Donna H. Ryan, M.D., F.A.C.P.

Donna Ryan is a Professor and Associate Executive Director for Clinical Research at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She has been actively engaged in obesity and nutrition research for the last 20 years.

Dr. Ryan is the President Elect of the Obesity Society, an organization of >2000 American scientists. She is the Co-Chair of the panel that is currently revising the NIH-sponsored Guidelines for the Evaluation and Management of Overweight and Obesity, so-called “Obesity II.”

Dr. Ryan’s research interests include many aspects of obesity management and prevention including obesity pharmacotherapy, evaluation of diets of different macronutrient composition for weight loss, practical or pragmatic clinical trials to evaluate primary care approaches to obesity management, and translational research engaging third-party payors in obesity intervention.

Dr. Ryan has been funded by the Department of Defense to oversee a Military Nutrition Research project in which she collaborates with the US Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine’s Military Nutrition Division. She is Co-PI for the NIH-funded Clinical Nutrition Research Center at Pennington and Co-PI for the NIDDK-sponsored Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes) study that addresses weight loss in persons with type 2 diabetes. Her most recent project is the submission, as PI, of a state-wide Clinical Translational Science Award which will encompass 9 Louisiana research institutions.

Kathie M. Swift, M.S., R.D., L.D.N.

Kathie Madonna Swift is a Registered Dietitian and Licensed Nutritionist. Kathie has been recognized as one of the top clinical nutritionists in the country, known for her inspirational and visionary work in medical nutrition therapy. She shares her passion for the healing power of food through her work as co-director of Food As Medicine, a professional nutrition training program sponsored by the Center for Mind Body Medicine and as a teacher of nutrition and cooking immersion programs at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health.

A frequent lecturer, teacher and consultant, Kathie is actively involved in furthering the integrative and functional medicine education of Registered Dietitians and other health professionals. She currently serves as Chair of Nutrition in Complementary Care, a dietetic practice group representing dietitians in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Kathie sits on a number of medical boards, including the Nutrition Advisory Board of the Institute for Functional Medicine, scientific advisory board for Free & Clear Mind Body™ Program and the editorial board for Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal. She has participated in Nutrition Roundtables at the Harvard School of Public Health and is a faculty committee advisor to Georgetown University Medical School.

Kathie spearheaded the pioneering functional medicine program at Canyon Ranch in the Berkshires, where she served as nutrition director for more than a decade and created the “Nutritional Intelligence” dietary guidelines which were presented at the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. In 2005 Kathie joined Dr. Mark Hyman to help establish the UltraWellness Center, where she was nutrition director for three years. Kathie is a scientific reviewer for articles on diet and nutrition-related topics for Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Her magazine articles and interviews have been featured in Healing Lifestyles and Spas, Body and Soul, Alternative Medicine, Experience Life, Yoga Journal, USA Today, Martha Stewart Living, Epicurious, CNN, and others.

John M. Jakicic, Ph.D.

John Jakicic is both a Professor and Chair of the Department of Health and Physical Activity at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Jakicic is also the Director of the Physical Activity and Weight Management Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Jakicic has also been on the faculty at Brown University and the University of Kansas.

Dr. Jakicic received his B.S. degree in Physical Education and Health and his M.S. degree in Exercise Science from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Exercise Physiology from the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Jakicic is funded by the National Institutes of Health and his research focuses primarily on the role of exercise in weight control. Specifically he has received funding to examine strategies for improving exercise adherence and to examine dose-response effects of exercise on long-term weight control. Dr. Jakicic has numerous publications and presentations in the area of exercise and weight control, including publications in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Obesity Research, International Journal of Obesity, Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, and other peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Jakicic is known for his research in the areas of the varying doses of exercise on long-term weight control, the use of intermittent exercise to promote adoption and maintenance of physical activity in overweight adults, and the use of behavioral strategies to improve long-term weight loss outcomes. Moreover, Dr. Jakicic is currently examining the role of exercise in the prevention of weight gain, and interventions related to diabetes prevention and treatment in children and adults.
Dr. Jakicic is also the organizer for the “America on the Move in Pittsburgh” initiative that is a collaboration of academic, corporate, medical, and community organizations to improve the health of the Greater Pittsburgh region through increases in physical activity and improvements in dietary intake.

Robert W. Jeffrey, Ph.D.

Dr. Jeffery is a psychologist by training and has done research on the treatment and prevention of obesity for approximately 30 years. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed papers in the area and is widely recognized particularly as an expert in community approaches to obesity management. His work in this domain includes a number of large scale studies directed toward assessing whether intervention efforts aimed at the population as a whole can be effective in achieving weight loss or prevention of weight gain. The studies included several projects in which attempts were made to reach the population with educational messages about diet and exercise behaviors for weight control via mass media, worksites, public health departments, and health care providers. More recently he has also been involved in several studies that have examined non-educational factors related to diet and exercise choice, such as food availability and price.

Dr. Jeffery is the Director of the University of Minnesota Obesity Prevention Center (OPC), which was established in 2004 as part of the Healthy Foods, Healthy Lives Presidential Initiative. The OPC goal is to provide leadership and coordination at the local, national, and international level for multidisciplinary research, policy, and education that focuses on understanding and responding to the epidemic of excessive weight gain and obesity.

Thomas A. Wadden, Ph.D.

Thomas A.Wadden, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders. He received his A.B. in 1975 from Brown University and his doctorate in clinical psychology in 1981 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Wadden’s principal research is on the treatment of obesity by methods that have included behavior modification, very-low-calorie diets, exercise, medication, and surgery. He has also investigated the metabolic and psychosocial consequences of obesity and weight loss. He has published over 250 scientific papers and book chapters, and co-edited four books, the most recent of which is Obesity: A Guide for Mental Health Practitioners Treatment (with Albert J. Stunkard and Robert I. Berkowitz). His research has been supported for more than 25 years by grants from the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Wadden is an associate editor of Obesity, published by The Obesity Society, and is a past president of the Society. He has served on several NIH panels, including the NIDDK’s Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity and NHLBI’s Clinical Guidelines Committee. He also is chairperson of the Lifestyle Intervention subcommittee of the Look AHEAD study. This 12-year, NIH-sponsored trial is examining the health consequences of intentional weight loss in obese individuals with type 2 diabetes.