Bon Secours VP named American Diabetes Association board chair

Rhodes B. Ritenour, Bon Secours’ Richmond market vice president for external and regulatory affairs, is the 2024 board chair of the American Diabetes Association, the Arlington County-based nonprofit announced Thursday.

A former deputy state attorney general, Ritenour has lived with type 1 diabetes since age 5 and served as chairman of the association’s board in Central Virginia, a member of the ADA National Advocacy Committee and a member of the ADA Legal Advocacy Network. Ritenour and his wife, Alana, co-authored the children’s book series “The Adventures of Rhodes and Alana.”

Ritenour, who joined Bon Secours in 2017, earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia. He represents Bon Secours before local, state and federal governments and to corporations, and provides regulatory legal counsel and manages corporate governance for the health system in the Richmond region.

The other principal officers of the association’s 15-member board for 2024 are:

• Secretary/treasurer: James Tai, managing partner for San Diego-based life sciences venture capital fund Emerging Markets Cancer Ignition Fund (EMCIFund)
• President of medicine and science: Mandeep Bajaj, vice chair for clinical affairs and professor of medicine and molecular and cellular biology in Baylor College of Medicine’s Department of Medicine in Houston
• President of health care and education: Patti Urbanski, diabetes staff development coordinator for St. Luke’s Hospital Diabetes Care Program in Minnesota.

“This talented group has tremendous experience in a variety of areas including science, medicine, health care and business,” Ritenour said in a statement. “We will work together to cure diabetes, improve the lives of people living with diabetes and those who love them, and strengthen the ADA’s ability to provide impact, inspiration and hope in the diabetes community.”

The association supports research to treat, manage, prevent — and ultimately cure — diabetes. The nonprofit also provides education and advocacy for Americans living with diabetes and prediabetes.