Staff and Board

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Dick Kuegeman

Executive Director

Dick’s business career began while still in college at San Diego State University, becoming engaged in various entrepreneurial endeavors, one of which led to a career creating, building, and managing themed entertainment attractions throughout the United States and, yes, more entrepreneurial ventures; from mass audience entertainments to first-of-its-kind consumer services companies, he experienced great satisfaction from being engaged in a rich and diverse business career; sometimes as an employee, more often as a founder, principal, or consultant.

Following a rewarding engagement during the Atlanta Olympic Games, Dick made a personal life-style decision to redefine and repurpose his venture development and consulting company and work, primarily, in the not-for-profit sector. Beginning with some challenging and (personally) transformational series of engagements with Habitat for Humanity International, he has since been almost exclusively engaged in non profit work.

The death of his daughter, Diana, from the pernicious and too-little-understood mental illness of anorexia nervosa, motivated Dick to form the Diana Jodel Foundation, an entity committed to identifying, preventing, and eliminating eating disorders of all kinds, with a special emphasis on ending anorexia. This objective will be achieved by developing programs and projects that promote awareness, produce education, motivate action, and raise money that benefits individuals and organizations similarly engaged in this cause.

Concurrent with the development of the Diana Jodel Foundation, Dick has been unexpectedly presented with an opportunity to help lead an organization well known in the field of eating disorder prevention, the Eating Disorders Information Network, EDIN. He is very enthusiastic and committed to helping EDIN in every way possible and seeks like-minded individuals and organizations to join him, the EDIN board of directors, staff, volunteers, and current supporters of all kinds in this critical and important work.

Please see www.myedin.org to find ways you can help, for information about upcoming activities, or just for information and learning.

Dick is married, father of six children, and enjoys time and travel with his family. He collects rare books (yes, the old kind, with paper), goes wilderness hiking, reads a lot and writes a lot too. Sometimes the music one hears in the next room is coming from his record collection; yes, records, as in vinyl. Seems he just couldn’t toss ‘em back then and now is quite glad he didn’t.

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Sita Wilson Stukes

Program Director

Sita is the Program Director for EDIN and she facilitates our community outreach programs. Originally from New York City, she moved down to Atlanta for college where her eating disorder became extremely severe. She has now been in recovery for several years and strongly believes in spreading knowledge of this devastating disease and giving back to the community to help all those affected.

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Dr. Dina Zeckhausen

Organization Founder

Dr. Zeckhausen grew up in New Hampshire and attended Williams College in Massachusetts. She received her doctoral degree in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina in 1990.

In 1996, Dina founded EDIN–the Eating Disorders Information Network. EDIN’s School and Community Outreach initiatives have been honored by the National Eating Disorders Association and serve as a model for local grassroots organizations around the country.

“It has been tremendously gratifying to watch EDIN grow from a simple idea into a powerful nonprofit with an active and passionate board and hundreds of volunteers that reaches thousands of children, teens, parents, educators, and those suffering from eating disorder. EDIN gives people the tools to not only fight the “voice” of an eating disorder inside their own heads, but to speak out and address these issues in new and creative ways. I have been particularly moved by how passionately teenagers have responded to our outreach programs. Kids and teens have tremendous energy related to these issues; they really CARE! When they are given the tools to make a difference, they come up with ideas that we adults never could have conceived of! We have incorporated many of their ideas in our latest School Outreach materials.

After years of struggling just to survive, EDIN has finally garnering recognition on a national stage. Our concern with the obesity epidemic and the failures of the diet industry to address this issue may mean that America is ready for a paradigm shift. While there is still a long way to go in reducing the stigma attached to eating disorders, our “Listen to Your Body” model is finally gaining some respect. We are also recognizing the complex interplay of psychological, genetic, and family and peer influences that contribute to the development of eating disorders, and that eating disorders are not just about “vanity” or wanting to fit into Size 0 jeans. But we still have a long way to go.

It is our hope that communities, schools, and parents will adopt our program model to effect systemic change. This is the most exciting chapter in the life of EDIN!”

In 1996, Dr. Zeckhausen wrote a play about a girl who struggles with an eating disorder, titled What’s Eating Katie? which has been performed locally and nationally by high school and college students. She is also the author of Full Mouse, Empty Mouse, the first children’s book devoted to preventing eating disorders (Magination Press, 2007). Dina has been featured on The Today Show, The Insider, Entertainment Tonight, The Food Network show “Cooking Thin”, Connecting with Kids, Good for Parents, CNN and Headline News as well as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Shape Magazine, Our Kids Magazine, Creative Loafing, Atlanta Magazine and Atlanta Woman Magazine. She works in private practice with her husband, Dr. Gerald Drose, and has two sons and a stepson.