Author Bios

• Louis J. Aronne, MD, FACP

  
  

  Weill Medical College of Cornell University

  
  

  Louis J. Aronne, MD, FACP, is a leading authority on obesity and its treatment. He is Clinical Professor of Medicine at Weill-Cornell Medical College of Cornell University and Adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is Director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Program, a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary obesity research and treatment program affiliated with New York Presbyterian Hospital which is available to patients online as the CardioMetabolic Support Network (www.cmsnonline.com). Dr. Aronne graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College with a BS in biochemistry and from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, followed by a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Fellowship education at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center.

  Dr. Aronne is former president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He has authored more than 40 papers and book chapters on obesity and edited the National Institutes of Health Practical Guide to the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. He served as a consultant to the VA Weight Management/Physical Activity Executive Council. Dr. Aronne has won several awards for medical teaching, including the Davidoff Prize from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Elliot Hochstein Award from Cornell University. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society.

  A NY Times Best Selling Author for his recent book, The Skinny on Losing Weight Without Being Hungry, from Doubleday, published in March 2009.

• Daniel M. Bradbury

  
  

  Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

  
  

  Mr. Bradbury has been Amylin’s Chief Executive Officer since March 2007, serving as President since June 2006 and as Chief Operating Officer since June 2003. He has served as a Director since June 2006. He previously served as Executive Vice President from June 2000 until his promotion in June 2003. He joined Amylin in 1994 and has held officer-level positions in Corporate Development and Marketing during that time.

  Prior to joining Amylin, Mr. Bradbury spent ten years at SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, where he held a number of sales and marketing positions. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Illumina, Inc., Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), BIOCOM, the Keck Graduate Institute’s Board of Trustees and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation. Mr. Bradbury is a member of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and serves on the University of California San Diego, Rady School of Management’s Advisory Council, RAND Health Board of Advisors and University of Miami’s Innovation Corporate Advisory Council. He received a Bachelor of Pharmacy from Nottingham University and a Diploma in Management Studies from Harrow and Ealing Colleges of Higher Education.

• Robert J. Chilton, DO, FACC

  
  

  University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio

  
  

  Dr. Chilton is professor of medicine and the director of the cardiac catheterization laboratories at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in San Antonio, Texas. He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Physicians, and the American Heart Association. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Chilton has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and abstracts. He has also delivered presentations on cardiology and served as a Web master for vascular biology and lipid Internet sites and as a reviewer for Diabetes Care, American Journal of Cardiology and other journals. He has performed research in the fields of vascular biology, electrophysiology, and interventional cardiology. He has received the outstanding teacher award at the University of Texas Health Science Center. At present, he is chairman of the communications committee of the AHA NPAM council and webmaster. He is currently a cardiology consultant for NASA.

  Dr. Chilton completed a medical residency at the University of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and a postdoctoral fellowship in cardiology at Wilford Hall USAF Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. He is board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, electrophysiology, and interventional cardiology.

• Kelly L. Close

  
  

  President of Close Concerns, Inc.

  
  

  Kelly L. Close is president of Close Concerns, Inc., a healthcare information firm exclusively focused on the business of diabetes. The mission of Close Concerns is to improve patient outcomes by getting the best information on diabetes available globally to whoever needs it – company executives, researchers, scientists, product developers, healthcare professionals, and patients, among others. Close Concerns publishes Closer Look, a real-time news service covering all goings-on in diabetes, as well as Diabetes Close Up, a bi-monthly industry newsletter. Kelly is also editor-in-chief of diaTribe, a free online newsletter focused on new research and products for people with diabetes (diaTribe.us) and is active in dQ&A, Close Concerns’ sister company, a market research business that surveys several thousand people with diabetes each quarter. Kelly and her colleagues attend over 40 conferences per year globally that are focused on diabetes, cover key medical literature in the field, and keep up with over 60 private and public companies in the area. Kelly’s passion for the field comes from her extensive professional work as well as her personal experience as a patient with type 1 diabetes for nearly 25 years. Her analytic expertise comes from nearly ten years researching medical technology and pharma as an equity research analyst (Merrill Lynch, Piper Jaffray); prior to this, Kelly worked at McKinsey & Company, focused on the healthcare practice. Kelly is a graduate of Amherst College and Harvard Business School. She is a frequent speaker on diabetes and as a longtime diabetes advocate, Kelly is on advisory boards for the JDRF, dLife, the Children with Diabetes Foundation, and the Diabetes Hands Foundation. She lives in San Francisco with her children Coco, Lola, and Valentino and husband John, with whom she runs Close Concerns.

• Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD

  
  

  University of Texas Health Science Center and the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital

  
  

  Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Audie L. Murphy Memorial VA Hospital in San Antonio, Texas.  Dr. DeFronzo is a graduate of Yale University (BS) and Harvard Medical School (MD) and did his training in Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.  He completed fellowships in endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health and Baltimore City Hospitals and in Nephrology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.  Subsequently, he joined the faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine (1975-88) as an Assistant/Associate Professor.

  His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome.  Using the euglycemic insulin clamp technique in combination with radioisotope turnover methodology, limb catheterization, indirect calorimetry, and muscle biopsy, he has helped to define the biochemical and molecular disturbances responsible for insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus.

  For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo received the prestigious Lilly Award (1987) by the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the Banting Lectureship (1988) by the Canadian Diabetes Association, the Novartis Award (2003) for outstanding clinical investigation world wide and many other national and international awards.  He also is the recipient of the ADA’s Albert Renold Award (2002) for lifetime commitment to the training of young diabetes investigators.  Dr. DeFronzo received the Banting Award from the ADA (2008) and the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008).  These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associations, respectively.  In 2008 Dr. DeFronzo also received the Italian Diabetes Mentor Prize and the Philip Bondy Lecture at Yale.  With more than 500 articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals, Dr. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus.

• Ken Fujioka, MD

  
  

  Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center and the Center for Weight Management, Scripps Clinic

  
  

  Ken Fujioka is director of the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center and the Center for Weight Management in La Jolla California at the Scripps Clinic. Over a 1000 patients a month are seen at these two centers. His time is divided equally between clinical research and clinical practice. Research includes diets, medications, devices and outcomes in obesity treatment. The Center for Weight Management is a referral based multispecialty center that includes endocrinologists, surgeons, psychologists, dietitians, exercise physiologists, and nurse practitioners. It is a recognized Center of Excellence and attempts to treat all forms of obesity, morbid obesity, and eating disorders. Dr. Fujioka has also worked for the Medical Board for the state of California as an expert witness. In 1997 he was asked to define the standard of care in the treatment of obesity. Dr. Fujioka’s proudest achievement is authoring a chapter in the third edition of the Handbook of Obesity on Weight loss clinics.

• Irl B. Hirsch, MD

  
  

  University of Washington School of Medicine

  
  

  Dr. Hirsch is a professor of medicine and holds the Diabetes Treatment and Teaching Chair at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He graduated from medical school at the University of Missouri, performed his internal medicine training at the University of Miami and Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, and completed his endocrinology fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis.

  Dr. Hirsch has been interested in new technologies for the treatment of diabetes, particularly those involved in the use of insulin therapy. He has also been interested in the mechanisms of how insulin co-modulates inflammation with glucose and how this results in improvements in outcomes, particularly of hospitalized patients. The management of hyperglycemia in the hospital has been an interest of Dr. Hirsch for over 20 years and his current interest is how glucose control may improve outcomes in bone marrow transplant patients.

  He also has been an author for both national and international treatment guidelines for inpatient hyperglycemia management. He is currently involved in numerous research studies including several involving the use of real-time glucose sensors and inhaled insulin. He is also currently an investigator in ORIGIN, ACCORD, and SEARCH For Youth in Diabetes. Dr. Hirsch is also interested in understanding how glycemic variability noted on glucose meter and sensor downloads may be an independent risk for microvascular complications.

  He has a very active clinical practice of which 80% of patients have type 1 diabetes.  He has authored over 100 papers including reviews of insulin in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA, 40 editorials, numerous book chapters, and four books both for patients and physicians. He is the past editor-in-chief of both DOC News and Clinical Diabetes, past chair of the American Diabetes Association Professional Practice Committee, and recently completed his sixth year of the American Board of Internal Medicine Subspecialty Board of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes. 

