Medical Advisory Board

Meet our peer-review Advisory Board who is made up of a professional multidisciplinary team of physicians and credentialed professional diabetes health care professionals.

Aaron I. Vinik, MD, PhD, FCP, MACP
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Vinik has brought international recognition to Virginia as a result of his research and recent discovery of a gene, which could prove to be a cure for diabetes. The gene, INGAP (islet neogenesis associated protein) is responsible, either alone or in combination with other factors, for stimulating immature cells in the diabetic pancreas to produce insulin. When INGAP protein was administered to diabetic hamsters it was shown to reverse diabetes in 40% to 50% of animals. Animal studies were followed by human, multi-center clinical studies in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, carried out by some of the most highly recognized investigators in the country; the results showed that even in type 1 diabetes an increase in C- peptide, (a measure of islet function), could be induced after 3 months of treatment.
Anne Peters, MD, CDE
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Peters is the director of the USC Clinical Diabetes Program. Dr. Peters received her medical degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine before proceeding to Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, California, to perform her internship and residency in internal medicine. She completed an endocrinology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. She was in charge of the Comprehensive Diabetes Program at Cedars and then moved to UCLA, where she ran the Clinical Diabetes Program there. Because of an interest in working with the underserved, she subsequently moved to USC.
Carol Levy
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Carol Levy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology,Diabetes and Bone Disease, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Science. She is a board-certified Endocrinologist and Certified Diabetes Educator. She completed and her Endocrinology fellowship at Joslin Diabetes Center. Dr. Levy is the Director of the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center and Type 1 Diabetes Clinical Research. She is known as a clinical expert in type 1 diabetes and diabetes in pregnancy and serves on the Board of JDRF. As the Director of the Diabetes Center, she leads a clinical team of 15, including physicians, NPs, RDs and RNs and CDEs. She has mentored and trained numerous faculty, fellows and students. She is the Director or the Mount Sinai Artificial pancreas program and at Mount Sinai has lead her research team in the evaluation of multiple closed loop systems. She and her team collaborate with researchers nationally and internationally. Additional research has included studies investigating new treatments for Type 1 diabetes including faster aspart, liraglutide, sotagoflozin, new glucose sensors and diabetes decision support. The goal of all of these studies and device-development is to improve the lives of people with diabetes.
Caroline Apovian, M.D.
(Advisory Board Member) Caroline Apovian is Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics, in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition at Boston University School of Medicine, USA. She is also Director of the Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at Boston Medical Center, USA. Dr. Apovian is a nationally and internationally recognized authority on nutrition and has been in the field of obesity and nutrition since 1990. Her current research interests are in: weight loss and its effects on endothelial cell function, adipose cell metabolism and inflammation, research in the bariatric surgery population, and novel pharmacotherapeutic antiobesity agents. She is also an expert in the technique for subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsies, and has been performing these biopsies on research subjects for over 10 years. She was on the expert panel for updating the 2013 AHA/ACC/TOS Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults.
Derek LeRoith
(Advisory Board Member) Internationally known for his research in Diabetes, Derek LeRoith, MD, PhD, is Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Diseases) and Interim Chief of the Hilda & J. Lester Gabrilove Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bones Diseases. Dr. LeRoith received his MD and PhD from the University of Capetown where he also completed his residency and both a research and clinical fellowship in Endocrinology. Prior to joining the faculty of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2005, Dr. LeRoith was Chief of the Diabetes Branch at the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. This is the largest program devoted to the study of diabetes within the intramural program of the NIH. He was recruited to Mount Sinai to become the Chief of the Endocrine Division at Mount Sinai as well as the Director of the Metabolism Institute. In 2010 he became the Director of Research for the Division of Endocrinology before returning to his duties as chief in 2015.
George Bakris, MD
(Advisory Board Member) George L. Bakris, MD, is a member of the National Kidney Foundation’s Board of Directors. He is Professor of Medicine and Director of the American Society of Hypertension’s Comprehensive Hypertension Center at the University of Chicago Medicine. Dr. Bakris received his medical degree from the Rosalind Franklin School of Medicine and completed residency in Internal Medicine at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine where he also completed a research fellowship in Physiology and Biophysics. He then completed fellowships in Nephrology and Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Chicago.
Jane K. Dickinson, RN, PhD, CDE
(Advisory Board Member) Jane K. Dickinson is a nurse and certified diabetes educator. She has been living with type 1 diabetes since 1975, and helping others live well with diabetes since 1995. Jane is the Program Director and faculty for the solely online Master of Science in Diabetes Education and Management program at Teachers College Columbia University. Prior to taking this position she developed, implemented and ran the diabetes education program at her local hospital in northwest Colorado, and before that she was the Clinical Director of a yearround nonprofit for children and families with diabetes. Jane is passionate about the language of diabetes and the impact messages have on people living with diabetes. She has published articles, frequently speaks about, and conducts research on language and diabetes. Jane lives in northwest Colorado with her husband and two teenagers, where she enjoys hiking, reading, watching movies, and engaging in diabetes related social media.
