It’s personal for this trustee
Talk about the ironies of life. Just a few years after Jess Sweely, a member of Joslin’s Board of Trustees, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, his wife received the same diagnosis. Then last year the Sweelys’ eight-year-old grandson was told he had type 1 diabetes. The Sweely family’s experience certainly illustrates the multi-dimensional nature of diabetes.
For Jess, it was a routine insurance physical that revealed his blood glucose levels were not normal. His insurance agent advised him to see his primary care doctor, who told him he had diabetes. But as Jess remembers “something didn’t seem quite right,” and he started inquiring about other care options; one of his colleagues told him that he would find “the best place to go.” That place is Joslin Diabetes Center, where Jess has been a patient for approximately five years.
“From my perspective, Joslin is one of the few world-class centers trying to do something about this disease from research to clinical care,” explains Jess. “It’s a unique combination.”
Jess knows something about what it takes for a “world-class center” to remain as such. He has been in the workplace for more than 40 years in executive positions. His background is in finance and he is a certified public accountant by profession. This type of skill set no doubt enhances Joslin’s Board of Trustees, or as Jess puts it modestly: “I’m hopeful this type of experience will be helpful.”
Jess notes that for Joslin to remain one of the preeminent healthcare centers, it requires “a great deal of financing… I think that’s something needed by many organizations. There’s no critical mass.”
Jess is helping build that critical mass for Joslin. Along with the support the Sweely family gives Joslin through the Sweely Foundation, created by Jess and wife Sharon, Jess has hosted a Joslin event in the Washington, D.C. area, where he lives with his family and where he commits his time to other causes. He serves on the Washington Performance Arts Society board, which he finds especially gratifying due to the work they’re doing with disadvantaged youth. He is also a board member of George Mason University.
In addition to his philanthropic commitments, Jess is active on his family farm in Virginia—a horse operation with more than 100 horses. And one of the Sweely children is a world-class equestrian. It’s clear that Jess is an active person with numerous interests, confirming his observation that “diabetes hasn’t changed how I live my life—you just have to deal with it.”
What is also clear is that Jess Sweely’s personal involvement and his goal to “get the message out about Joslin” goes way beyond “just dealing with it.”
