Key Lecturers

Connecting the Dots – Intersection of Social Determinants of Health Driving Obesity Inequities
Monday, Oct 16  5:30 – 6:30 pm

Bio coming soon.

It’s Time for Action – How to Advocate for Policy Change in Your Professional Field
Monday, Oct 16  1:30-2:30 pm

With more than 180 peer-reviewed publications, Harvard Professor Sara Bleich, PhD is a policy expert and researcher who specializes in diet-related diseases, food insecurity, and racial inequality. A signature theme throughout her research is an interest in asking simple, meaningful questions that can fill important knowledge gaps to help inform policy. In recent years, Dr. Bleich served in the Biden Administration as the Director of Nutrition Security and Health Equity at the at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service.

The Importance of Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation in Health Research to Achieve Health Equity
Sunday, Oct 15 1:30-2:30 pm

Marshall Chin, MD, MPH, is the Richard Parrillo Family Distinguished Service Professor of Healthcare Ethics at the University of Chicago. He co-directs the Chicago Center for Diabetes Translation Research and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Advancing Health Equity: Leading Care, Payment, and Systems Transformation National Program Office. He co-chaired the National Academies Consensus Study Report Measuring Sex, Gender Identity, and Sexual Orientation, and was one of the two people in charge of the review of the National Academies Consensus Study Report Understanding the Well-Being of LGBTQI+ Populations.

It’s All Connected – Understanding Factors Underlying Obesity Risk and Response to Interventions and Policies
Sunday, Oct 15 1:30-2:30 pm

Bio coming soon.

Putting Policy Into Practice to Address Childhood Obesity – Lessons Learned From Latin America and the Caribbean
Monday, Oct 16 8:30-9:30 am

Bio coming soon.

One Size Doesn’t Fit All – Novel Research Designs and Tools to Optimize Behavioral Intervention
Sunday, Oct 15 8:30-9:30 am

Stephanie Goldstein, PhD is an Assistant Professor (Research) of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Brown Alpert Medical School and Research Scientist at the Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center of The Miriam Hospital. Her NIH-funded research focuses on using digital health approaches (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, sensor technology, just-in-time adaptive intervention) and novel research designs to develop impactful interventions for weight-related behaviors implicated in cardiovascular disease risk, particularly eating.

Sex, the Brain, and Susceptibility to Obesity
Sunday, Oct 15 1:30-2:30 pm

Holly Ingraham, PhD is a professor of cellular molecular pharmacology at UCSF School of Medicine. Dr. Ingraham’s lab investigates mammalian sex-differences and how hormone signaling in the brain and in the gut-brain axis affects sex-dependent physiological endpoints in females, especially during aging.

Sex, Drugs, and Metabolism – Impact of Gender Affirming Hormones on Obesity and Metabolism
Monday, Oct 16 5:30-6:30 pm

Michael S. Irwig, MD is a board-certified adult endocrinologist and Director of Transgender Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He also is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Irwig has provided endocrine care to >350 gender diverse patients and researches the effects of gender-affirming hormone therapy. Other research interests include men with persistent sexual and non-sexual side effects of finasteride and men with borderline testosterone levels.

Around the Corner and Into the Future – What’s in the Pipeline for Anti-Obesity Medications?
Sunday, Oct 15 1:30-2:30 pm

Ania Jastreboff, MD, PhD is an Obesity Medicine physician-scientist, board certified in adult Endocrinology and Metabolism, Pediatric Endocrinology, and Obesity Medicine.  Her research includes both large, multi-center clinical outcomes trials using anti-obesity medication as well as neuroimaging studies (fMRI and PET) examining the neurobiology underlying obesity and the mechanisms of anti-obesity medications. Recently, Dr. Jastreboff served as the lead author on the SURMOUNT-1 trial investigating novel GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist, tirzepatide, for the treatment of obesity (Jastreboff, et al., NEJM, 2022). Clinically, Dr. Jastreboff specializes in sophisticated use of anti-obesity medication combinations to help patients reach their weight and health goals.

