Valentina Ocheretenko

Valentina Ocheretenko is currently a Vice-President of the International Diabetes Federation (IDF). She has previously been a Member of the Board of the IDF European Region (1996-2004) and a member of the IDF Consultative Section on Childhood and Adolescent Diabetes (2003-2006).

Ms Ocheretenko has university degrees in both physics and law, and has worked as a physicist-researcher at Kharkov State University, Ukraine. She became a leader of diabetes advocacy in Ukraine after her daughter was diagnosed with diabetes. In 1988 she set up the Kharkov Diabetes Society, the first non-governmental organisation in the country, and she also played an active role in the creation of the Ukrainian Diabetes Federation (UDF) in 1993. Ms Ocheretenko is the current UDF Chair and editor of the association magazine 'Diabetes & Life.'

Ms Ocheretenko is a member of the State Committee of the National Diabetes Program (1999- 2007) and in 2006 was elected Chair of the Ukrainian Patients Union ”Nation Health”.