Diabetics Doing College Diabetes Network with Christina Roth

[00:00:07] Rob Howe: Welcome to the Diabetics Doing Things podcast. We've been telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics all across the world since 2015, and we have over a thousand years of living with T1D on the podcast. The interviews range from incredible feats to everyday victories, and we celebrate them all just the same. Thanks for listening. And if you want to get involved even further, just send me an email at rob at diabeticsdoingthings.com. What's up, everybody? Just wanted to say thank you for listening to this podcast. It's been an amazing journey thus far, and I have a lot of really great stuff coming up in the future. so I'm going to do something that I haven't asked before if you're listening to this podcast a I would love it if you would subscribe to the podcast just so you get the notifications whenever we publish new episodes because if you've been listening for a while you know I don't always publish them consistently sometimes I'll publish five in a week sometimes it'll be only a couple in a month and you need to know when these episodes drop so be sure to subscribe and if you like the podcast, be sure to go to your preferred platform like iTunes and leave a review. I would love to boost my reviews and I've never asked you guys to do that before. So I figured you don't ASK, you don't G E T. I would love a review from you. So I want to hear from you there. Also, we are now available on Spotify. Turns out I was just submitting it to Spotify incorrectly, but I corrected that. So now we're on Spotify. So if that's your preferred listening platform, be sure to subscribe on there. Also just want to let you know that in 2019, we have an awesome new program coming called Tools of Type 1s. It's going to be on this podcast, so you don't have to subscribe anywhere new, but it's going to be an entirely new form of programming with some of your favorite Type 1 personalities. So they're going to be two a week starting January 8th. Be sure to tune in and I'm going to blast all the messaging I can all around. So be sure to listen to Tools of type 1s launching January 8th. And thank you for continuing to listen to this podcast. This podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. And if you don't remember Health IQ from the previous episodes that they've sponsored, Health IQ is an insurance company on a mission to improve the world's health by rewarding runners, cyclists, weightlifters, swimmers, yogis, well-managed diabetics, and other Americans living a healthy lifestyle. They're actually the first insurance company rewarding patients with type 2 diabetes who manage their A1c with a healthy diet and exercise with large savings on their life insurance. To support the show and get a free quote, go to healthiq.com slash DDT. Hello and welcome back to another episode of Diabetics Doing Things. We are telling the amazing stories of type 1 diabetics from all across the world. My very special guest today calling from Boston is Ms. Christina Roth. Welcome to the show.

[00:03:12] Christina Roth: Thank you so much. Excited to be here.

[00:03:14] Rob Howe: Well, we're really, really glad to have you. And I know that you and your team over at College Diabetes Network are extremely busy this time of year and just all the time with all the work you guys are doing. So thank you so much for the time. Oh, no, my pleasure. So let's just jump right into it. The way this show works, we start with diagnosis just to kind of level set with everybody that we all kind of start in the same place. But why don't you give us a little background about you and where you're from and how you joined this type 1 diabetes family.

[00:03:46] Christina Roth: Sure. So I grew up in Boston, never got out, but I was originally diagnosed when I was 14. So I was a freshman in college or sorry, not college, high school. And I probably lost maybe 10 or 15 pounds by the time I was diagnosed. I was lucky that I wasn't in DKA. My mom, for better or worse, as a nurse. And so she recognized the symptoms and checked my blood sugar and we went from there. So I spent about four days in the hospital as I was being taught everything. And from the time I was little, some quick backstory, I always wanted to be a vet. And I abandoned that dream pretty quickly because I was so afraid of needles that I would pass out when I saw them. So getting diagnosed with diabetes was a very cruel, ironic joke. So that was probably that hardest piece at the very beginning.

[00:04:46] Rob Howe: Wow. Yeah, right away, right? Just a, you know, just a big, you know, just big obstacles to overcome right at the beginning. Yeah, I feel like it's a lot of people have that fear. And I can totally relate. so and I mean I think I feel like fear manifests itself so many different ways especially when we're teenagers because like you know we're hormones are all out of whack we're growing the whole world is coming at us a million miles an hour how did you kind of make that you know