• David M. Kendall, MD

  
  

  American Diabetes Association

  
  

  David M. Kendall, MD serves as Chief Scientific and Medical Officer for the American Diabetes Association (ADA) in Alexandria, Virginia.  In this role he provides leadership and oversight of the Association’s scientific and medical activities including medical affairs, research programs, medical and community information, scientific and consumer publications and professional education. 

  In addition to his role with ADA, Dr. Kendall holds an academic appointment as Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Minnesota and serves as an Adjunct Medical Director at the International Diabetes Center (both in Minneapolis, MN).

  With more than a decade of service to the International Diabetes Center, Dr. Kendall previously served as Medical Director and Chief of Clinical and Professional Services (2008-9), Chief of Clinical Services (2000-2005) and Medical Director of Affiliate Programs (1997-2000). He also held the position of Executive Director of Medical Affairs at Amylin Pharmaceuticals from 2005-2008.  He was previously a Consultant in Endocrinology for Park Nicollet Health Services and the Park Nicollet Clinic in Minneapolis and served as full-time faculty at the University of Minnesota Medical School from 1994-1997.

  Active in diabetes research, education and clinical care for nearly 25 years, Dr. Kendall’s research and clinical interests have emphasized the management of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, emerging and novel therapies for diabetes care, the treatment and prevention of complications of diabetes and studies of models of diabetes care delivery.

  He has authored more than 150 original manuscripts, chapters and professional reviews. Additionally, Dr. Kendall has served as an investigator in both the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial/Epidemiology of Diabetes Intervention and Complications (DCCT/EDIC) Trial and as a principle investigator for the Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) Trial in type 2 diabetes.

• Davida F. Kruger, MSN, APN-BC, BC-ADM

  
  

  Henry Ford Health System Diabetes Association

  
  

  Davida F. Kruger has been a certified nurse practitioner in diabetes for the past 27 years at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan. Her role includes both clinical practice and research. She is board certified by the American Nurses Association Credentialing Center in both Primary Care and Advanced Diabetes Management. She is past Chair of the American Diabetes Association's Research Foundation and has served on the American Diabetes Association's Research Policy Committee. She is also a past president, Health Care and Education of the American Diabetes Association. She served as editor of Diabetes Spectrum from 2005-2008. Presently, she serves as an Associate Editor of Clinical Diabetes. Ms Kruger has been a principal investigator on numerous research projects and has written widely on diabetes care, authoring the book The Diabetes Travel Guide 2nd edition (2006). Her awards include the Florence Nightingale award for excellence in research, ADA’s Rachmeil Levine Award for Distinguished Service, ADA’s Award for Outstanding Service in Diabetes Research Funding and The ADA Wendell May’s Award.

• Harold E. Lebovitz, MD

  
  

  The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn

  
  

  Dr. Lebovitz is a professor of medicine in the division of endocrinology at The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn. He received his BS and MD from the University of Pittsburgh. Following his training in Medicine and Endocrinology, he was then appointed to the faculty of medicine at Duke University in 1962 and rose through the ranks to Professor of Medicine and Associate Professor of Physiology by 1971. He was director of the division of endocrinology at Duke University from 1964 through 1982.  In 1982 Dr. Lebovitz moved to The State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn as Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Section of Endocrinology and Diabetes and Director of the NIH sponsored Clinical Research Center. He remained as Chief of the Section of Endocrinology and Diabetes through the spring of 1999.

  Dr. Lebovitz is an internationally recognized authority in the field of diabetes.   He is author or co-author of more than 200 peer reviewed publications and 100 chapters or books. His 5th Edition of the American Diabetes Association “Therapy of Diabetes and Related Disorders” was released at the 2009 American Diabetes Association meeting in June. He has received numerous awards from both national and international organizations including the Albert E. Renold medal of the American Diabetes Association in 1994, and Charles Best Distinguished Service Award in 2001, the Samuel Moses Oration Award of the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India in 1993, the Servier Medal of the Philippine Diabetes association in 1999 and the Distinction in Clinical Endocrinology Award of the American College of Endocrinology in 2003.

