing youth and family programs with organizations such as the College Diabetes Network (Diabetes Link), International Diabetes Federation, American Diabetes Association, and the T1D Exchange. In addition, Anna is involved at the local and  national level with the ADCES and currently part of the clinical team at Integrated Diabetes Services under the direction of Gary Scheiner. An avid exerciser, Anna lives outside Boston, MA with her husband and two young children.

anna@findingsmilescoaching.com

Dana Lehman, PsyD earned her doctorate in clinical psychology from Widener University, where she concentrated her studies on chronic health conditions and wrote her dissertation on disordered eating in women with Type I diabetes.  In addition to her work in private practice, Dr. Lehman serves as the Director of Mental Health Educational Programming at AIDS Care Group (ACG), in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania.  In this role, she has worked to develop a mental health treatment program for individuals with diabetes, all of whom come from the traditionally disadvantaged communities served by her agency.  Dr. Lehman was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 11 and is the mother of 5 kids, 3 goats, 9 chickens and 5 rabbits.  In her (limited) free time she enjoys traveling to non-western countries, backpacking and drinking more Coke Zero than she cares to admit.

danalehman@aidscaregroup.org

Dr. Martin-Schantz resides in the central valley of California with her husband, who is a combat Army Veteran of Operation Enduring Freedom, her two cats and her pug, piglet. She has been a Type 2 Diabetic since 2014. In 2022, Dr. Martin-Schantz joined the planning committee of the Diabetes + Mental Health Conference.
Dr. Martin-Schantz is a passionate clinician in the field of clinical psychology. Dr. MartinSchantz received her Psy.D. in Applied Clinical Psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She defended her dissertation titled, Mentoring Experiences: The Development of Virtue in Early Career Counselors. Dr. Martin-Schantz completed her pre-doctoral internship at the Hope Counseling Center. And her post-doctoral work at a private practice and community mental health clinic. She has worked in various clinical settings including, community counseling centers, private practices, a university counseling center, and for non-profits.
In her clinical work, she delivers Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Attachment theory and Eye movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). She primarily works with adults, adolescents, and children with a wide range of emotional, behavioral and adjustment issues. Her clinical focus includes anxiety, stress, depression, and trauma. She specializes in the fields of trauma, caregiving, and chronic illnesses such as diabetes. She also enjoys mentoring and working with early career clinicians, helping them navigate the field of mental health and build professional development.
Dr. Martin-Schantz was an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Hope International University, where she taught marriage and family therapy graduate students and undergraduate psychology students both online and on-campus. She was a professor from 2014-2020

drjenmschantz@gmail.com

Lacy Simmons is a licensed therapist in Los Angeles, CA. She received her Master’s in Social Work from University of Maryland, Baltimore and currently works with adult clients in the state of California. Lacy was diagnosed with T1D as an adult and experienced her own mental health challenges post diagnosis. This personal experience shifted her focus as a therapist to include specializing in the brain-body connection of people living with chronic illnesses. Lacy is passionate about boundary-work as a therapist and focuses on educating others through social media content on Instagram. Follow along @theboundarytherapist.

theboundarytherapist@gmail.com

Dr. Commissariat is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified diabetes care and education specialist in the Pediatric, Adolescent, and Young Adult Section of the Joslin Diabetes Center. She is also an Assistant Investigator in the Section on Clinical, Behavioral, & Outcomes Research at the Joslin Diabetes Center, as well as an Instructor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. She provides individual and family therapy to children, adolescents, and young adults with diabetes, with a special interest in coping skills and diabetes education. Her research focuses on identifying challenges to diabetes care and acceptance, and improving psychosocial outcomes through enhancing illness identity and diabetes technology use. She has a special interest in qualitative and mixed-methods research to amplify the voices of young people living with diabetes. She is currently an advisor on the ADA Behavioral Medicine & Psychology Interest Group Leadership Team.

Persis.Commissariat@joslin.harvard.edu

Susan Guzman, PhD is a clinical psychologist specializing in diabetes. In 2003, Dr. Guzman co-founded the Behavioral Diabetes Institute (BDI), the first non-profit organization devoted to the emotional and behavioral aspects of living with diabetes. At BDI, she serves as the Director of Clinical Education, developing and leading programs for people with diabetes and healthcare professionals. Dr. Guzman is passionate about helping to change the conversations in diabetes away from shame, blame and judgment to those based on facts, empathy, and engagement. She has been part of a joint ADA/ADCES effort to address problematic language and messages in diabetes.

sjg@behavioraldiabetes.org

Dr. Alexandria Ambrose is a licensed psychologist in Colorado, while also offering teletherapy to residents in over 30 states through PsyPact, an interstate licensing commission. She currently owns a private practice providing individual and couples therapy to those coping with chronic medical illness, relationship concerns, anxiety, depression, trauma, grief and loss, and disordered eating patterns. Alexandria earned her masters and doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Hartford. She has had clinical experiences in inpatient, school, forensic, and university counseling center settings. alexandriaambrose@gmail.com