Joshua Neumiller, Pharm.D., CDE, FASCP
(Advisory Board Member) Joshua J. Neumiller, Pharm.D., CDE, FASCP, is Vice Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy at Washington State University College of Pharmacy in Spokane, Washington. He is a certified diabetes educator and a fellow of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. Josh’s research interests involve the management of diabetes and prevention of adverse drug events during transitions in care. He is Editor-in-Chief for Diabetes Spectrum, a journal of the American Diabetes Association (ADA). He also is a contributing author for the ADA books, Medications for the Treatment of Diabetes, Practical Insulin, and American Diabetes Association Guide to Nutrition Therapy for Diabetes. Josh currently serves on the ADA Professional Practice Committee, which works to update the ADA Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes each year. He was recently awarded the 2016 Albert B. Prescott Pharmacy Leadership Award from the Pharmacy Leadership and Education Institute for his work in diabetes care and education.
Lawrence A. Lavery
(Advisory Board Member) A medical professor, noted researcher, international lecturer and inventor, Dr. Lawrence Lavery is considered one of the world’s leading experts in diabetic foot complications. He develops highly specialized educational and instructional courses at the national and international level, while also serving as professor of surgery at the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Temple, Texas.
Louis J. Aronne, MD, FACP
(Advisory Board Member) Louis J. Aronne, MD, FACP is a leading authority on obesity and its treatment. He is the Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research at Weill-Cornell Medical College where he directs the Comprehensive Weight Control Center. He has an adjunct Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine appointment at Columbia University. Dr. Aronne is Founder and CEO of BMIQ, a cloud-based weight management system that is delivered by health care providers to their patients during office visits. 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, followed by a Kaiser Foundation Fellowship at Weill-Cornell. He is a member of the AOA Medical Honor Society.
Louis Philipson, MD, PhD
(Advisory Board Member) Louis Philipson, MD, PhD, is an endocrinologist and a leading world authority on diabetes mellitus. His clinical interests include type 1 diabetes, complicated type 2 diabetes, monogenic diabetes and hypoglycemia. Recognized for unmatched expertise in the treatment of diabetes that is difficult to manage, Dr. Philipson’s multisciplinary team frequently accepts referrals and provides consultations. Under his leadership, Kovler Diabetes Center has been recognized as a one of only seven National Institutes of Health (NIH) Diabetes Research and Training Centers in the U.S.
Maria Emanuel Ryan, DDS, PhD
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Maria Emanuel Ryan, a Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine graduate, is a tenured full Professor in the Department of Oral Biology and Pathology at the School of Dental Medicine and a member of the Medical Staff at University Hospital at Stony Brook University Medical Center. She also serves as the Associate Dean for Strategic Planning and External Affairs. Dr. Ryan received her specialty training in periodontics at the University of Connecticut Health Center, and her Ph.D in Oral Biology and Pathology at Stony Brook. Dr. Ryan is actively involved in teaching, practice and research and served as the Director of Clinical Research. She currently serves on several scientific, dental and medical advisory boards.
Michael Holick
(Advisory Board Member) Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., M.D. Professor of Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics; Emeritus Chief of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Nutrition; Director; Director of the Bone Health Care Clinic and the Director of the Heliotherapy, Light, and Skin Research Center at Boston University Medical Center. Dr. Holick has made numerous contributions to the field of the biochemistry, physiology, metabolism, and photobiology of vitamin D for human nutrition. Dr. Holick has established global recommendations advising sunlight exposure as an integral source of vitamin D. He has helped increase awareness in the pediatric and medical communities regarding vitamin D deficiency pandemic, and its role in causing not only metabolic bone disease, and osteoporosis in adults, but increasing risk of children and adults developing common deadly cancers, schizophrenia, infectious diseases including TB and influenza, autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes and multiple sclerosis, type 2 diabetes, stroke and heart disease. He published over 500 manuscripts in wellrespected peerreviewed journals and more than 200 reviews and book chapters. He has acted as editor and/or coeditor on 13 books, and has written The UV Advantage in 2004 and The Vitamin D Solution in 2010. There have been more than 63,000 citations for his work in the field of calcium, vitamin D and bone metabolism. He served as the Chair for the Endocrine Society’s Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee for Vitamin D. He have received numerous awards for my research activities including: The Linus Pauling Prize in Human Nutrition, The Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award, The General Clinical Research Center’s Program Award for Excellence in Clinical Research from the National Institutes of Health, and the Louis Avioli Award from the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, just to name a few. He was recognized by Thompson Reuters as one of the most influential scientific minds for 2014.