  He has served on numerous boards and advisory panels. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologist and Chaired the Program committee for the 2009 Annual Scientific Program of the American Diabetes Association. For the last several years he has chaired and organized the Pre-Session Course on Diabetes at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Physicians.

• Marcea Bland Lloyd, JD

  
  

  Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

  
  

  Ms. Lloyd, one of Amylin's executive officers, has served as Senior Vice President, Government & Corporate Affairs and General Counsel since February 2007. Prior to joining Amylin, Ms. Lloyd served as Group Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, General Counsel and Secretary of VHA Inc. from November 2004 to February 2007. Previously, she served as VHA’s General Counsel and Secretary from May 1999 to November 2004. From 1993 to April 1999, Ms. Lloyd was Vice President and Assistant General Counsel of Medtronic, Inc. and served as Medtronic’s Assistant General Counsel from 1991 to 1993. From 1978 to 1991, Ms. Lloyd held various legal positions with Medtronic. Prior to joining Medtronic, Ms. Lloyd served as counsel to Pillsbury Company and Montgomery Ward & Co. and she taught Business Law at the University of Minnesota Business School. Ms. Lloyd is the immediate past Chairperson of the Executive Leadership Foundation, a member of the board of directors for California Healthcare Institute (CHI) and an associate of the Women Business Leaders of the United States Health Care Industry Foundation. She received a B.S./B.A. from Knox College and a J.D. from Northwestern University.

• David Maggs, MD, MRCP

  
  

  Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

  
  

  Dr. Maggs is Vice President for R&D Strategic Relations and is the Medical Lead for the exenatide franchise at Amylin Pharmaceuticals. In these positions, he leads numerous innovative collaborations with the external community that augment Amylin's portfolio of molecular interests, and leads all medical interests for the exenatide molecule through the development and commercial phases.

  Dr. Maggs’ extensive pharmaceutical industry experience includes leadership positions at Parke Davis and Pfizer, before joining Amylin in 2000. His research interests are in the fields of diabetes and metabolism and, currently, Dr. Maggs is working on advancing candidate peptide molecules for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, obesity and related metabolic disorders.

  As a trained endocrinologist, Dr. Maggs first graduated from Guys Hospital Medical School in London, England and later completed postgraduate studies at the University of Nottingham, and fellowship and faculty appointments at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, CT.

• Alexis Pollak, Diabetes Sales Specialist

  
  

  Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
  By clicking on the links within this piece, you will be leaving the Amylin website.

  
  

  I have been living with type 1 diabetes for 17 years. Diagnosed in 1992, I have entrenched myself in the San Diego and online diabetes community. I am a Diabetes Sales Specialist at Amylin Pharmaceuticals in the North San Diego territory, and have been with Amylin for four years. I regularly speak about diabetes education and experiences for local diabetes support groups, and was recently elected Chair of the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure San Diego. I am the author of www.irunoninsulin.com, a website for people touched by diabetes, which has gained a readership of 3,000 people a month since its February 2009 launch. My passion in life is diabetes care and education for the millions of people, like myself, living and thriving every day with this chronic disease.

• William H. Polonsky, PhD, CDE

  
  

  Behavioral Diabetes Insitute

  
  

  Dr. Polonsky is CEO and Founder of the Behavioral Diabetes Institute, the world's first organization wholly dedicated to tackling the unmet psychological needs of people with diabetes.  A licensed clinical psychologist, certified diabetes educator and associate clinical professor in Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego, he has served on the editorial boards of numerous professional and lay publications, including Diabetes Care, Diabetes Forecast, Clinical Diabetes, Diabetes Self-Management and Diabetes Health.  In addition to his professional publications, he is probably best known as the author of  Diabetes Burnout: What to Do When You Can’t Take it Anymore, a popular book for patients published by the American Diabetes Association.  In addition, he was co-editor of A CORE Curriculum for Diabetes Education and Diabetes Education Goals.

  Dr. Polonsky’s diabetes research efforts are currently focused on:

  • blood glucose monitoring behavior and attitudes in patients with type 2 diabetes
  • Internet-based interventions to assess and influence insulin pump attitudes in pump-naïve patients with type 2 diabetes
  • emotional, attitudinal and behavioral responses to the diagnosis of type 2 diabetes
  • a multi-site, randomized controlled trial to determine how structured, episodic, intensive blood glucose monitoring influences glycemic and quality of life outcomes
  • a multi-national investigation of physician and patient attitudes towards insulin
  • pilot investigations of group-based behavior change programs and their influence on glycemic control and quality of life.