Around the Corner and Into the Future – What’s in the Pipeline for Anti-Obesity Medications?
Sunday, Oct 15 1:30-2:30 pm

Lee Kaplan, MD, PhD, FTOS is the Director of The Obesity and Metabolism Institute and Director of the Boston Course in Obesity Medicine. He was the Founding Director of the MGH Weight Center, Founding Director of the Obesity, Metabolism and Nutrition Institute and Founding Director of the Obesity Medicine Fellowship Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Blackburn Course in Obesity Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is the chair of the U.S. Obesity Medicine Fellowship Council, a past member of the NIDDK Advisory Council and was the 2019-2020 president of The Obesity Society.

The Time Is Now – Obesity-centric Approach for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes
Monday, Oct 16 1:30-2:30 pm

Ildiko Lingvay, MD, MPH, MSCS is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Professor in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Lingvay is the Medical Director of the Office of Clinical Trials Management, overseeing all clinical trials at UT Southwestern. She is Board Certified both in Obesity Medicine as well as Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism. Dr. Lingvay leads a program that focuses on clinical research in the field of obesity and type 2 diabetes, with the ultimate goal to improve the lives of all patients who suffer so many health consequences as a result of their medical problems. Her research interests span the spectrum from pathophysiology of the disease to treatment algorithms and comparative effectiveness of various therapeutic approaches.

The Ripple Effect – Health Behavior Change within Family Systems
Monday, Oct 16 5:30-6:30 pm

Keeley Pratt, PhD is an Associate Professor, family scientist, and family therapist at The Ohio State University with more than a decade of experience conducting clinical research with patients and their family members in pediatric and adult weight management and bariatric surgery contexts. Her scholarship is focused on three main areas: (1) investigating family factors associated with positive behavior change and weight outcomes, (2) designing clinical interventions that benefit patients and their family members in weight management, and (3) addressing social determinants of health in patients’ neighborhoods and communities that create barriers to engagement and positive patient outcomes.

Monogenic, Syndromic and Hypothalamic Obesity
Monday, Oct 16 5:30-6:30 pm

Jesse Richards, DO is an ABOM Board Certified physician at the University of Oklahoma where he serves as the Director of Obesity Medicine as part of a comprehensive bariatric center. Dr. Richards is passionate about teaching the many student and residents who work with him.

Look Who’s Talking – Extracellular Vesicles as a Mechanism of Interorgan Crosstalk
Monday, Oct 16 1:30-2:30 pm

Philipp Scherer, PhD is Professor and Director of the Touchstone Diabetes Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Throughout his career, he has maintained an interest in processes related to cellular and systemic energy homeostasis, with a special focus on the adipocyte. He identified adiponectin, one of the first secretory factors to be described that almost exclusively originate in adipose tissue and which is currently widely studied by many different research groups.

Two Birds, One Stone – Obesity Prevention in Today’s Mental Health Crisis
Monday, Oct 16 1:30-2:30 pm

Lauren Shomaker, PhD is a child clinical psychologist specializing in pediatric obesity and eating behavior. For the past decade, she has been a professor at Colorado State University, where she collaborates with investigators at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado, to study the role of depression and stress in adolescent cardiometabolic health.

Achieving Health Equity in Food Justice
Monday, Oct 16 5:30-6:30 pm

Karen Watson is a communications strategist who has long focused on addressing behavior change in order to improve nutrition-related impact of diseases in vulnerable populations. Working with the White House and the Partnership for a Healthier America, she initiated, designed, and executed the Drink Up! public health campaign to promote drinking water to address obesity, as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. The national campaign successfully created a lasting impact on awareness of drinking water to improve health in the United States.

The Brain and Genetic Pathways to Obesity
Monday, Oct 16 1:30-2:30 pm

Giles Yeo, PhD has 25 years of experience studying the genetics of obesity and brain control of food intake. His research focuses on the influence of genes on our feeding behavior and body weight. He is currently Professor of Molecular Neuroendocrinology at the University of Cambridge, and the Honorary President of the British Dietetic Association.