About the Authors

The lead author of the Anthology of Bright Spots, Ben Pallant, joined The diaTribe Foundation in 2016 after graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Bowdoin College, where he studied Sociology and Chemistry. He has done research on both bio-organic synthesis and public health, the latter project taking place in Siem Reap, Cambodia and focusing on clinical manifestations of dengue fever. During his semester abroad in Vietnam, South Africa, and Argentina, he focused on community-level factors impacting global health. In addition to his work on this project, he also writes long-form pieces for diaTribe.org and The diaTribe Foundation, including, most recently, “The vastly underestimated epidemic of diabetes.”

Amelia Dmowska joined The diaTribe Foundation in 2016 after graduating with honors from the University of Chicago, where she completed a degree in English Language and Literature and a minor in Biological Sciences. During her undergraduate years living on the South Side of Chicago, she was heavily involved in working to increase vulnerable populations’ access to health education. In addition to her role as a contributor to the Anthology of Bright Spots, she is organizing d17, a gathering in late 2017 where leaders across diverse sectors will come together to work together on systems-level solutions that could reduce the societal burden of type 2 diabetes and pre-diabetes and heighten the urgency and need for action around the epidemic.

Isabel Chin joined dQ&A and The diaTribe Foundation in 2017 after graduating magna cum laude from Brown University with a concentration in Public Health and as a member of the Program in Liberal Medical Education. Isabel dedicated her summers during college to working in Los Angeles to improve access to healthcare for vulnerable Medicaid patients and helping to bring innovative health services to LA County such Housing for Health, which provides permanent supportive housing to homeless patients with complex medical needs. She continued her work to better homeless healthcare with the Rhode Island Medical Navigator Partnership as a patient advocate and health care navigator. Having lived with Type 1 Diabetes for 20 years, Isabel has a personal connection to the amazing work happening at dQ&A, The diaTribe Foundation, and Close Concerns. She is passionate about improving diabetes education and healthcare worldwide and has worked with American Youth Understanding Diabetes Abroad (AYUDA) to design and implement curriculum for diabetes educational camps for children and their families in Quito, Ecuador and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Isabel is grateful to her family, friends, and endocrinologist, Dr. Francine Kaufman, all of whom have helped to make her life with diabetes so joyous and successful and she hopes to make a similar positive impact in the lives of others with diabetes.

Hae-Lin Cho joined Close Concerns as a Dartmouth Fellow in the spring of 2017 during her senior year of Dartmouth College, where she is a pre-medical student, majoring in Biology and minoring in Spanish. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and a Rufus Choates Academic Scholar. Due to her strong interest in oncology, Hae-Lin has been doing undergraduate research on the role of regulatory T cells in melanoma tumorigenesis in the Turk Lab at Geisel Medical School, which she started as a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar, and has taken part in the Dartmouth Cancer Scholar program. At school, she is apart of GlobeMed at Dartmouth, the editor in chief of the Dartmouth Journal of Undergraduate Sciences, and volunteers with Cancer and Patient Services. In her free time, Hae-Lin enjoys painting, reading, writing, and going on hikes.

Kelly Close is the Founder and Chair of The diaTribe Foundation, a nonprofit established in 2013 to improve the lives of people with diabetes and prediabetes and to advocate for action. Kelly also founded Close Concerns in 2002, the leading organization globally in understanding the science, regulation, and commercial environment behind diabetes. Kelly’s work prior to establishing Close Concerns and The diaTribe Foundation focused on life sciences more broadly. Over nearly a dozen years, she worked in finance and consulting at Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and McKinsey & Company. Kelly has a BA in Economics and English, magna cum laude, from Amherst College and an MBA from Harvard Business School.