[00:05:18] Christina Roth: put one foot in front of the other type journey so I was very independent um from the beginning I wouldn't let anybody really help me in any way never mind give me shots so I very quickly learned to give myself shots and really took it on gung-ho, run with it. You know, we're going to, you know, find the silver lining. It'll be great. All these things will come out of it. You know, it's totally fine. And I was able to keep that up for maybe six months. It was definitely a struggle giving myself shots and learning all of the nuances, but I definitely kept, you know, a good face on. And then probably within about six to nine months, I was already burnt out. Um, and I would go, I think I went to a, you know, a support group and, um, everybody there had had diabetes for so long and was talking about burnout and they were like, Oh, you haven't had it long enough to be burnt out. And I was like, Oh my God, it gets burst. I can't believe this. But, uh, I think after that, you know, I sort of did the bare minimum to be honest in a lot of high school, um, with related to diabetes, uh, just enough to, to really function and do what I loved, uh, which is riding horses. But, um, it wasn't really until college that I started actively taking care of myself. Um, so I would say I sort of skated through those high school years.

[00:06:47] Rob Howe: Well, and I think, you know, the high school years are so tough. Uh, they're tough in general, just for regular people, but especially for people who have been diagnosed with type 1 or have been living with type 1 for a short amount of time. I do want to focus, though, on that kind of reaction that you got when you talked about, you know, first of all, being courageous enough to say that you were burnt out to a group of people with type 1. And then that response of, oh, well, you haven't had it long enough. So, you know, there's no way this weight can be that heavy. um you know i think that that's you know obviously not like the the intent is not to be belittling there but i think that that response um you know i find myself even saying okay well someone's had type 1 for a year or three years two years and it's like yeah you know i remember that just wait till you know five times that amount and you know we'll see where you are from from that and i think it's a slippery slope almost i think it's just a human response to just

[00:07:46] Christina Roth: compare it, but you know, everybody's struggle is different. Absolutely. And I think that's one thing. We do a lot of newly diagnosed work now with young adults because we're seeing so many. And I think one thing that I've taken away from that is your heart just goes out to them, especially during that first year. And it's never easy. They're just all different challenges. So that burnout was definitely real. And I think people can get burnt out very quickly when they don't accept help or want help. But that, you know, depending on the different coping mechanisms that you are able to use, or the amount of help that you do accept, I feel like that burnout experience can be very different later, is at least what I've found.

[00:08:36] Rob Howe: I totally agree. And I think, you know, part of that too, is the community aspect. And you you know very succinctly said that you know you wanted to handle everything on your own that you wanted to be independent that you were going to give yourself shots that you weren't going to be a burden and I think a lot of people take on that sort of persona I like to say there's a lot of type a type ones out there or type 1 turns a lot of people type a just because you kind of grab the bull by the horns right it's actually amazing how many people are who have type 1 that just have this super outgoing, hardcore type A personalities. And it's hard to say like whether they were already like that or just type 1 made them that way. But I think for me personally, and I can only speak to my own experience, but you know, that trying to put everything on your own shoulders has a short shelf life. And I think I underestimated the impact that community would have. How did you sort of make that shift?

[00:09:37] Christina Roth: Yeah. So I was definitely in the same boat. You know, my providers in high school, my mom, everybody wanted me to talk to somebody else. And like, I don't know why I talked to someone else. Like I have this disease, whatever. And then, you know, go to camp. And that was the last thing I wanted to do at that age. And it really wasn't until college that I really wanted to know how other people did it and felt healthy. I had, I was very lucky when I went to college, it was around the time that CGM was being tested in clinical trials. So I was able to get into one of those trials and was using some of the early generation CGM. And it really was such a missing tool for me. I don't know if it's just the way that I learn or what I needed at the time, but it made a huge difference for me to have that real time feedback and to be able to know what I was doing, what it was doing to my body and also to just have one less thing to have to do. At least I saw it that way and felt that way. And because of that, I got healthier for the first time, I felt so much better. And I came out of this fog. And I feel like you don't realize that you're in this fog, but you're just more tired, you just can't think as clearly, you're just not as motivated and you don't realize you're missing out on anything until you come out of it and then you look back and you're just like I can't believe I could I didn't realize that and I can't believe how energetic I am and how you know how much clearer I can think and it was really at that point that I was doing really well in school and I was doing just a lot as a new freshman does and And it was such a new thing for me. And of course, talking about the short shelf life, that gets old really quickly, too, because inevitably, it's still a lot of work to keep that up. So I wanted, I was motivated to stay healthy. And I didn't want to slide back into that fog. But I knew I needed to find some way to do that. And I didn't have that tool yet. And it wasn't until I actually ironically got Lyme disease that I went to a nurse practitioner at the health services who sees a lot of the students with diabetes on campus. And he was saying that everyone that she saw really knew nobody else with it, was interested in talking about it more, was really overwhelmed. and I was like really I would love to talk to one of them so we I was able to like book a room and so that it wasn't creepy and she was like setting up anything or that you know violating HIPAA set up this room it was a time she was able to tell patients about it and we ended up with about 10 people and it was so amazing to me to come out of that I felt like I was on cloud nine it was just it was the first time I'd laughed about diabetes with somebody else that understood and not in like a self-deprecating way um it was just it was so freeing and I wanted to be able I wanted to be able to continue that um I felt like once I'd had a taste of it there was just no going back it's it's so crazy right like you think about