Living with type 1 diabetes since 2004, Alexandria approaches her work compassionately and genuinely. She is a firm believer in the complexity, messiness, loveliness, necessity, and realness of relationships… especially when diabetes is part of the equation! Alexandria published an e-book in 2022 entitled: "My Diabetes and Me: A Psychoeducational Guidebook for Adolescents and Parents Coping with Type 1 Diabetes" that was originally part of her dissertation in graduate school. In her free time, she can usually be found online shopping for new CGM stickers, hanging out with her cats, and exploring new spots to take nature walks.

alexandriaambrose@gmail.com

Jane K. Dickinson is a Program Director and Senior Lecturer at Teachers College Columbia University. Prior to this, she was the Program Director of a hospital-based diabetes education program. Dr. Dickinson earned her PhD in Nursing from the University of Connecticut, her Master of Science in Nursing from Yale University, and her Bachelor of Arts in Biology from St. Olaf College. She has been studying, publishing, and presenting on the language of diabetes and the impact messages have on people living with diabetes since the 1990s. Jane was named Diabetes Educator of the Year in 2019 and she is the 2023 President-Elect of the Board of Directors for the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists.

dickinson@tc.columbia.edu

Julissa Rolon has lived with diabetes for 7 years, she’s best known for her education project “Diabetes Tipo Ju” where she has hundreds of posts, videos, and materials for learning about diabetes and its complex relationship with emotions. Julissa is a clinical psychologist with almost a decade of private practice experience. She earned a Master’s Degree in marriage and family therapy (MFT) she specializes in care and education for chronic diseases, concentrating on type 1 diabetes. She participates in international groups of advocacy and is a strong believer that education is the best tool to have the highest level of wellness both physically and emotionally, she knows there is no single approach that works for everyone living with a chronic health condition, so she continues to educate herself on new technologies, medical devices, pharma, and mental health trends to provide the most comprehensive information and attention for the community. Her latest accomplishments are in the area of eating disorders, getting different actualizations, and working with a large number of patients. She’d love to hear from you, contact her through her social media: “Diabetes Tipo Ju”

julissarolon@gmail.com

JoAnne Robb lives diabetes every day.  In addition to working as a therapist in a private practice with a focus on T1D, two of her three children have type 1. She is passionate about helping parents of kids with type 1 and created a coaching program — called Diabetes Sweet Talk — to help give these parents a leg up on their diabetes journey and support them in getting to calm. Under the Sweet Talk umbrella, she has a weekly podcast and free webinars to provide tools for living a better life when parenting diabetes. In addition to her work with T1D, she is a certified EFT couples therapist and a level II AEDP clinician.  

joanne@diabetessweettalk.com

T'ara is a nutritionist, diabetes advocate, writer, public speaker, and aspiring diabetes care and education specialist. T'ara was misdiagnosed with Type 2 diabetes in 2017 and re-diagnosed with LADA diabetes in 2020. She's passionate about cooking with fresh ingredients, body positivity, and advocating for women of color within the health and wellness space. T'ara used healthy home cooking to develop sustainable healthy habits, achieve weight loss, and improve mental health. She enjoys sharing her journey on her Instagram, T'ara Talks Food, and hopes to inspire others to use cooking to live their healthiest lives. T'ara serves as the Director of Beyond Type 2, where people with Type 2 diabetes can find practical resources to live healthy, amazing lives without shame or facing stigma, as well as find a community with others with the disease. In her spare time, T’ara loves to try new recipes, listen to K-Pop, watch Marvel movies, and hang at the beach with her dog.

tara@beyondtype1.org

Dr. Phyllisa Deroze is a global diabetes patient advocate and Director of Content Strategy at dQ&A. She began blogging almost immediately after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2011. A year later, she founded Black Diabetic Info, a website dedicated to increasing awareness of cultural-competent diabetes information from around the African Diaspora. In 2019, after becoming extremely ill, she learned that she had been misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes for eight years and was finally given the correct diagnosis—Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults, a form of type 1 diabetes. 

In 2023, Phyllisa published a children’s book, Diabetes Helpers, with her daughter. The first of its kind, the book honors children who have loved ones with diabetes. She has graced the cover of Health Monitor magazine and was featured in Diabetic Living, Diabetes Focus, and other publications. Her passion for diabetes lifestyle advocacy can be seen in her YouTube vlogs, social media posts, in-person workshops, published essays, and keynote speeches that she has given in five countries. She enjoys traveling and writing. Her flash fiction story, The Daily News Blues, highlights the intersectionality of the COVID-19 pandemic, mental health, and diabetes, and her book chapter Laughing to Keep from Dying: Black Americans with Diabetes in Sitcoms and Comedies elucidates the impact of diabetes stigma. 

Considered one of the most prolific writers on the representation of diabetes in African American literature and popular culture, Phyllisa builds community through storytelling by drawing on a Ph.D. in English Literature from Pennsylvania State University, a ten-year career as a university professor, her Fulbright Scholar expertise, and her own experiences living with diabetes. Her motto "Diagnosed Not Defeated" is an inspiration for all. You can follow her on IG at Black Diabetic Info. 

Psmithderoze@hotmail.com