North End Waterfront resident Leverett Wing will serve as chair of Joslin Diabetes Center’s 14th annual “A Taste of Ginger” event at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston on Monday, April 9th benefiting Joslin’s Asian American Diabetes Initiative (AADI).
Leverett’s father was diagnosed with diabetes in the 1970s and treated at Joslin Diabetes Center. His parents went on to become founding members of AADI, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life and health outcomes for the rising number of Asian Americans living with diabetes while working to find a cure.
When Leverett’s father was first diagnosed, there wasn’t a substantial amount of data or research that alerted Asian Americans to the fact that they had a different threshold for diabetes than other populations. Leverett hopes that through the AADI and events like “A Taste of Ginger”, there can be an ongoing effort to fund and support research with the aim of attaining specialized health data for different Asian cultures and to continue to raise awareness within the larger community.
“We’ve only scratched the surface of what we need to do within the Asian American community in terms of raising diabetes awareness and informing the population of their risk for diabetes. It feels like home returning to host “A Taste of Ginger” this year, so many years after I helped to establish the first event. It has evolved along with the diabetes community, now branching out to include chefs and cuisines representing all segments of the Asian American population, from Chinese to Korean to Indian. For all of these entities to gather together to support the AADI and Joslin’s mission to find a cure for diabetes, it means a lot and I know my parents would be proud.” – Leverett Wing
Inspired by his parents’ longtime commitment to supporting the AADI, Leverett helped to found “A Taste of Ginger” more than a decade ago. He continues to be actively involved, supporting Joslin as a member of the Board of Overseers, and returning this year as chair of the 14th annual “A Taste of Ginger”.
In 2017, Joslin Diabetes Center launched the Lawrence and Evelyn Wing Family Lectureship Series, an endowed fund to provide an annual lectureship in support of the AADI to allow faculty, staff, students and guests to meet and learn from scholars and experts in the field of diabetes. The second installment of the annual lecture series will take place on Monday, April 9th prior to “A Taste of Ginger” and will feature guest speaker Dr. Howard Koh, former United States Assistant Secretary for Health for the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