[00:13:13] Rob Howe: Well, and I was listening to a talk the other day. I think it was like an audio book or some interview on a podcast, XYZ. I don't even remember. But the guy was saying that there's two types of experiences that people value when they think of like the best time in their life. And the first one is when they have like some big personal accomplishment. And the next one is when they have some sort of big moment that helps other people as well. So I think like when I was thinking about that for myself, I was thinking about when I got to hang out with some of my really close type 1 friends from online, like the first time we all hung out in person. And just like the feeling of, you know, you could be yourself. There's no like we didn't talk about diabetes very much, but just like everybody had this understanding of what was going on. And I think I underestimated how powerful that was or how much I needed that just to know that there was some sort of unspoken understanding. I think maybe everybody gets diagnosed twice, right? Like once when you when the doctor tells you and then once when you really accept it and you sort of make peace with it. And that happens in different ways for different people. But I think the community aspect is something that, at least for me, went like totally overlooked for like over 10 years.

[00:14:33] Christina Roth: no i love i love that analogy to being diagnosed twice i haven't heard that before and um if you don't mind i'm going to start using that go ahead because i think that's it's so true and um i don't know if it was from my early experience at a clinical support in my early teens that just sort of soured me to you know connecting because we weren't given opportunity to connect on a personal level. And, you know, I wanted to go into psychology, so nothing against, you know, clinic or anything like that. But I think there's just something to be said for when it's just part of your life and when you connect just with another person and not with another patient. I think that that really, it just changes the whole dynamic from a clinical disease to, hey, this is what we deal with and this is how we deal with it.

[00:15:30] Rob Howe: do you manage your a1c through eating well and exercising regularly of course you do you listen to this podcast you're on the cutting edge then you deserve the lower life insurance rates from health iq the only insurance company that's giving you savings rewarding your healthy lifestyle just go to healthiq.com slash ddt diabetics doing things ddt to get your free quote and support the

[00:15:52] Christina Roth: show it is and you know everybody's so different right and i think that's the hardest part with with diabetes is that there's so many inputs from a clinical perspective and from like an environmental perspective and then you shift that over to the person and everybody reacts different to everything anyway um and you know just little things like you think about people's opinions about food and that's just a place to start and then you go to exercise and then you go to work schedule and then you go how do we all process stress and it's like oh my god how are we juggling all these things all at once and how can we even remotely make a standard for what people should do because what's right for you is not going to be exactly what's right for me and so on and so forth it's just such a tough kind of frustrating thing and I think you mentioned earlier when you might find yourself in this extremely positive momentum filled space where you're involved in the community and you're exercising and you're eating right and your blood sugars are good and you have a good relationship with your endo and you have friends with diabetes and then all of a sudden you're just exhausted from that and you kind of have the reverse burnout. So it's kind of like everything,

[00:17:00] Rob Howe: everything in balance, right? From, you know, the day you accept it to, you know, how you move from there. Absolutely. So for you, I know that you, you know, are a, you know, we talked about diagnosis. We've talked about sort of how you moved from being really isolated when you were diagnosed to being more involved. How did you know that this was going to be something that you did for, you know, your career when you, you know, started College Diabetes Network?

