In addition to her position as CEO & Chief Scientific Officer of Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, Dr. Jovanovič is a Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Southern California-Keck School of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Biomolecular Science and Engineering and Chemical Engineering, University of California-Santa Barbara.
Dr. Jovanovič completed her undergraduate degree from Columbia University, and a master’s degree in Hebrew Literature from The Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, NY. She received her medical degree from The Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, NY, and completed her training and fellowship in Internal Medicine, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the New York Hospital, Cornell University Medical College.
Jovanovič’s pioneering work in diabetes and pregnancy began with her premise that a diabetic woman’s chances of having a healthy baby could be on a par with a healthy, non-diabetic woman. In her beginning year of fellowship at Cornell University, New York Hospital, her first research study showed that strict monitoring and absolute normalization of blood glucose could yield healthy babies. A year later, she published a larger trial of 52 diabetic women that showed conclusively that diabetic women, even those with severe disease, could have healthy babies (Am J Med 1981; 71: 921–27).
Jovanovič proceeded to develop a program to monitor a woman’s blood glucose around the clock and provide treatment strategies to achieve and maintain normal blood glucose concentrations throughout pregnancy. These protocols for intensive insulin delivery now set the standard for strict glucose control in pregnancy.
Early in her career she became a principal investigator of the Cornell program for both the Diabetes in Early Pregnancy Study, and the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial (DCCT) a decade-long multicentre clinical trial, which showed that strict glucose control could reduce risk of long-term complications. These studies provided important information about the prevention of birth defects and perinatal complications in pregnancy.
For the past 13 years Jovanovič has been CEO & Chief Scientific Officer of Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. Under her leadership, the Institute has become a center of excellence for diabetes and pregnancy. Through community outreach education, teaching and working one-on-one with thousands of pregnant women in the Latina population, she has changed the world of diabetes and pregnancy. She is responsible for establishing global guidelines of care adopted by the International Diabetes Federation and travels extensively throughout the world teaching her protocols to physicians, nurses, dietitians, and educators. In December 2009 she attended the opening of the new Bildirici Center for Diabetes Care and Research in Netanya, Israel where all of their nurses had been trained in her protocols.
Throughout her research Dr. Jovanovič has continued to focus on how understanding diabetes in pregnant women may help to broaden knowledge and treatment options for all people with diabetes. Always in the forefront of research, Dr. Jovanovic and other staff members are currently working on the development of an artificial pancreas in collaboration with the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California Santa Barbara. Clinical trials are expected to start in 2010.
Jovanovič’s numerous honors, awards, appointments, and publications of over 500 articles in the fields of diabetes, metabolism, nutrition, obstetrics and gynecology, perinatology and engineering of a glucose-controlled insulin delivery device can be viewed on her more detailed curriculum vitae.
Wendy Bevier, Ph.D.
Wendy Bevier, Ph.D., is an Associate Investigator with the Institute and is coordinating the National Institutes of Health (NIH) studies. She is responsible for recruiting patients, conducting experiments, and collecting and organizing data. A procedure called the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp and continuous glucose monitoring systems are being used during this project. The studies are a collaboration with the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), Department of Chemical Engineering, and the goals of the studies are to develop mathematical formulas (algorithms) to run external insulin pumps and to determine insulin to carbohydrate ratios for the perfect insulin doses.
She previously worked at the Institute where she was responsible for conducting research involving diabetes, exercise, and pregnancy. She ran an exercise program for pregnant women with gestational diabetes and analyzed data. Her research involved intravenous glucose tolerance tests, blood collection and handling, hormone assays and some projects involving diabetic mice.
Dr. Bevier did her undergraduate work at UC Davis and holds a Master's degree from the University of Oregon. She received her Ph.D. in Biology/Physiology at UCSB and was a postdoctoral fellow in the Stanford University School of Medicine. She has a certificate from Stanford University Medical Center as a Fellow in Medicine/Gerontology - Exercise Physiology and is member of the American Physiological Society.
Francis J. Doyle III, Ph.D.
Francis J. Doyle III, Ph.D. is one of the principal investigators for a collaborative study between Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The goal of the project, funded by National Institutes of Health, is to develop a model that will optimize the timing and dose of insulin based on a patient's unique response to insulin. Dr. Doyle holds the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair in Process Control in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as appointments in the Electrical Engineering Department, and the Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program. At UCSB, he is the Associate Director of the $50M Institute for Collaborative Biotechnology funded by the Army Research Office.
