Posted on September 9, 2005 at 10:00 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Dennis Pillion, Ph.D., UAB professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology, has received the National Diabetes Camp Educator Award from the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE).

Dennis Pillion

With a cash prize presented with the award, Pillion plans to assemble a diabetes camp song/game/activity booklet drawing on the best available materials from diabetes camps throughout the world.

He has served as volunteer director of staff education at Camp Seale Harris, one of the world’s oldest and largest diabetes camp organizations. The camp is held on the grounds of Camp ASCCA in Jackson’s Gap, Alabama. Since 1993 he has overseen the delivery of diabetes education annually to more than 180 volunteer healthcare professionals and students. Every year at the camp, he delivers an annual update on the latest breakthroughs in diabetes research.

The diabetes educator also volunteers as education director for Camp Sugar Falls, a weeklong diabetes day camp at the Lakeshore Foundation campus in Homewood, Alabama.

Within the AADE, Pillion is the past chair of the Diabetes Camp Educators Specialty Practice Group and currently serves on the Public Affairs Committee. He is president of the Alabama Association of Diabetes Educators (AlaADE).

He co-founded and is executive director of the Diabetes Care Network of America, a non-profit corporation that delivers diabetes education on-site in communities, churches, senior centers and workplaces.