College Diabetes Network

The CDN Team

Christina Roth Founder & President	Christina graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with both departmental honors in the Psychology department and “honors of greatest distinction” from the Commonwealth Honors College. Christina was the recipient of the Bateman Family Memorial Scholarship, the 21st Century Leader Award, the Class of 1941 Humanitarian Award, and the UMass Amherst recipient of the Massachusetts governor’s “29 Who Shine” award. She also received memberships in the Golden Key International Honour Society, the Psi Chi National Honor Society, and the Alpha Beta Kappa Honor Society, and was the recipient of a Commonwealth College honors research grant to fund her thesis research looking at strengths and competencies in adopted adolescents which Christina then presented at 3 regional conferences and the International Conference on Adoption Research (ICAR3) in Leiden, the Netherlands in 2010. At the age of 14 Christina was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, which has fueled her passion in helping other people living with the disease. In her junior year at UMass, Christina founded the College Diabetes Network (CDN) both as a national organization and as a local chapter at UMass. After graduating in May 2011, Christina has worked as a research assistant at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, MA. Christina’s passion has always been in diabetes research and plans to go on to get her PhD in Clinical Psychology to address the heavy psychological burden of living with the disease. In addition to running CDN and her work at the Joslin Clinic, Christina is an avid equestrian specializing in Dressage, and enjoys staying active and travelling to new places.
Joan Burke Chief Operations Officer	Joan works as CDN’s chief operating officer (COO) and brings many years of management skills to CDN. She was in retail management for 15 years and for the past 10 years has managed a real estate company in Cambridge MA. Diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 18, after her freshman year of college, Joan is passionate about her work with CDN. Had I had a peer support network such as CDN at that time it would have made a huge difference in the manner in which I managed my Type 1. I felt alone. I was away from my family who knew me and my diabetes. I did not want my roommate, classmates, or any one else to know. I did not even want to discuss it with my family and unfortunately this led to a number of years of uncontrolled blood sugars. This is why I am so passionate about CDN as I know what these college students are going through and I want them to have the resources and information available to them to have a healthy and fulfilling college experience.
Marissa Hitchcock Volunteer/Collaborator	Marissa Hitchcock was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 2 years old. She is a Registered Nurse with her Bachelors in Nursing from University of Cincinnati. In college she received the Spirit of the Community Award for her service to the diabetes community and the Michelle LaMendola Award for being a compassionate, well-rounded nurse. For a year she worked in outpatient pediatrics and had the opportunity to work with families with diabetes two days a week. She has 22 years of experience living with diabetes, has worked at diabetes camps as a counselor and camp nurse, helped run the childcare at a local support group for 2 years in Cincinnati, and works as a Teen Program Coordinator for Children with Diabetes. She has worked with the American Diabetes Association in creating a compilation article about the difficulties in the young adult population related to diabetes. Marissa's passion is helping families living with diabetes. She currently works at Tampa General Hospital with the adult population and sees many patients with type 2 and type 1 diabetes in the acute care setting. She hopes to become a Certified Diabetes Educator and a Family Nurse Practitioner.
Jo Treitman Chapter Coordinator Diabesties Program Director	Jo Treitman is 22 years old and lives in Boston. She was diagnosed at the age of 14 and is now one of the founders of Diabesties. Jo has been involved in both JDRF and the ADA since her diagnosis. Following Jo’s diagnosis in 2004, her Grandmother, Ruth Treitman, started selling her jewelry at the Clever Hand Gallery in Wellesley, MA to benefit JDRF. Jo has spoken at breakfasts and volunteered at the JDRF gala. She has also been a counselor at an ADA camp in New Hampshire called Camp Carefree. Jo spent the spring of her junior year in Copenhagen studying Danish design and neuropsychology. She realized her passion for science during her time at Harvard University working as a summer student in Dr. Doug Melton’s lab. Jo is currently living in Boston and working at a research technician at Tufts Medical Center in a Biology lab studying the effect of BPA exposure to breast cancer incidence. In her free time she is a volunteer coach for MetroLacrosse, a lacrosse program for inner city youth.
Sam Grossmith Volunteer: Programs & Development	Sam Grossmith graduated cum laude from Wellesley College in May 2011 with a B.A in Cognitive Linguistic Science and 3 years experience as a research assistant in the psychology department. Since then, she has done work for the American Diabetes Association at Camp Carefree (a diabetic camp in NH) as well as the Tour de Cure in Napa Valley, to be held in May 2012. She is 23 years old and has had type 1 diabetes since she was 17. Sam owes all of her recent acceptance, happiness, care, involvement, and pride over having diabetes to Jo Treitman, who was her first diabetic friend and who helped her find a way to feel normal again. In her free time, Sam hikes, writes, volunteers, and reads everything in her path.
Abby Bayer Volunteer	Abby is 23 years old and has been living with Type 1 for 13 years. She graduated from Saint Michael's College with a B.S. in Biology, and continued on to SUNY Adirondack to become a Registered Nurse. Abby grew up in upstate New York but is currently living in Boston. For the past four years she has been working with The Barton Center for Diabetes Education both as a counselor and nurse at Clara Barton Camp, and in the summer of 2011 was the Charge RN at Barton. Abby also works with the blog SixUntilMe.com as an Editorial Assistant, which keeps her very close with a large online community of people living with diabetes. Going through six years of college with diabetes has made Abby very passionate about working with CDN, seeing the potential it has to help college students live better lives with diabetes in college. Abby hopes to become a Certified Diabetes Educator and continue her education to become a Nurse Practitioner in the future.
Svati Narula Student Blogger & Volunteer	Svati is currently a junior at Dartmouth College and will be blogging about her life as a college student with diabetes. She enjoys running, hiking and training for triathlons in her spare time. Svati has been pumping insulin for over ten years, and she enjoys working with the non-profit organization Insulindependence to support active lifestyles for people with diabetes.

College Diabetes Network - College Diabetes Network

The CDN Team