Who are we?

• Sarah Kim, MD Medical Director, Diabetes Teaching Center
• Krystal Kobasic RN, MS, CDCES Program Coordinator
• Talya Kurzion RD, CDCES
• Lisa Kroon, PharmD CDCES
• Michael German, MD
• Umesh Masharani, MD
• Marina Demetsky, LVN

Sarah Kim, MD

Sarah Kim, MD is the Medical Director of the Diabetes Teaching Center. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Biology and minor in Women's Studies at UC San Diego. In 2000 she moved east to attend medical school at Tufts University. Sarah then returned to California to attend a Combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Training at UC Los Angeles. While her intention was to become a primary care doctor for kids and adults, she was drawn to diabetes care. This interest was sparked by memorable connections with patients diagnosed with diabetes, the joy of teaching and the patient bonds that formed through learning about patient’s lives in order to help strategize the implementation of diabetes self-management successfully. She pursued an Endocrinology Fellowship at UCLA, completing this in 2010. She then went on to complete the UCSF Advanced Diabetes Fellowship in 2010-11 focusing on diabetes management in the adult, pediatric, pregnant and hospitalized population. In 2011 she joined the UCSF Faculty at Zuckerberg San Francisco Hospital and ultimately became Director of the Adult Diabetes Clinic working to optimize diabetes care in the Safety Net population. Dr. Kim accepted the role as Director of the UCSF Adult Diabetes Clinic in late 2018 where she works with the cadre of nurse educators, dietician and physicians to continually improve our care.

Krystal Kobasic RN, MS, CDCES

Krystal Kobasic is the Program Coordinator for the University of California, San Francisco Diabetes Teaching Center. She serves as an instructor in the Diabetes Workshops, as well as sees patients individually in the Teaching Center consulting on Diabetes self-management. Krystal comes from an extensive background in Cardiothoracic Surgery, working in the Intensive Cardiac Care Unit and Mechanical Circulatory Support Service at UCSF since 2003, earning a Daisy award in 2013. She became interested in Diabetes when her husband was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes one year into dating. Krystal went on to complete a Diabetes Nurse Fellowship with UCSF and obtained her CDE in 2015 and in 2019 transitioned to the Diabetes Teaching Center. Krystal received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Michigan in 2003 followed by a Masters in International Management, Economics and Policy from Universita Bocconi, in Milan Italy in 2005. Following her Masters she worked in Ecuador supporting the rebuilding of the Healthcare Infrastructure in the border region with Peru followed by Chagas Disease Research. She is proficient in and loves speaking Spanish. Upon return to the United States she continue with her focus on the Advanced Heart and Lung Failure population and as well as worked as a Consultant and Educator with the San Francisco Tuberculosis programs.

Lisa Kroon, PharmD CDCES

Dr. Lisa Kroon teaches pharmacy classes at the University of California, San Francisco Diabetes Teaching Center workshops. Dr.Kroon, currently, is a Professor and Executive Vice Chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy in the School of Pharmacy at the University of California in San Francisco. She practices in the UCSF Diabetes Clinic and General Medicine Clinic, where she cares for people with diabetes and chronic illnesses. Dr. Kroon is working with community pharmacies to develop pharmaceutical care programs that increase pharmacists’ accessibility, allowing them to enhance the care they provide to patients. She has made important contributions to the Diabetes Education Online website. Other areas of research include inter-professional education and the development and dissemination of a tobacco cessation curriculum to pharmacy and other health professional schools. Dr. Kroon received her Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Michigan followed by two years of residency at UCSF and is a Certified Diabetes Educator.

Michael S. German, MD

Michael German, MD teaches classes on research advances and the genetics and development of diabetes at the University of California, San Francisco Diabetes Teaching Center workshops. Dr.German is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at UCSF, the Justine K.Schreyer Chair of Diabetes Research, the Clinical Director of the UCSF Diabetes Center, Director of the Hillblom Islet Genesis Network and the UCSF NIH Diabetes and Endocrinology Research Center (DERC), and a Principle Investigator in the Hormone Research Institute. He cares for patients at the UCSF Diabetes Clinic and hospital wards, teaches medical students, and lectures at the UCSF Diabetes Center¹s patient self-management training courses while maintaining a basic research laboratory investigating diabetes at the most basic level. The central focus of Dr. German¹s research program is the pancreatic beta-cell, the cell in the pancreas that makes insulin. He is interested in the genes that control the development of the beta-cells from stem cells. He is also interested in where these processes break down in diabetes, and in how to translate our knowledge of the beta-cell into novel strategies for curing diabetes. Dr German received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University, and medical degree from the Southwestern Medical School. His residency training was taken at the University of Arizona and fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. German is board certified in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Umesh Masharani, MA(Oxon) MBBS(Lond) MRCP(UK)

Umesh Masharani is Co-Chair of the University of California, San Francisco Diabetes Teaching Center Annual Patient Symposium. Dr. Masharani is a Clinical Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine, UCSF. He has an active clinical practice treating patients with diabetes and other endocrine disorders. Dr Masharani also is a Co-Investigator on a number of NIH funded diabetes studies at UCSF. His research includes studies evaluating the effect of chromium and alpha lipoic acid on insulin resistance, and anti-CD3 antibodies on new onset type 1 diabetes and multi-ethnic studies addressing the interactive relationships among disease management, glucose control and depression in patients with type 2 diabetes. As a member of the UCSF Islet Transplant Group, Dr Masharani assists in managing diabetes of patients admitted to UCSF for islet transplantation evaluation. He has recently published a book “Diabetes DeMystified” (McGraw Hill 2007). Dr. Masharani attended Oxford University and received his medical degree from Middlesex Hospital, London. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Marina Demetsky, LVN

Marina Demetsky is the Administrative Assistant for the University of California, San Francisco Diabetes Teaching Center. Marina Demetsky coordinates scheduling for individual appointments and group classes and provides classroom support. She is a Licensed Vocational Nurse and is fluent in written and spoken Russian. She also provides administrative support for the Diabetes Education Online website project.

With Special Thanks

• The Joseph Drown Foundation
• Robert and Michelle Friend
• The Koret Foundation
• The Bernard Osher Foundation
• Elana Weinstein
• Will Weinstein
• Martha Nolte Kennedy, MD Former Medical Director, Diabetes Teaching Center
• Peggy Huang, RN CDE Co-founder, Diabetes Teaching Center
• Marlene Bedrich, RN, MS, BC-ADM, CDCES Former Program Coordinator, Diabetes Teaching Center
• Sherri Shafer, RD CDCES Former Registered Dietician, Certified Diabetes Educator