The bulk of eFYI’s articles are devoted to highlighting key news and resources to keep you informed of the educational, social, political and practice trends that impact diabetes education.

We are pleased to take a moment to present a good-natured look at the lives of AADE Board members who make significant contributions to the organization and specialty. 
In this issue of eFYI, we present to you 2017 Board Members Jasmine Gonzalvo, PharmD, BCPS, BC-ADM, CDE, LDE; Chris Memering, BSN, RN, CDE; and Donna C. Funk, MAEd, RN, NP, CDE, BC-ADM. We look forward to profiling the entire Board over the course of 2017.

AADE is seeking new members for the Board of Directors. Learn more and submit your application. The deadline for completed applications is February 28, 2017.

Jasmine Gonzalvo, PharmD, BCPS, BC-ADM, CDE, LDE

Jasmine has been an Active Member with AADE for eight years and has worked in diabetes education for 10 years.

I am the Clinical Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice & Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Ambulatory Care. I run two pharmacist-managed Cardiovascular Risk Reduction services in primary care clinics, one in a patient population with serious mental illness. I'm responsible for medication management for patients with diabetes and related complications, hypertension, dyslipidemia, ischemic heart disease, and obesity. I also work with patients on tobacco cessation and ensure that all vaccinations are up-to-date. I'm a faculty member in the College of Pharmacy at Purdue University where I coordinate a diabetes elective and teach a variety of topics related to cardiovascular and metabolic health.

My research interests relate to diabetes education in the community pharmacy setting, incorporation of the Spanish language in pharmacy settings, and pharmacist-managed cardiovascular risk reduction in patients with serious mental illness.

I wanted to become an AADE Board Member because:

I wanted to help represent and support pharmacist diabetes educators, as well as make a greater impact on the care for people with or at risk for diabetes.

The best thing about being a diabetes educator is:

Making a difference for people living with diabetes.

The best dish I cook is:

Pancit (a popular Filipino dish).

An interesting fact that no one would ever guess about you:

I was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

Chris Memering, BSN, RN, CDE

Chris has been an Active Member with AADE for nine years and has worked in diabetes education for nine years.

I am the Inpatient Diabetes Educator for a 300-bed hospital. This role includes in-depth patient education in the skills needed for diabetes self-management. It also includes working on policies related to diabetes management and serving as an educational resource to both the nursing and medical staff. Prior to diabetes education, I was a floor nurse on our Oncology unit. I attended the University of Virginia for my BSN and my BSc Chemistry degrees. I have just started my journey for my MSN with Capella's program for Diabetes Nursing.

I wanted to become an AADE Board Member because: I was given so much knowledge and support as I began my career as a diabetes educator from the members of this wonderful organization that I wanted to give back to the members and the organization. The best way I could think to do that was to serve on the Board.

The best thing about being a diabetes educator is: the patients and my colleagues across the country whom I have had the privilege of meeting. I know patients can be frustrating at times, but it is so great to see someone succeed with the knowledge and support you have provided for them. To see them living healthy lives with diabetes as part of that just fills my heart, and I cannot say enough about my colleagues: answering questions, supporting the journey, being a shoulder to cry on when the work doesn't go as we thought it would. Diabetes educators get it. The inter-professional work we are all allowed to be a part of is just tremendous.

My all-time favorite movie is:

The Princess Bride. I mean c'mon. Isn't it everyone's? I love a lot of movies, but I was very happy when I could share this adventurous love story with my daughter and son. Do you remember the secrets of the Fire Swamp? I've seen those ROUSes in real life.

The best dish I cook is:

White chili. Why? Because no matter his mood, I can get my seven year-old to eat it. And it is so easy, my 11-year-old and my husband can make it too. It also happens to be pretty healthy.

I seriously collect:

Magnets. Everywhere we travel, we bring home a magnet. T-shirts get small and take up a lot of room, but magnets are just fun and can decorate the freezer or fridge or dishwasher or wherever; and, when you see them, they bring back happy memories. Shutterfly makes it so easy to make magnet keepsakes too.

An interesting fact that no one would ever guess about you:

I have lived in seven different states, but my parents were not in the military.

Donna C. Funk, MAEd, RN, NP, CDE, BC-ADM

Donna has been an Active Member with AADE for 27 years and has worked in diabetes education for 37 years.

I retired in 2016 from a position as a Diabetes Clinical Nurse Specialist. I had been a CNS for 37 years - first for 10 years as a medical-surgical CNS, where I developed my diabetes specialty, and then for 27 years doing diabetes exclusively.

All of this time was spent in the acute care hospital setting. I was responsible for all inpatient diabetes education management - at first I did the education, but after specializing in diabetes and realizing the impossibility of one educator providing education for all hospital patients with diabetes, I moved to a less hands-on approach using nurse champions and training nursing staff to do the survival skill education. This was at the time when the free-standing outpatient programs were being developed and providing an outpatient alternative for diabetes education. Inpatients were much sicker and could not be expected to participate as much in education while hospitalized. No one was going to pay for them to stay in the hospital for education, so I developed a special diabetes nurse program that took staff nurse volunteers from every hospital unit (including ER, rehab, behavioral health, and surgery) and gave them the extra knowledge to manage diabetes questions, problems, and education on their own units. All nurses were expected to teach - which is how nurses have always been educated, but they had the tools to do it well. I also managed all order sets, and was the facilitator for implementation of all diabetes management programs for physicians.

I wanted to become an AADE Board Member because:

I felt that I had the experience and knowledge to provide input as the field of diabetes education moves forward. I felt that we needed to look strategically at the entire range of diabetes education options and make sure that the coming changes in provision of education would maintain quality and also improve access to education while keeping the impact of that education on the lives of those who received it.

The best thing about being a diabetes educator is:

Having a lasting effect on the subsequent lives of all of those patients and others impacted by diabetes. Seeing that the time and effort spent changes things and that I could make a difference for those individuals.

The best dish I cook is:

Cherry pie. I learned to make pie crust and filling from my mother and was grateful that when I got married nearly 45 years ago there was a recipe to make my own cherry filling in one of those wedding cookbooks. The recipe has changed and developed over the years. Since I have lived in Michigan for the last 10 years, I now have access to reasonably priced frozen cherries and have used those to great advantage to make this pie special - full of cherries and bursting with flavor. I do use 1/2 sugar and 1/2 Splenda to keep it from being quite so calorie-laden.

I seriously collect:

Pilgrim statues. I have always loved Thanksgiving and autumn is my favorite season, but it is a much overlooked season, as Christmas has pushed back and swamped it. Since I did not want the focus to be only on food I thought that the original Thanksgiving could be commemorated by using both pilgrim and Native American statues. The hospital gift shop had so many different pairs of these that I started buying them (70% off) after the holiday, and it blossomed from there. I now have about 50 pairs or parts of pairs; they do break so there are some widows/widowers in the collection. I place them all over the house starting right after Labor Day and ending the day after Thanksgiving when I move to Christmas decorations.