A Letter from our JDRF Northern California Chapter Board President, Jennifer Schneider, MD

Dear Friends:

The JDRF Northern California Chapter is thrilled to announce that Kellee Hearn has been promoted from Associate Executive Director to Executive Director. She transitioned to her new role on December 13, succeeding Nicole Friedland who stepped down from the role earlier this month.

Kellee’s mother lived with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and is the inspiration behind Kellee’s nonprofit career at JDRF. Kellee first worked at JDRF from 1998-2003 in a variety of roles and then returned in 2015. During her current 5 ½ years with JDRF, Kellee has shown tremendous leadership; she directed and supported key Chapter growth strategies partnering with staff, volunteers, and supporters to achieve record-setting revenue targets. Her collective 11-year commitment to JDRF and its mission to accelerate life-changing breakthroughs for those impacted by T1D has positioned her perfectly to lead our Northern California Chapter.

In addition to her time at JDRF, Kellee served in director level positions at Gateway to College National Network, Girls Inc., and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Kellee’s depth and breadth of experience in the areas of community engagement, peer-to-peer fundraising, corporate and volunteer development, individual and major gift advancement, foundation relations, and signature events, adds great value to our Chapter and the mission of JDRF.

Thank You to Nicole Friedland
Our community is immensely grateful for Nicole Friedland’s exceptional leadership over the past six years. Nicole also began her career with JDRF, serving in several leadership roles including twice as Executive Director. Her cumulative time with JDRF totaled more than twenty years. Under Nicole’s recent leadership, our Chapter’s annual revenue grew from $5 million to over $10 million. She further developed the board, staff, and volunteer base, and expanded innovative fundraising and outreach opportunities. It was no surprise when the Greater Bay Area Chapter was honored at the 2019 JDRF One Conference with a High Performing Chapter Award for the third year in a row, and the Guiding Principle Award in recognition of the JDRF Game2Give global initiative which Nicole envisioned and then launched with three T1D dads.

When COVID-19 hit us in 2020, both Nicole and Kellee led us through reimagining our revenue stream while keeping our community strong and united. They steered us through merging our Northern California Inland & Bay Area Chapters into the new Northern California Chapter, and showed us that we are stronger together.

Please join me in enthusiastically congratulating Kellee and wishing her continued success as a valued leader for our Chapter and in our community.

Warmly,

Jennifer Schneider, MD

President, JDRF Northern California Chapter Board
Member, JDRF International Board of Directors