Dr. Doyle received his B.S.E. from Princeton, C.P.G.S. from Cambridge, and Ph.D. from Caltech, all in Chemical Engineering. Prior to his appointment at UCSB, he has held faculty appointments at Purdue University and the University of Delaware, and held visiting positions at DuPont, Weyerhaeuser, and Stuttgart University. He is currently the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, and holds Associate Editor positions with the Journal of Process Control, the SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems, and Interface. His research interests are in systems biology, drug delivery for diabetes, and control of particulate processes.
Jenifer Gaffaney, MS, RD
Jenifer Gaffaney received a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Science at Pepperdine University in Malibu. While working to improve the nutritional status of infants, women and children of Los Angeles, she simultaneously completed a Master’s degree at California State University Northridge in Nutrition and Dietetic Internship at the USC University Affiliated Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Having resided in both Los Angeles and Central America Jenifer brings proficient knowledge and skill in working with the local Hispanic community and is bilingual English/Spanish.
Gaffaney works as a Registered Dietitian and Diabetes Educator for the Santa Barbara Diabetes Initiative (SBDI) headquartered at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. SBDI is a collaboration between Sansum Diabetes Research Institute, Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, and American Indian Health & Services to prevent and treat pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes in the medically underserved populations of greater Santa Barbara. In this role Jenifer develops and facilitates family-based, culturally-specific workshops emphasizing the roles nutrition and lifestyle play in the prevention and treatment of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes at five clinic locations in southern Santa Barbara County.
Fima Lifshitz, M.D.
Fima Lifshitz, M.D. is Editor-in-Chief of Growth, Genetics & Hormones (GGH) and is Senior Nutrition Scientist and Director of Pediatrics at Sansum Medical Research Institute. He is also President of Pediatric Sunshine Academics, a non-profit organization committed to pediatric nutrition and endocrine research and education.
Dr. Lifshitz holds academic appointments as Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Miami, School of Medicine and at the State University of New York Health Science Center, Brooklyn , New York. Previously, he was Chief-of-Staff at Miami Children's Hospital and Chair of Nutrition Sciences; Chairman of Pediatrics at Maimonides Medical Center; Chief of Pediatric Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Nutrition and Vice Chairman of Pediatrics at North Shore University Hospital and Professor of Pediatrics at Cornell University Medical College. Dr. Lifshitz is the author of more than 350 scientific papers, review articles and book chapters, the author or editor of 18 books, including Pediatric Endocrinology now in its 4th edition. Dr. Lifshitz has been on the editorial board of GGH since its inception in 1985 and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition from 1993-1998, as well as Editor-in-Chief of International Pediatrics from 1998-2002.
Dr. Lifshitz earned his M.D. from University of Mexico UNAM. He obtained his pediatric endocrine fellowship training at The Johns Hopkins Hospital; he has trained 34 fellows in the field. He is particularly proud of having a metabolic unit at the Escola da Medicina da Universidade Federal da Bahia, in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil named for him.
Jere Ziffer Lifshitz, MS, BSN, RN
Ms. Lifshitz specializes in diverse aspects of health care communication. Her expertise includes health care education, writing, and web site development. As Journal Administrator, she is primarily focused on the operational aspects and production of the medical journal Growth, Genetics & Hormones (www.GGHjournal.com) which is produced at GGH offices at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute Additionally, she has written articles, clinical manuals, newsletters, and patient teaching books on health care. Ms. Lifshitz has a keen interest in increased efficiency, productivity, and utilization of health care resources via appropriate use of communication tools, and the positive impact of social marketing as an educational tool to improve the health of individuals and populations. This has been accomplished through the writing of high level educational content for the lay public and physicians.
Ms. Lifshitz graduated with a B.S. from Emory University at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and earned her Master of Science in Health Care Management and Policy from New York University at the Wagner School of Public Administration. She was in the small group of participants, and one of the very few non-physicians, in the Advanced Management Program of Clinicians at NYU. For her Master's thesis she documented the benefits and improved utilization, cost, and efficiency of care under a national health insurance system (Canada), as contrasted with a comparable population under private for profit or not for profit insurance (United States). She is a member of numerous professional organizations and has received nursing awards of merit. Ms. Lifshitz serves on the boards of several non-profit and for-profit health care organizations.