Michael R. Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD, FASHP
(Advisory Board Member) Michael R. Cohen, RPh, MS, ScD (hon.), DPS (hon.), is president of The Institute for Safe Medication Practices, a non-profit healthcare organization that specializes in understanding the causes of medication errors and providing error-reduction strategies to the healthcare community, policy makers, and the public. He is editor of the textbook, Medication Errors (2007 American Pharmaceutical Association) and serves as co-editor of the ISMP Medication Safety Alert! publications that reach over 2 million health professionals and consumers in the US, as well as regulatory authorities and others in over 30 foreign countries. He is editor for the ISMP consumer website, www.consumermedsafety.org and writes a weekly blog for the Philadelphia Inquirer website, Philly.com, which also appears occasionally in the newspaper. Dr. Cohen currently serves as Vice Chair of the Patient Safety Advisory Group for the Joint Commission (which creates the National Patient Safety Goals). He also served recently as a member of the National Quality Forum’s Voluntary Consensus Standards Maintenance Committee (CSMC) on Safe Practices and serves as a consultant to the US Food and Drug Administration’s Drug Safety and Risk Management Committee. In 2005 he was recognized as a MacArthur Fellow by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Paul Chous, M.A., O.D.
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Paul Chous received his undergraduate education at Brown University and the University of California at Irvine, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1985. He received his Masters Degree in 1986 and his Doctorate of Optometry in 1991, both with highest honors from the University of California at Berkeley. Dr. Chous has practiced optometry with a special emphasis on diabetic eye disease and diabetes education for 20 years in the State of Washington, winning the American Diabetes Association’s Distinguished Public Service Award in 1998.
Richard K. Bernstein, MD, FACE, FACN, FACCWS
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Bernstein has been a type 1 diabetic since the age of twelve. He trained as a management engineer (Columbia University School of Engineering & Applied Science, B.S., 1955) and his first career was as a business executive. In 1969, while suffering from several diabetes complications, he was looking for a way to normalize his blood sugars. He aquired a device used in emergency rooms to measure blood sugars at night when the labs were closed. He then began to measure his blood sugar throughout the day, hoping to discover what made it go up and down. This led to the development of “self-monitoring of blood glucose,” a simple procedure that uses one drop of finger tip blood. The technique has since become widely accepted by the medical profession throughout the world.
Scott Kahan, MD, MPH
(Advisory Board Member) Scott Kahan, MD, MPH is the Director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness. He is a physician trained in both clinical medicine and public health. He serves on the faculties of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the George Washington University School of Medicine, and the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services. In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Kahan also works as a public health physician specializing in nutrition and obesity policy. He serves as the Director of the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (S.T.O.P.) Obesity Alliance, a George Washington University-based coalition of nearly 100 organizations that drive innovative policies and practical strategies to address obesity. He serves on the Board of Directors for the American Board of Obesity Medicine, a national, independent, non-profit organization that certifies specialist physicians in obesity medicine, and the Board of Directors of Playworks DC, a non-profit organization that teaches kids about life through play. He also serves as Chair of the Clinical Committee for The Obesity Society. Dr. Kahan has advised the White House, several Surgeons General, members of the U.S. Congress, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and numerous governmental agencies, national and local advocacy groups and public health initiatives pertaining to obesity, nutrition, and chronic disease prevention. He has served on non-partisan healthcare panels at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. He has presented academic lectures at numerous Universities, including Harvard, Johns Hopkins, and Georgetown, and internationally, including the Royal College of Physicians. He teaches several courses on obesity, nutrition, public health, and health behavior change to medical students, graduate students, and undergraduate students. He created and teaches the first course devoted to obesity and nutrition at the George Washington University School of Medicine, as well as the first undergraduate course devoted to obesity at Johns Hopkins University. He has served as the Co-Director of the George Washington University Weight Management Program and the Associate Director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, as well as core faculty of the Johns Hopkins Preventive Medicine Residency Program. He is a columnist for The Huffington Post, has written articles in numerous newspapers and scientific journals, and is regular contributor to national and local media outlets. He has also published 14 books in the fields of medicine, nutrition, and public health, and is the Editor-in-Chief of a series of medical texts that have been published internationally and translated into nine foreign languages. Dr. Kahan has received numerous awards, including Clinician of the Year award (2017) by The Obesity Society, Healthcare Provider Advocate of the Year (2016) by the Obesity Action Coalition, the Patients’ Choice award as one of Washington DC’s best physicians (2010-2018), Outstanding Contribution Gratitude Award by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Weight Management DPG, and he has been rated as the #1 Preventive Medicine physician in Washington, D.C. by rate MDs.com. He has also been named to the Medical College of Pennsylvania/Drexel University 40 Under 40 list, and he has been nominated for the Robert Wood Johnson Young Leader award.