[00:17:32] Christina Roth: Oh, that's so funny. I had no idea it was going to be my career, especially when I started College Diabetes Network. It probably wasn't until around 2012 that I realized that this is what I would be doing and that this was something I was very, very personally passionate about turning into a career. When I originally started CDN, it came out of that first meeting and talking to other people. And it really was just wanting to share that experience with other people on my campus. I never thought it would be anything more than that. But in putting up a really simple webpage that there weren't HIPAA concerns, that started popping up on Google because there was nothing else for college and diabetes, young adults and diabetes. And so I started getting these random emails from other students that either had groups or wanted to start groups, wanted to connect. And it was very clear there was a huge need. Other people were feeling the same way that I was. And this model that had started was working. And I really just assumed that an organization would take it on, that it was, you know, a very clear cut equation. And it turns out life is a lot more complicated than that. And so where I initially started reaching out and at least seeing, you know, who is in the sector and talking to people and who might be interested in taking, you know, this thing at this point, it wasn't that impressive. It was really just, you know, a random college student talking to a few other college students and, you know, meeting on campus with a name. And it really wasn't something that was a priority for other organizations, understandably. It really hadn't been pressure tested yet. And so I kept running that while I was in school. I applied for 501c3 status as a way to package up the idea and formalize it a bit. But that really continued to not make a difference related to anyone taking it on. And I graduated from college. I, at that point, my plan was to go into a clinical psych degree program. So I started working at the Joslin Diabetes Center as a research assistant, really as a jumping off point. I realized in talking to other people and the momentum that CDN was creating that I was really interested in health psychology and particularly with resiliency and health psychology. So that's a personal passion of mine. But it really wasn't until 2012 when my colleague and I made the decision to quit our jobs and go full time volunteer and give ourselves that six months to get it off the ground. And, you know, I really I loved it. It was so hard. I would never want to go back to that. and I don't recommend it to anybody. But, you know, I loved that experience. And I have a lot of fun learning a bunch of different things all at the same time and really being able to make a difference and see that difference. So for me, it was being able to work really, really hard, which I didn't mind doing, but to see that it helped other people and made a difference and was impactful. And I think I'm addicted to that feeling now.

[00:21:13] Rob Howe: Well, I think I want to focus on one thing before we, you know, before we go back to, you know, being addicted to the feeling of, you know, helping people and advocating for people, which you're doing on a massive scale now. And I think I want to ask two questions. Number one, as you were packaging up what has become College Diabetes Network and you were looking for people who would be interested in taking it on, how did you communicate? because I think these types of projects for people with diabetes and people in the community are easy to explain. But for people who don't have a high level of awareness around type 1, how did you sort of put your, you know, girl boss, entrepreneur, founder, glasses on and go and pitch those to those people and say, hey, this is an important thing.

[00:21:59] Christina Roth: So I definitely stayed within the diabetes community. And I would say at that point that I didn't really have a girl boss persona, especially at that point. I tell this to a lot of our students. I never thought of myself as a leader. I never thought of myself as taking anything on and being, you know, a boss or a CEO or, you know, that was never who I was. And it's really interesting that that's what it evolved into. But I think, you know, I was very much just somebody that felt something personally and probably didn't articulate, you know, the larger implications of the program very well to anybody I talked to. I was lucky that most of the people I was talking to, you know, were other organizations within diabetes. It probably didn't occur to me to talk to other organizations outside of diabetes. And it really, it wasn't something that I considered that I even thought I would continue running. Um, cause I never, I, you know, of course somebody else would do it way better. Um, and so it was, it was really this, um, uh, totally lost my train of thought, but, um,

[00:23:29] Rob Howe: well I think I can pick up if you if you if you'll allow me I think I can please connect that to my next question because it you know where you stopped actually makes a lot of sense like you always said like you envisioned somebody else running it somebody else would come in and do and know exactly what to do with it but that person became you and you talked about you know you quit your job and you went six months full volunteer and like that the amount of like like overcoming fear that that takes and like drawing the line in the sand and then taking the jump with no parachute like that is like the opposite of what we talked about at the beginning about that fear of you know fear of failure fear of you know the unknown like you just stepped across the line what was what were the months weeks days leading up to that like

