Our team
Our team are passionate about helping people self-manage their diabetes, as well as people at high risk of type 2 diabetes.
The team understands that the best way to support people is to provide timely, relevant and useful information, to reduce risk of complications and ensure everyone has the tools to stay healthy.
Who we are
Our team of expert health professionals currently consists of:
- Diabetes nurse educators: A diabetes educator works with you to help you understand and manage your diabetes or reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.
- Dietitians: A dietitian helps you to understand how food affects your blood glucose levels. They will help you with strategies around carbohydrate counting, healthy eating and many other nutrition topics
- Health psychologist: A psychologist can be very helpful at different times during your diabetes journey.
- Exercise physiologist (EP): Our EP will work with you to ensure you can engage in physical activity safely and effectively.
The Diabetes Victoria Clinic health psychologist is available for face-to-face appointments or by telehealth.
Meet our team
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Lauren Bais
Dietitian
Lauren has been an Accredited Practising Dietitian for the past 20 years. She began specialising in diabetes care 18 years ago and has worked at Diabetes Victoria for the past 11 years. Throughout her career, Lauren has worked in community health, private practice and sports dietetics, and was a sports dietitian at the Hawthorn Football Club.
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Yung Nguyen
Diabetes Nurse Educator
Yung is a credentialled diabetes nurse educator for over 12 years. Yung’s professional background is Nursing. She has been working as a Diabetes Educator at Diabetes Victoria for 12 years and is passionate about helping people with diabetes to live a long healthy life.
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Diana (Dee) Politis
Diabetes Nurse Educator
Dee completed her training as a Registered Nurse in 1999. She worked at St.Vincent’s Health Melbourne from 2000-2008 as an Associate Nurse Unit Manager specialising in endocrinology, dermatology and rheumatology, which is where her passion for diabetes was born. She completed her certificate in diabetes education and in 2008 commenced working at Diabetes Victoria.
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Dr Melissa Sbaraglia
Exercise Physiologist
Each team member has extensive experience in the field of diabetes management and care. They can provide expert advice in carbohydrate counting, technology, medication use and diabetes prevention.
Some of our health professionals are OzDAFNE and DESMOND facilitators and are trained in supporting people with insulin pumps and glucose sensors.