David J. Pettitt, M.D.
David J. Pettitt, M.D. is currently studying obesity and type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents in Santa Barbara County and is participating in a nationwide study of the epidemiology of diabetes in youth. He also consults nationwide on diabetes in pregnancy and on the risk factors for and treatment of type 2 diabetes in children. He has over 180 publications in these areas of research.
Dr. Pettitt earned his degree in medicine from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and did an internship in Pediatrics at Chicago's Cook County Hospital. He completed his Pediatric Residency at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center in Tucson after which he joined the Indian Health Service. During the time he served as a Pediatrician for the Indian Health Service in New Mexico and Arizona, where he developed an interest in childhood obesity and childhood type 2 diabetes, a condition that at that time was unique to Native Americans. This interest led Dr. Pettitt to a career in diabetes research, for 20 years he was the Assistant Chief of the Diabetes and Arthritis Epidemiology Section of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Dr. Pettitt's fields of expertise in diabetes include type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents and the long-term effects of diabetes on the children of women who had diabetes during pregnancy. Dr. Pettitt joined Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in 1998 where he continues his research in these areas.
Dr. Pettitt is a member of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, the International Diabetes Federation, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Society for Epidemiologic Research and the Western Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group. He is a founding member of the Council on Diabetes in Pregnancy and the Council on Epidemiology and Statistics of the American Diabetes Association and served as the Chair of the Council on Diabetes in Pregnancy. In 1998, Dr. Pettitt was honored by being presented the Norbert Freinkel Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the field of diabetes and pregnancy and in 2002 was honored by being selected to receive the Kelly West Award for outstanding work in the field of diabetes epidemiology. In 2000 he was elected an honorary member of the Diabetes in Pregnancy Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.
George Primbs, M.D., FACS
Guest Investigator
George Primbs, M.D. is an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon who is examining the utility of ocular coherent tomography (similar to a microscopic CAT scan of the eye) in the screening for diabetic retinopathy at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. He also conducts free eye screenings for people with diabetes and the medical underserved at the Institute. Dr. Primbs received his medical degree at UCLA School of Medicine and completed his surgical internship at UCLA Hospital. He earned his ophthalmology degree at UCLA after serving as an eye surgeon and Captain in the U.S. Air Force.
He worked as an ophthalmologist in private practice in Santa Barbara from 1962 to 1995. Dr. Primbs has been very active in non profit organizations and founded SEE International in 1974. He has been president and medical director of the Santa Barbara Eye Foundation from 1982 to the present. Dr. Primbs is a Professor of Ophthalmology at Jules Stein Institute.
He has received many awards, including the Lions Sight and Hearing Award in 1994 and the Jules Stein Eye Institute Teaching Award at UCLA in 2003.
Alison Okada Wollitzer, Ph.D.
Alison Okada Wollitzer, Ph.D. joined Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in 1987. Dr. Wollitzer serves as Director of Research Administration and Operations and is responsible for contracts and grants, regulatory affairs, human resources, safety, and general operations. She collaborates with senior investigators on numerous studies and projects, including those focusing on type 2 diabetes in youth, obesity in children, diabetes in pregnancy, and outreach to the underserved local population with and at risk for diabetes. She has served on the Cottage Hospital Institutional Review Board since 1989, and was a charter member of Partners for Fit Youth and the Coalition for Community Wellness.
Dr. Wollitzer holds a B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and a Diplôme des Hautes Etudes in Experimental Psychology from the University of Paris. She earned a Ph.D. in Adult Development and Family Studies with a minor in Epidemiology from The Pennsylvania State University. She was a National Institute of Aging Fellow and received the Ruth Young Boucke Award for Outstanding Graduate Scholar. Previously, she held positions in the Department of Family Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; the M.D./M.P.H. program, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley; Institute of Human Development, University of California, Berkeley; and Cottage Health System. She is the developer of a nationally marketed software program for institutional review boards.
Angelina Trujillo, M.D.
Angelina L. Trujillo MD is an adjunct senior investigator who is currently working on studies of gestational diabetes including evaluation of incretin hormones during gestational diabetes and studies assessing the immunosuppressive effects of pregnancy in type 1 diabetes mellitus. Dr. Trujillo is also assessing the effects of hyperglycemia on neonatal outcomes.