[00:24:16] Christina Roth: and then you know following yeah so the months and days leading up to that were exhausting um a lot of what brought me to my colleague and I both to the conclusion that it really had to be a full-time thing and it was sort of a now or never point was we were just not sleeping. We were, you know, working on CDN, you know, five to 10 and then commuting back and forth with home and taking all of our vacation time to go to conferences and then, you know, at conferences or meetings on the weekends or working, you know, all on CDN on the weekends. And it really just was, okay, do we, do we want to see this happen or not? And we said, okay, yes, yes, we do. And then it's okay. Well, you know, how badly is it worth trying, you know, taking a risk? And I think at that point we had done, we'd make, we'd connected with a lot of other people. We'd began to see somewhat of at least a business model to get it off the ground. So it was very scary, but I would say it was something that we put a lot of pieces in place in the, you know, the time from 2010 to 2012 that allowed us to get to that point. And I think initially some of the best advice I got was at the Children with Diabetes Conference that I went to that their founder, CEO insisted it would be really good. You'll connect with the right people. You can have the right conversations. I think, you know, in terms of, you know, what you want to do with CDN, this will be really good. And it was a phenomenal experience personally and professionally. But hearing from him and a few other leaders in the sector, it was really around identifying what your strategy is, identifying who you're going to have lead it with you, build your board, and really use some personal soul searching. And I think it was the combination of all of that that gave me the confidence to then make that decision to go and take it on fully.

[00:26:30] Rob Howe: Do you remember what it was, you know, being there, put yourself at, you know, children with diabetes and you're having those conversations and you're making those decisions. Was there a light bulb moment, like a eureka, or was it just like, hey, this process, I feel like I'm in the place that I'm supposed to be. This feels right. I'm going to push.

[00:26:53] Christina Roth: I definitely felt that it was right. I still didn't envision myself running it. I still saw myself as, okay, I need to get it to the next point. um so it was really around okay my marching orders from here um i'm very you know what are my next steps and it was all right i have to build a board um and i have to really put together a strategic plan and i was very lucky that we have some phenomenal board members that you know came on right from that very beginning because they're personally connected and they just got it and most of, especially our initial board members, all are entrepreneurs and have business backgrounds. And I think that mindset was incredibly helpful for me to feel comfortable with this being an organization and not just, you know, a passion project. And I mean, I remember still going to meetings with my board chair and talking through how are we going to hire a CEO and the job description together? And how would we find them? And really having that be the focus for a long time until it was like, well, there's no way we can afford anybody that's going to be able to do this. And so then I was like, okay, I guess I have to do this too. So it was actually a very long evolution before I personally came to the conclusion that I would be running this. But I think in that amount of time, I'm sure you, you know, you were writing your own job description, right? Like, eventually, you had taught yourself and realized, like, this is going to be the thing that I have to do. Whether it was, you know, whether you would have tried to, if you had unlimited resources, you may have chosen someone different or not, but you had made yourself into that person. Yes, I mean, that's just me. At least that started to.

[00:28:48] Rob Howe: Right. And that's so cool. Like, that's a great that's a great journey, right? It's just a you're diagnosed yourself as the CEO.

[00:28:58] Christina Roth: Yeah, it was it was definitely a journey. But like I said, it's it was really having the right people around me that I could go to and ask questions and just being the type of person that likes to learn and that, you know, I taught myself a lot of things. and luckily I enjoyed that.

[00:29:21] Rob Howe: So you're in the driver's seat, you've got the organization you guys are going. When you think about the big wins in the first few years, the stories that you feel like that you put up on the bulletin board and you're like, this is why we do this. What comes to mind?

[00:29:39] Christina Roth: Oh boy. I think the first is when we found out that we got our first grant. It was from Novo Nordisk, and it was significant enough that we were able to become full-time staff as of January and keep it going. And that was just like, wow, we're getting there. The first one has stepped up. um and then a little bit after that we you know we got our first commitment as a member and that was okay this is you know it's not just a donation now it's that we're we're being able to to set something up and maybe have a model that we can another company then on and actually you know, keep this out of running business. And, but I think that, you know, what, what always stands out is, is more when we actually interact with the students that we work with and the chapters that we work with. So I would say it's probably not one of our earliest, you know, standout moments, But our first annual retreat that we held was 2014. And it was the most incredible feeling to be able to see, even at those beginning stages, the impact of this organization, this entity on people's lives and what it allowed us to bring together across the country and the platform that it created. And it was really at that point that I, I took a step, was able to take a step back. It wasn't even active. I was able to see the bigger picture in terms of, wow, this is actually, this is solving a huge problem. And we're not just sort of spinning our wheels here. and really it was so it just reinforced all of the hard work and you know just explained why it was so worth it and I feel like that I don't get to feel that enough because most of my most of my job is you know around fundraising and meetings and it's I love it but I think getting to actually talk with the students that we work with you know it just it brings it all home

