The Nevada Chapter Volunteer of the Month program is sponsored by our community partners at Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers. Each month we highlight one of our fabulous chapter volunteers and that volunteer receives gift cards for free meals from Raising Cane’s.

We are pleased to announce our Raising Canes Volunteer of the Month for June is Ellen Neylon.

Ellen is the Clinical Research Manager at Palm Research Center and is responsible for organizing their clinical trials on health conditions including type 1 diabetes and its complications.

Within their clinical trial program, Palm Research Center serves as an affiliate site for University of California, San Francisco and the TrialNet international network. TrialNet includes leading academic institutions, physicians, scientists and healthcare teams dedicated to the prevention of type 1 diabetes. They offer risk screening for relatives of people with type 1 diabetes and innovative clinical studies to preserve insulin production.

At the beginning of June, Ellen partnered with JDRF and organized a TrialNet screening event in the Palm Research Center office. This event was attended by our local families living with T1D who were interested in screening their family members for their risk of developing type 1 diabetes.

Families learned more about diabetes research and T1D prevention trials. Adults were able to speak with a former member of the JDRF International Board and consultant with the Diabetes Center at the University of California, San Francisco. Children were able to enjoy a variety of giveaways from Palm Research Center and the TrialNet team.

The event was a great success for our families and TrialNet research. By providing an alternate convenient location for our families, TrialNet was able to screen more families than at previous screenings during the JDRF One Walk and the TypeOneNation Summit. The day also included donated treats from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf and Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers.

Ellen will be organizing this event again for Palm Research Center this fall to make sure all our families have the best information about diabetes research and T1D prevention trials.

Ellen is also a passionate supporter of all of Palm Medical Group and Palm Research Center’s JDRF activities. She journeyed to Colorado last summer to help cheer on the ride team and this fall will be one of the co-captains for the Palm Medical Group / Palm Research Center walk team.

Thank you Ellen for all you do for JDRF and families living with type 1 diabetes.