Currently she is the Senior Associate Director at Boehringer-Ingelheim Pharmaceutical in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Previously, Dr. Trujillo was VP/Deputy Chief Scientific Officer at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. She has also previously served as Medical Director, Metabolics Group, Global Clinical Research at Bristol-Myers Squibb in New Jersey. Her prior academic and administrative appointments include Vice-Chairman, Department of Internal Medicine and Chief of Endocrinology at University of South Dakota School of Medicine and Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Development at the Royal C. Johnson VAMC in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Dr. Trujillo has also served as a physician-consultant to Indian Health Services in Eagle Butte, South Dakota.
She graduated from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California followed by Endocrinology fellowship and Chief Residency in Internal Medicine at the San Fernando-UCLA program. Dr. Trujillo is board certified in Internal Medicine and in Endocrinology/Diabetes and Metabolism. She has served on many professional associations and committees and has published in several medical journals and book chapters.
Howard C. Zisser, M.D.
Howard Zisser, M.D., is the Director of Clinical Research and Diabetes Technology at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute where he conducts clinical trials on new and innovative therapies for type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. He currently manages trials investigating the JDRF funded Artificial Pancreas Project, the safety and efficacy of inhaled insulin, and implantable insulin pumps and implantable glucose sensors. Additionally, Dr. Zisser is Adjunct Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Zisser graduated summa cum laude from the University of Florida in Gainesville with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies Biopharmacology and earned his medical degree from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital and received his board certification in internal medicine in 1992. Dr. Zisser joined Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in 2002.
Dale E. Seborg, Ph.D.
Dale E. Seborg, Ph.D. is an investigator for the Artificial Pancreas Project. Dr. Seborg is a Department Chair and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Before joining UCSB, he taught at the University of Alberta for nine years.
Dr. Seborg has published 200 articles on process control & related topics, and is the co-author of a widely used textbook, Process Dynamics and Control, 2nd ed. (2004), with Tom Edgar (UT-Austin) and Duncan Mellichamp (UCSB) which is being translated into Chinese.
He is the recipient, or co-recipient, of several national teaching and research awards that include the American Statistical Association's Statistics in Chemistry Award (1994), the American Automatic Control Council's Education Award (1993), the American Society of Engineering Education's Meriam-Wiley Distinguished Author Award (1990), and the Joint Automatic Control Conference Best Paper Award (1973).
Jennifer Hone, M.D., FACE
As a Research Physician for the Institute, Jennifer Hone, M.D., FACE, is involved in several projects concerning diabetes and pregnancy, the immunology of type 1 diabetes in pregnancy, as well as type 2 diabetes and its treatment. Dr. Hone is an Assistant Clinical Professor at USC, and is a member of the Internal Medicine Faculty at SB Cottage Hospital where she teaches part time. Dr. Hone continues her clinical work at the SB County Public Health Department in the Endocrinology Clinic she started in July of 2009.
Prior to joining Sansum Research, Dr. Hone was Medical Director, Diabetes Program, HealthONE Rose Medical Hospital, Denver, Colorado where she also had a part time outpatient consulting clinic. For twelve years she had a private practice in Endocrinology and has also served as Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center Department of Endocrinology for the past 15 years.
Dr. Hone obtained her medical degree from George Washington University Health Sciences Center and completed her fellowship in Endocrinology at the Diabetes Branch of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland as Commissioned Officer (Lt. Cmmdr) USPHS. She graduated with a Human Physiology and Anatomy degree from University of California, Berkeley. In addition, Dr. Hone has served on many professional associations and committees and has published in several medical journals.
Kristin Corbett-Castorino, D.O.
Kristin Corbett-Castorino, D.O, is a Research Physician for the Institute focusing on three clinical trials involving gestational diabetes, continuous insulin pumps, and inhaled insulin. Concurrently, Corbett-Castorino is a member of the Junior Faculty, Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital Internal Medicine Program and a Physician Consultant, Physician User Group of Information Systems for Cottage.
Dr. Corbett-Castorino obtained her medical degree from Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in Vallejo, California after graduating with a degree in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology at University of California Santa Cruz.
In addition, she volunteered for Hospice of Santa Barbara and at Casa Clinica Convivencia Campesina, a primary care clinic, in Nayarit, Mexico. Corbett also has treated underserved populations in Vallejo, California.