[00:32:00] Rob Howe: getting to hear their experiences. Well, because it's such an important time for any person, but also, you know, a person with diabetes. And I mean, you, we've talked about your transformation, you know, as a freshman in college already, but you know, what, why is it so important for people to get involved at that level at the university at that time? Um, especially around diabetes, like the stories and the changes that you see happen for somebody who is, you know, of around that age, going to college or in college already preparing for a parent who's got a kid who's preparing to go that route. Why is it so important to get involved at that point?

[00:32:44] Christina Roth: Yeah, I think that's a great question. I think what we've also seen is that there's different types of experiences and they can interact with it differently and gain different things from it. So, for example, somebody like me, as I was coming in and really not exposed to the diabetes community and pretty, you know, not interested at all in connecting, which I feel like a lot of people at that age are in that boat. And it was really, I think the connection that it gives individuals, the way that it fights that feeling of isolation, and it just gives you somebody that if you need to call someone because you run out of insulin, if you need to call someone because you need test strips, you know, you have a backup. So I think for even at the very lowest level, it's, you know, it's just peace of mind. And I mean, I feel like until you actually sit in that chair, and you're having coffee or whatever it is, and that spark happens, you know, then then it's a whole different story related to, you know, the what it actually is able to change in how you think about and accept the disease. But I feel like just knowing that you're not alone on campus and that, you know, with diabetes, you know, the possibility of an emergency is just what it is. And I feel like this is just one other layer of helping to to make people feel like they're safe and in control. And, and I feel like that, that peace of mind goes such a long way, especially when you're out on your own for the first time. But then I think for individuals that are more oriented into leadership or more outgoing about diabetes or might have been involved with people in the past during camp, I think getting involved in these chapters is providing an amazing leadership opportunity and an amazing way to continue that experience and connection so that you don't go from having all of these support systems to nothing. So it's been amazing to be able to see how different people benefit, whether it's really just knowing that it's there or being able to really take advantage of maybe some of the the leadership opportunities that come with it. But I think my favorite is really the people that, you know, dip their toe in at the very beginning and don't necessarily know if they want to get involved. And then, you know, grudgingly get involved and are like, okay, this isn't so bad. And this is actually kind of helpful. And then sort of stay involved. And then either are like, okay, I want to do something else with this or get tapped for a leadership position. And then they just grow into these amazing leaders. And I think that's been really fun to be able to see a lot of people that, you know, wouldn't necessarily have called themselves advocates or leaders that just do amazing work in helping other people.

[00:36:13] Rob Howe: That's so inspiring to see people like that, because I really do think that most of us, you know myself included i really don't know what we're capable of inside of our comfort zone right it's it's one thing and i think especially now where everybody's so focused on technology we spend a lot of times on our phones everyone we've ever met we could reach out to in an instant but it's still so hard for us to take that step and go introduce ourselves to someone face to face for the first time and when you do that in a community aspect in the advocacy aspect over and over the amount of growth, like it's like logarithmic, like you just explode in personal growth and, you know, self-love and acceptance. It's just so cool to be a part of that. So, you know, I'm so glad that people have the opportunity to do that because of what you guys are doing.

[00:37:06] Christina Roth: Thanks. Yeah, it definitely, it makes it worth it. We just got back from our fifth annual retreat, talking about the first one there. Our fifth one about two weeks ago, and it just, it never gets old. every year just continues to build. And it's, it's pretty amazing to see.

[00:37:26] Rob Howe: That's awesome. Did you ever think after that first one that you, you know, that you'd be having five more, you know, like at that point, you're so focused on number one, like, and now look at you five years later. Yeah, we, I mean, the slate was totally open because we, I mean, we had no money, no capacity. It was so much work putting on the first one, never mind the consecutive one, that especially in those early years, it was really using that, using the retreat as a touching point in a way to do some strategic planning and set our priorities, but really not knowing what the next year, what would make sense and what would be most impactful given the resources that we had. And we definitely took it on a year by year basis those first few years. And kind of with that in mind, you know, what's next for you guys? What's on the horizon for you without, you know, diving into the strategic plan or anything? What do you and College of Diabetes Network, CDN, and your staff and your team and your chapters and members, what are you guys pushing for in the next months, years? What's the goal?

