2011 Ambassadors

CHCM Ambassadors are individuals who have been affected by chronic illness in their lives and are nominated to serve as experts about CHCM.

Elise Adair
Elise was born and raised just north of the Twin Cities. She grew up on a 40-acre farm in the Chisago Lakes area where her parents still live to this day, though Elise now lives in Minneapolis as do both of her brothers. She graduated from the University of Minnesota majoring in Strategic Communications and Spanish. She has studied abroad in both Mexico and Spain. Being an avid cyclist, she gave up her car in 2005 to ride her bike year-round! Elise began her career at One Heartland in 2007 as a Development Coordinator and was promoted within 2 years to her current role as Communications and Outreach Manager.

Joan Carchedi

Joan grew-up in St. Paul, MN among a large family; she is the youngest of seven-children. She is a favorite auntie among her 12 nieces and nephews and enjoys spending time with them and her extended family of friends. She attended Century College earning degrees in Liberal Arts, Sign Language Interpretation and Criminal Justice. For more than 15 years, Joan enjoyed her career working at UPS. Since 1993, Joan has been a volunteer in the HIV/AIDS community. Currently she serves on the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Planning Council and Community Voice Committee. She is also involved with the Speakers Bureau and Positive Leaders program with the Minnesota AIDS Project (MAP).

Kari Elias

Kari is from Rochester, MN and has four siblings. After college, she moved to Minneapolis and at her first job met her husband David. She always knew she wanted a family someday and feels blessed to have had three beautiful boys; Brandon, Alex and Ryan. Kari attended college at the University of Minnesota Duluth. For the past seven years she has worked for Experis (formerly known as COMSYS) as a recruiter. Recently, she was promoted to Recruiting Manager. Kari has had a wonderful time working for Experis.

Mike Jilek

Mike began his career at General Mills where for 10-years he marketed the Yoplait brand. His next career move was with Time Warner magazine working on FORTUNE, People, Sports Illustrated, and TIME. In 1996, he advanced once more by joining the Information Technology (IT) department at Datatrend Technologies. His area of expertise includes application development, infrastructure, outsourcing and consulting. Mike is one of 10 siblings, growing up on a family farm near Glencoe, MN. He received a degree from St. Cloud State University in Marketing and Business Administration. He has three children; twin-boys (age 25) and a daughter (age 23). He is happy to report that all three are college graduates and gainfully employed!

Janeece Oatman

Janeece has been with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) since 2009. She is their Coordinator for the Tour de Cure cycling events in Minnesota and in 2010 helped raise more than $400,000. She graduated from Augsburg College with degrees in Psychology, Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Janeece completed a pre-med program with the intent of attending medical school but had a change of heart. She felt she could make a difference in other ways.
Janeece and her husband, Kenny, are die-hard Twins fans and avid cyclists. They can often be found cycling to games at Target Field or spending time with their two dogs, Roscoe and Tobey.