  Dr. Polonsky received his PhD in clinical psychology from Yale University and has served as Senior Psychologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, faculty member at Harvard Medical School and Chairman of the National Certification Board for Diabetes Educators.

• Gary A. Puckrein, PhD

  
  

  National Minority Quality Forum

  
  

  Gary A. Puckrein, PhD, is President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Minority Quality Forum (formerly the National Minority Health Month Foundation), a not-for-profit organization that he founded in 1998. The Forum addresses the critical need for strengthening national and local efforts to use evidence-based, data-driven initiatives to guide programs to eliminate the disproportionate burden of premature death and preventable illness for racial and ethnic minorities and other special populations. The goal of the Forum is to strengthen the capacity of local communities to eliminate the disproportionate burden of premature death and preventable illness in minority populations through prevention, early detection, and control of disease complications.

  Dr. Puckrein also serves as the Executive Director of the Alliance of Minority Medical Associations (a collaborative effort of the Asian and Pacific Physicians’ Association, the Association of American Indian Physicians, the Interamerican College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the National Medical Association), which was formed on the basis of evidence-based data that highlight significant disparities in health-care treatment plans and outcomes among many underserved populations within the United States. In April 2001, the National Minority Health Month Foundation launched National Minority Health Month in response to Healthy People 2010, the national health-promotion and disease-prevention initiative.

  The National Minority Quality Forum has received support from a wide variety of organizations, including federal agencies, pharmaceutical companies, payers, and trade associations. With support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Forum undertook the Zip Code Analysis Project, developing a comprehensive database that links vital statistics and other elements—including demographic, environmental, claims, prescription, laboratory, hospital, and clinic data—in a centralized data warehouse, organized around zip codes. The Zip Code Analysis Project has enabled the Forum to develop the Health Assessment Tool, which measures and forecasts health status in small geographic areas, evaluates the impact of specific interventions, monitors changes in health outcomes, and undertakes risk assessments (health-care utilization and its financial implications). The Forum uses the Health Assessment Tool to stratify communities by geographic and health-status referents and to provide the health-disparities movement with a common set of indicators to measure and report on progress toward the elimination of disparities in health care and health status.

  Dr. Puckrein was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University, where he received his master’s degree (1974) and doctorate (1978). Between 1974 and 1992, he taught and lectured at Roger Williams College, Brown University, Connecticut College, and Rutgers University, where he was a tenured member of the faculty. Dr. Puckrein has received many awards and honors, including being named a visiting scholar and fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and a visiting fellow at Princeton University. He was publisher of American Visions, the country’s leading African American art and cultural magazine, which he launched during his tenure at the Smithsonian Institution and Rutgers University. Dr. Puckrein also created and launched Minority Health Today, which served the needs of clinicians practicing in minority communities.

• Virginia Valentine, BC-ADM, CDE

  
  

  Diabetes Network, Inc.

  
  

  Virginia Valentine, CNS, BC-ADM, CDE, has been helping people manage their diabetes for more than 25 years. She is currently the co-owner and CEO of Diabetes Network^®, Inc., a free-standing diabetes education and management center in Albuquerque and providing education and management in multiple locations in central New Mexico and Pueblo Colorado. In 1999, Ms. Valentine was awarded the Roche/Zitter Diabetes Disease Management Award, and she is a past recipient of the Outstanding Diabetes Educator of the Year Award and the 2006 recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of Diabetes Educators.

  Virginia received her Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Nursing.  She holds faculty appointments with the University of New Mexico College of Nursing, School of Medicine and College of Pharmacy.  She is a member of the Advanced Practice Advisory Board to the New Mexico Board of Nursing and serves as Past-President of the New Mexico Leadership Council of the American Diabetes Association.

  Her published works include professional publications and books for patients, including Diabetes, the New Type 2. (2008) Tarcher/Penguin Books.

  Virginia has had type 2 diabetes for over 30 years and has managed her diabetes well with diet, exercise and all kinds of medications.