2015 Students With Diabetes™ Conference Features Celebrities, Science And Connections For 18- To 30-Year-Olds With Type 1 Diabetes
HOSTED BY FOUNDER NICOLE JOHNSON, MISS AMERICA 1999, CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE AMERICAN IDOL STAR CRYSTAL BOWERSOX, AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR KYLE COCHRAN, THE BIONIC PANCREAS AND MUCH MORE
TAMPA, Fla., May 19, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --
WHAT: |
Held for the 5th consecutive year, the 2015 Students With Diabetes™ Conference (#SWD2015) will bring together more than 150 young people from 103 cities across the nation to learn, connect and empower one another to pursue success and achievement in life, despite the medical and physical odds stacked against them. |
For too long, a variety of sub-populations within the diabetes community have been neglected, leaving them isolated and disconnected from educational, career, relationships and other life opportunities. This Conference, like its predecessors, means to change all that. |
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That's why Miss America 1999 Nicole Johnson, DrPH, Director of the Bringing Science Home program at the University of South Florida, who has lived with Type 1 diabetes (T1D) since 1993, created Students With Diabetes,™ Young Adults With Diabetes,™ Just for Partners and Diabetes Parents. These and other programs will assist and create opportunities for those living with the disease and will be organized under the Diabetes Empowerment Foundation,™ details of which will be revealed for the first time at the 2015 Conference. |
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WHO: |
Among the variety of experts and featured speakers/performers during the three-day conference are: |
Crystal Bowersox, who placed second in Fox's American Idol (2010), and has recorded and released two albums: Farmer's Daughter (2010) and All This for That (2013). She was diagnosed with T1D as a six-year-old. |
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Kyle Cochran, a T1D since the age of 5, competed during two seasons of NBC's American Ninja Warrior (2013-2014), attributing his competitive successes to his many fans and supporters with diabetes. |
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Dr. Ed Damiano, a Boston University professor who invented the Bionic Pancreas based on his 11-month-old son being diagnosed with T1D and, as a result, was at risk for deadly low blood sugar levels during sleep. |
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Dr. Jill Weissberg-Benchell, Assoc Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, co-author of Teens with Diabetes (2014), and national expert on diabetes burnout. |
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Dr. Nicole Johnson, Miss America 1999, founder of Students With Diabetes,™ Young Adults With Diabetes,™ and the Diabetes Empowerment Foundation,™ and author of Young Adult Type 1 Diabetes Realities (2014). |
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WHEN & |
Friday, May 22 – Sunday, May 24, 2015 |
WHERE: |
Holiday Inn Tampa, 700 N Westshore Blvd, Tampa, FL 33609 |
Hotel phone: 813-289-8200 |
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WHY: |
1.25 million Americans live with Type 1 diabetes, 85 percent of whom are over the age of 18, but have typically lived with it for the majority of their childhood and adolescence. Each year, about 20,000 people under age 20 are newly diagnosed. The demands of living with T1D can be disruptive and stressful, illustrating how young people with diabetes and their families have a number of stressors that those living without diabetes do not experience. Often feeling isolated from their peers, people with diabetes experience higher rates of depression and other emotional problems, typically 2-3 times greater than others. |
Conference sponsors include Novo Nordisk, The Patterson Foundation, Astra Zeneca |
SOURCE Dr. Nicole Johnson, University of South Florida
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