[00:38:39] Christina Roth: Yeah, no, I'm so glad that you had that. I'm a little sad that you said not to go into the strategic plan. Oh, one thing I found out is that I'm such a strategic plan geek. I've actually had

[00:38:50] Rob Howe: a lot of fun putting ours together. Well, I am as well. You and I, you and I can go over that, like in a separate conversation via email. Cause I also, uh, I love using my strategist brain.

[00:39:03] Christina Roth: It's just, I love, I'm too curious. I love to see how things work, but hopefully no one, uh, who will be listening to this has shut this off already from a strategist talk. Well, yeah, give us the strategic plan if you want to. I'm ready. I won't do that to them. I'll totally do it to you later offline. But in terms of what we're actually trying to accomplish now, I mean, we've spent so much time over the past few years really digging into what's our place in the bigger sector. You know, there's so many, there's so many problems in diabetes and there's just never enough time or money or people or resources. And so anything that we did, it was really important that it solved several challenges and it met, you know, several needs. That was always very, very important to me. And I think what we found actually, even over the past year, we did a lot of interviews with all different stakeholders, not just our students, and actually just released our new strategic plan in January. And it really, the opportunity to speak for young adults has been something that I would never have imagined at the very beginning. You know, we really started out so grassroots as just a college student and focused on that time period because it was just It's the perfect storm of everything that happens at Independence that could go wrong. And so that's why we were focused on it. But as we grew as an organization, we found out there was just no other organization that was able to cater to this population that had the capacity to or knew how to. And so we began to grow into those roles. And once we identified an unmet need area, create resources around it and a program to help with it, like our off to college program and booklets. I think as we introduced those resources as that fostered relationships with member associations and clinical care and a lot more of a much national, more national scope on a professional level, that opened up really strategic conversations related to the system that our students go through. and how a lot of the challenges that they're so burdened by are caused by a system that isn't well set up. And that through some really simple suggestions to people, you know, creating this system that we can address it. Like, you know, member associations don't track the patient populations that their members work with. So there would be no way for anybody to know who to refer a young adult to, to know who worked with young adults. So that's something we've been having conversations about for the past few years. And, you know, none of it's a small lift, but it's a relatively simple fix once you identify what to do. So I think what has been really exciting about looking at the next, say, three years, since that brings us to our 10-year anniversary, is really around CDN's role in, you know, representing young adults with diabetes, bringing their voice to the rest of the sector, keeping them healthy at this time, and making sure that it doesn't compromise their future. And really, I spoke about our leaders, And what I've, you know, speaking to having our programs meet many different needs, our model has allowed us to identify those, as you said, those type 1, type A individuals and those advocates and leaders who have realized that they want to create careers in diabetes and help other people. And it's allowed us to create a direct pipeline into them. We have, you know, right now we have over 250 of them across the country. And so we're, we've been able to really step in and connect them with mentors and programs and bring them to conferences. And so I think that through a very simple lens of, you know, change the experience of young adults, give them, connect them and give them the tools they need. By doing that, we've created this whole platform of resources that have allowed us to not only address, you know, how people feel in college and during these transitioning years, but related to independence overall, really having an impact on it. Well, I believe in that wholeheartedly. And I think the work you guys are doing is so important because, you know, I think where a lot of organizations for many years missed out is that they didn't realize that children with diabetes grow up and they still and they still have diabetes and they still need community and they still need resources and they still need education. And, you know, now I know that the work that you guys are doing is having an impact on how many adults I see with type 1 diabetes in their social media profile or involved in certain other groups and member organizations and conferences and participation and walks. And I think now, you know, having worked with other organizations as well, they're focusing on it because they know that those were the silent majority of adults living with type 1. And, you know, people want to get involved and they want to know where to go when they get diagnosed. And like you said, you know, when you're diagnosed over the age of 18 outside of a, you know, children's hospital, people don't know exactly where to send you if they send you anywhere. and sort of you have to do that on your own. And so I'm glad that you guys are putting those resources in place for younger people so that when they grow up and get involved, they are taking that step and kind of carrying the torch forward. Yeah, no, we have a lot more work to do, but we're getting there. And hopefully between an in-person national presence, or resources online at people's fingertips, we can begin to really just make the experience a lot more transparent and more comfortable and easier.

