(Arlington Heights, IL – February 2022) Five new members began serving in 2022 on the Certification Board for Diabetes Care and Education (CBDCE) Board of Directors. The CBDCE Board of Directors elected Melanie Batchelor, MHS, RD, LDN, CDCES; Dana Brackney, PhD, RN, CDCES, BC-ADM; Nancy D'Hondt, RPh, CDCES, FADCES; Melinda D Maryniuk, MEd, RDN, CDCES; and a Public Member, Andrew Vilcinskas, PharmD.
Melanie Batchelor is a master's trained dietitian and diabetes care and education specialist. She has extensive, diverse experience in health care, including public health, acute care, outpatient, higher education, management and medical device. Melanie currently works for Medtronic as a clinical territory manager for the Asheville, NC, area. She earned her Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist® (CDCES) credential in 2012.
Dana Brackney is an Associate Professor in the Nursing Department at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She completed her doctoral dissertation on the meaning of Self-Monitoring Blood Glucose for people with diabetes learning to self-manage. Over the past decade as a faculty member, Dr. Brackney has developed a program of research grounded in her dissertation work, and achieved internal funding for collaborative projects with colleagues in nursing and exercise science that have addressed exercise and fertility for women with polycystic ovary syndrome and diabetes prevention in school-aged students using morning dance as an exercise intervention. She incorporates current diabetes knowledge and treatment approaches into all courses that she teaches in both undergraduate and graduate programs in nursing. She earned her CDCES credential in 1992.
Nancy D'Hondt is a clinical pharmacist/diabetes specialist at Ascension Health St. John Hospital in Detroit, MI. She helped establish the St. John inpatient protocols and policies around glycemic management, and assists in protocol implementation, revision and staff education. Nancy also contributed to glycemic initiatives and formulary decisions for Ascension Health at a national level. Her involvement in the diabetes landscape spans 20 years where she has served on local and national committees for the American Diabetes Association (ADA), Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), and the Association of Diabetes Care and Education Specialists (ADCES). Nancy has been involved in authoring many ADCES publications, including position statements and white papers, and is a contributing author for the ADCES The Art and Science of Diabetes Care and Education. She has presented nationally on topics related to diabetes and cardiometabolic disease as well as served as an editor for ADA's Clinical Diabetes publication. She was a member of the ADCES Board of Directors and provided leadership for the organization as the 2017 President of the Board. She earned her CDCES credential in 2002.
Melinda Maryniuk is the President/Owner of Maryniuk and Associates in Boston, MA. Since becoming a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Melinda has spent her entire career working as a diabetes care and education specialist, starting in 1979 at Joslin Diabetes Center. She worked in a variety of roles (in 5 different states) including direct patient care, diabetes program coordinator, teaching (college-level), research, and program development. For the past few years, she has been providing consultative services to several diabetes-related companies. She has traveled and worked with diabetes educators in over 20 countries and has taken part as an author (lead or contributing) for many important consensus/guidelines, chapters, and papers for the diabetes profession. Melinda enjoys volunteering for the ADA and ADCES, along with serving as a board member. She has chaired the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Diabetes Practice Group, ADA Education Recognition Program Committee, and served as an Associate Editor of Clinical Diabetes. She earned her CDCES credential in 1993.
Serving as a CBDCE Public Member, Andrew Vilcinskas is in the Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program at Rutgers University, Hartford, CT. He graduated from the University of the Connecticut School of Pharmacy in 2020, and is currently completing a 2-year Fellowship at Sanofi through the Rutgers Institute for Pharmaceutical Industry to gain experience in public affairs and patient advocacy. In this role, he is learning to build strategic partnerships on public health solutions to improve patient outcomes. Andrew's fierce passion for patient centricity drives his motivation to advance the quality of diabetes care and education. These individuals began serving on January 1, 2022. Melanie Batchelor, Nancy D'Hondt, Melinda Maryniuk, and Andrew Vilcinskas are serving four-year terms; Dana Brackney is serving a two-year term, completing the term of former board member Paulina Duker, MPH, RN, CDCES. Paulina resigned from her role as a board member effective January 1, 2022. With their election, they join six Directors currently serving on the organization's board:
- Becky Sulik, Chair, RDN, LD, CDCES
- James Bernasko, Chair-Elect, MD, FACOG, CDCES
- Benjamin Klein, Immediate Past Chair, Public Member
- Jenni Osborne, Treasurer, MCHES, MPH, CDCES, CPSTI
- Chrystyne Olivieri, DNP, FNP-BC, CDCES
- Tami Ross, RDN, LD, CDCES, MLDE, FADCES
- Sheryl Traficano, MBA, CAE (CBDCE CEO), ex officio
Learn more about the 2022 CBDCE Board of Directors by visiting CBDCE's leadership page.