Virginia is a registered nurse and credentialed diabetes educator, with post-graduate qualifications in education and public health and over 25 years working in the diabetes field. Her professional and research interests have focused on innovative models of diabetes self-management education, and improving the provision of diabetes care through health professional development and education. Formerly manager of diabetes education services at Diabetes Victoria, in 2012 Virginia enrolled at Deakin University as a part-time PhD candidate in the School of Psychology. Her PhD focuses on diabetes distress among adolescents with type 1 diabetes, and includes analysis of the Diabetes MILES Youth Study data, a national survey of young people with diabetes undertaken by the Australian Centre for Behavioural Research in Diabetes (ACBRD) in 2014. Virginia’s current role at Diabetes Victoria is overseeing the implementation and evaluation of a structured self-management program for adolescents with type 1 diabetes and their parents, and is an associate research fellow at the ACBRD investigating youth transition.