[00:45:45] Rob Howe: And with that in mind, where can somebody who is either two calls to action, somebody who wants to get involved with CDN or somebody looking for more information on the resources that you guys have available? Where should they go?

[00:46:02] Christina Roth: Absolutely. So people can always go to our website, www.collegediabetesnetwork.org. And we are in the process of updating it now in line with our new strategic plan and all the programs that have developed over the past few years. So definitely keep an eye on that. From that website, you can download all of our resources for free. or request copies of them and see the other ways to get involved. But you can always just email us. We as a team, the majority of our team has diabetes. Quite a few of our team I hired from our students as they graduated. So I think any one of us loves to get those emails, just wondering how people can get involved or just even saying hi. So whether you just do info at collegediabetesnetwork.org or you find who you want to connect with on our staff page of our website. We love to put people in touch with all of the opportunities, whether you're a student and they want to get involved with chapters or be a student member or, you know, a parent or a clinical provider that wants to be an ambassador and help their local students. So there's really, there's a role for, for everyone, um, that we're able to provide. Well, great. Yeah. I think, you know,

[00:47:28] Rob Howe: whatever involvement that you want to, um, you know, get in as a listener, wherever you're looking to get involved. Hey, sorry. I got some, uh, dogs trying to be a podcast famous here, uh, wherever you're trying to get involved or how, whatever capacity, definitely reach out or visit collegediabetesnetwork.org. Now, I have to ask you the question that I ask everybody on this podcast. And because you're a self-admitted non-podcaster, I know it'll be the first time you've heard it. But are you ready for it? Now you're scaring me, but I guess. It is not scary. It is not scary. Although context is important. So I had to figure out a way to get people to answer this succinctly. And this is what I came up with. So imagine you're in an airport and they're about to close the door to your gate. And whatever is on the other end of that flight, like you have to be on it. Like there's almost no there's no other flights that day. This is your only shot. But you bump into somebody who has either been recently diagnosed or is struggling with their type 1 diabetes. And how you know that is not important. That's just clear to you at this point. So what's the one thing that you tell them or one thing that you say to them in that 30 seconds that you have with them before you have to jump on the flight?

[00:48:47] Christina Roth: Oh, geez. I guess it would depend what age they were.

[00:48:57] Rob Howe: Sure. Do we have an age? They are an age. They have an age. An age. Okay, that's super not helpful.

[00:49:05] Christina Roth: I'm sorry. So I would I would say that there's a huge community and you can do almost anything and, you know, connect with people online and it will, you know, it's all going to be OK.

[00:49:25] Rob Howe: Love it. You killed it. But I could probably come up with something a little bit better if I knew how old they were.

[00:49:29] Christina Roth: okay that's fair uh let's assume that you would know how old they are and i'll even throw you a bone here they're like a college age young adult type person oh you just made it really easy then

[00:49:42] Rob Howe: so in that case i would tell them to check out cdn and to to reach out and that will you know

[00:49:49] Christina Roth: we'll help them out and it will be okay great yeah see it's not so hard no that yeah you made

[00:49:57] Rob Howe: that nice and easy. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Well, thank you. Uh, and Christina, really thank you for coming on the show. Um, it was, it was great to meet you finally after all this time. And I know, uh, everywhere I go in the diabetes community, whether events in, uh, you know, with organizations or small local events, uh, people are talking about college diabetes network and the impact that it either had on their lives or somebody that they knew, or they're recommending it to somebody who needs it. And to me, that's the best recommendation that anybody can give, you know, whatever you're doing, if people trust you and are recommending that people go there, that I know it's a good thing. So that's why I was so excited to have you on today. So thanks for coming.

[00:50:39] Christina Roth: Thank you. That means so much. I'm so glad to hear that. All right. Thanks so much for having me.

[00:50:46] Rob Howe: This podcast is sponsored by Health IQ. And if you don't remember Health IQ from the previous episodes that they've sponsored, Health IQ is an insurance company on a mission to improve the world's health by rewarding runners, cyclists, weightlifters, swimmers, yogis, well-managed diabetics, and other Americans living a healthy lifestyle. They're actually the first insurance company rewarding patients with type 2 diabetes who manage their A1C with a healthy diet and exercise, with large savings on their life insurance. To support the show and get a free quote, go to healthiq.com slash DDT.