A Special Message from 2018 AADE President Donna Ryan
Jan 5, 2018, 10:32 AM
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday. For those of you who sacrificed your holidays to work, we appreciate your time and dedication to our specialty and to those affected by diabetes.
My name is Donna Ryan, RN, RD, MPH, CDE and as your 2018 AADE president, I am excited for all this year has in store. I encourage you to read more about being a voice in 2018 in my president’s letter in the January edition of AADE in Practice.
You’ll be hearing a lot from me over the next year, so it’s important that you know a little about my background and the perspective I bring to this position.
I have worked in diabetes education and management for 20 years and have been a volunteer with AADE for at least 15 of those. I think I’ve held just about every volunteer position at AADE! Through that experience, I’ve learned the importance of volunteerism, both for our professional growth and for the value it brings the field of diabetes education and those we serve. It has been a transformational experience to say the least, and has made me a strong advocate for training the next generation of diabetes educators. Without them, our profession and this organization have no future.
On the credential side of things, I am a certified diabetes education, and am dually licensed as a registered dietitian and registered nurse. I have worked in both large urban healthcare systems and small rural hospitals and clinics, from California to Florida. My real passion is population health management and specifically, using data to help underserved populations. My AADE presidency is great timing, since many of our projects this year will focus on high risk, traditionally underserved populations, like the CDC funding opportunity we recently received focusing on type 2 diabetes risk reduction in these populations.
I currently reside in Northwest Florida, where I serve as a Director of Community Health for Sacred heart and Providence Health Systems, and I manage 4 diabetes outpatient and inpatient programs within Ascension Health. I am in the trenches every day and I think this helps gives me a practical, real world perspective.
In my spare time (ha!), I enjoy reading and walking on the local beaches. I’ve got 3 grandsons (ages 1, 3 & 4) who I love spending time with.
Now that you know a little about me, I can’t wait to meet all of you! I look forward to seeing you at AADE18 and at CB, LNG and other events around the country. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @DonnaRyanCDE. See you soon!