Dr. Sheri Colberg, Ph.D., FACSM
(Advisory Board Member) Sheri Colberg, PhD, also known as Sheri Colberg-Ochs, is an author, exercise physiologist, and professor emerita of exercise science at Old Dominion University and a former adjunct professor of internal medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School, both in Norfolk, Virginia. Having earned her undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, she has specialized in research on diabetes and exercise and healthy lifestyles and shaped physical activity recommendations for professional organizations, including the American College of Sports Medicine, American Diabetes Association, and American Association of Diabetes Educators. She has authored 11 books, along with 24 book chapters and more than 300 articles on physical activity, diabetes, healthy lifestyles, and aging. In addition to her educational website, Diabetes Motion (www.diabetesmotion.com), she is also the founder of an academy for fitness and other professionals seeking continuing education enabling them to effectively work with people with diabetes and exercise: Diabetes Motion Academy (www.dmacademy.com). These and her own website (www.shericolberg.com) offer additional information about being active with diabetes. She is the 2016 recipient of the American Diabetes Association’s Outstanding Educator in Diabetes Award.
Stanley Schwartz, MD, FACP, FACE
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Schwartz has been awarded the honor of being a TOP DOC by Philadelphia Magazine many times over the years, including 2009, 2010 and 2011 for the treatment of diabetes and metabolic syndrome. For over 30 years, Dr. Schwartz was an Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, most recently directing the Diabetes Program at the Philadelphia Heart Institute. Dr. Schwartz actively lectures nationally as well as internationally about diabetes and its treatment. He has authored numerous articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and has been a lead or co-investigator for many clinical trials.
Stuart Weiss, MD
(Advisory Board Member) Dr. Weiss is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor of Endocrinology at NYU Langone medical center. He has a long history of clinical practice in the management of patients in the field of diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism. He is a graduate of St. Georges University (1985) and completed his medical residency at Harlem Hospital (1988) and endocrine fellowship at the Boston University School of Medicine (1991). He served a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical Center’s Joslin Diabetes Center before joining a clinical practice affiliated with New York University Medical Center. Dr. Weiss was also formerly Section Chief of Endocrinology at Tish Hospital (20042014). In recent years, Dr. Weiss has concentrated on the clinical application of continuous glucose monitoring to improve the lives of his patients. In 2010 he was voted Endocrinologist of the year by The Metropolitan New York Association of Diabetes Educators. Dr. Weiss is a devoted father to his two teenage daughters and in his spare time, an avid guitar and music enthusiast.
Susan Guzman, PhD
(Advisory Board Member) Susan Guzman, PhD is a clinical psychologist specializing in diabetes. Her clinical and research focus areas include overcoming barriers to management, family issues, and promoting attitudes that support living well with diabetes, from diagnosis throughout the lifespan. Dr. Guzman is cofounder and Director of Clinical/Educational Services at the Behavioral Diabetes Institute (BDI), the first nonprofit organization devoted to the emotional and behavioral aspects of living with diabetes. At BDI, she developed programs for people with diabetes and their families and cofacilitates CME programs for Healthcare Professionals.
V. Mohan
(Advisory Board Member) DR.V. MOHAN, M.D., FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Ireland), Ph.D., D.Sc. D.Sc (Hon. Causa), FNASc, FASc, FNA, FACE, FACP, FTWAS, MACP, is the Chairman and Chief of Diabetology at Dr. Mohan’s Diabetes Specialities Centre at Chennai in South India which is a WHO Collaborating Centre for Noncommunicable Diseases Prevention and Control and IDF Centre of Excellence in Diabetes Care. He is also President and Director of the Madras Diabetes Research Foundation which is an ICMR Centre for Advanced Research on Diabetes. A student of Madras Medical College, Dr. Mohan was awarded the Dr. R.V. Rajam Gold Medal for standing first in the University of Madras in M.D. (General Medicine). Deeply interested in research from his undergraduate days, Dr. Mohan has published over 1150 papers in peer reviewed journals including 720 original articles, 241 review articles and invited editorials and 151 chapters to text-books on Diabetes and Internal Medicine. His work has received over 51,000 citations. Dr. Mohan has received over 160 awards including the prestigious Dr. B.C. Roy National Award by the Medical Council of India and Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Centenary Award from the Indian Council of Medical Research, the highest award for Biomedical research in India. Recently he has been conferred with the prestigious Harold Rifkin Distinguished International Service in the Cause of Diabetes Award by the American Diabetes Association for his pioneering work in the field of diabetes and he is the first Indian to receive this award. Dr. Mohan also provides life long free treatment to thousands of poor patients through the free diabetic clinics established by him and has conducted over 2500 free diabetes camps including several along with the Sri Sathya Sai Organization. For his extensive contribution in the field of diabetes in 2012, Dr. Mohan was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri, from the Govt. of India. Email : drmohans@diabetes.ind.in, website : www.mdrf.in & www.drmohansdiabetes.com