Wendy Bevier, Ph.D., is an Associate Investigator with the Institute and is coordinating the National Institutes of Health (NIH) studies. She is responsible for recruiting patients, conducting experiments, and collecting and organizing data. A procedure called the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp and continuous glucose monitoring systems are being used during this project. The studies are a collaboration with the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB), Department of Chemical Engineering, and the goals of the studies are to develop mathematical formulas (algorithms) to run external insulin pumps and to determine insulin to carbohydrate ratios for the perfect insulin doses.
Francis J. Doyle III, Ph.D. is one of the principal investigators for a collaborative study between Sansum Diabetes Research Institute and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The goal of the project, funded by National Institutes of Health, is to develop a model that will optimize the timing and dose of insulin based on a patient's unique response to insulin. Dr. Doyle holds the Duncan and Suzanne Mellichamp Chair in Process Control in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as appointments in the Electrical Engineering Department, and the Biomolecular Science and Engineering Program. At UCSB, he is the Associate Director of the $50M Institute for Collaborative Biotechnology funded by the Army Research Office.
Jenifer Gaffaney received a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Science at Pepperdine University in Malibu. While working to improve the nutritional status of infants, women and children of Los Angeles, she simultaneously completed a Master’s degree at California State University Northridge in Nutrition and Dietetic Internship at the USC University Affiliated Program at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Having resided in both Los Angeles and Central America Jenifer brings proficient knowledge and skill in working with the local Hispanic community and is bilingual English/Spanish. 
Fima Lifshitz, M.D. is Editor-in-Chief of Growth, Genetics & Hormones (GGH) and is Senior Nutrition Scientist and Director of Pediatrics at Sansum Medical Research Institute. He is also President of Pediatric Sunshine Academics, a non-profit organization committed to pediatric nutrition and endocrine research and education. 
Ms. Lifshitz specializes in diverse aspects of health care communication. Her expertise includes health care education, writing, and web site development. As Journal Administrator, she is primarily focused on the operational aspects and production of the medical journal Growth, Genetics & Hormones (www.GGHjournal.com) which is produced at GGH offices at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute Additionally, she has written articles, clinical manuals, newsletters, and patient teaching books on health care. Ms. Lifshitz has a keen interest in increased efficiency, productivity, and utilization of health care resources via appropriate use of communication tools, and the positive impact of social marketing as an educational tool to improve the health of individuals and populations. This has been accomplished through the writing of high level educational content for the lay public and physicians.
David J. Pettitt, M.D. is currently studying obesity and type 2 diabetes in children and adolescents in Santa Barbara County and is participating in a nationwide study of the epidemiology of diabetes in youth. He also consults nationwide on diabetes in pregnancy and on the risk factors for and treatment of type 2 diabetes in children. He has over 180 publications in these areas of research. 
George Primbs, M.D. is an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon who is examining the utility of ocular coherent tomography (similar to a microscopic CAT scan of the eye) in the screening for diabetic retinopathy at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute. He also conducts free eye screenings for people with diabetes and the medical underserved at the Institute. Dr. Primbs received his medical degree at UCLA School of Medicine and completed his surgical internship at UCLA Hospital. He earned his ophthalmology degree at UCLA after serving as an eye surgeon and Captain in the U.S. Air Force. 
Alison Okada Wollitzer, Ph.D. joined Sansum Diabetes Research Institute in 1987. Dr. Wollitzer serves as Director of Research Administration and Operations and is responsible for contracts and grants, regulatory affairs, human resources, safety, and general operations. She collaborates with senior investigators on numerous studies and projects, including those focusing on type 2 diabetes in youth, obesity in children, diabetes in pregnancy, and outreach to the underserved local population with and at risk for diabetes. She has served on the Cottage Hospital Institutional Review Board since 1989, and was a charter member of Partners for Fit Youth and the Coalition for Community Wellness.
Howard Zisser, M.D., is the Director of Clinical Research and Diabetes Technology at Sansum Diabetes Research Institute where he conducts clinical trials on new and innovative therapies for type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. He currently manages trials investigating the JDRF funded Artificial Pancreas Project, the safety and efficacy of inhaled insulin, and implantable insulin pumps and implantable glucose sensors. Additionally, Dr. Zisser is Adjunct Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dale E. Seborg, Ph.D. is an investigator for the Artificial Pancreas Project. Dr. Seborg is a Department Chair and Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin and his Ph.D. from Princeton University. Before joining UCSB, he taught at the University of Alberta for nine years.