Neal Barnard, MD, FACC

Dr. Barnard has led numerous research studies investigating the effects of diet on diabetes, body weight, hormonal symptoms, and chronic pain, including a groundbreaking study of dietary interventions in type 2 diabetes, funded by the National Institutes of Health, that paved the way for viewing type 2 diabetes as a potentially reversible condition for many patients. Dr. Barnard has authored more than 100 scientific publications and 20 books for medical and lay readers, and is the editor in chief of the Nutrition Guide for Clinicians, a textbook made available to all U.S. medical students. As president of the Physicians Committee, Dr. Barnard leads programs advocating for preventive medicine, good nutrition, and higher ethical standards in research. His research contributed to the acceptance of plant-based diets in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. In 2015, he was named a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. In 2016, he founded the Barnard Medical Center in Washington, DC, as a model for making nutrition a routine part of all medical care. Working with the Medical Society of the District of Columbia and the American Medical Association, Dr. Barnard has authored key resolutions, now part of AMA policy, calling for a new focus on prevention and nutrition in federal policies and in medical practice. In 2018, he received the Medical Society of the District of Columbia’s Distinguished Service Award. He has hosted four PBS television programs on nutrition and health. Originally from Fargo, North Dakota, Dr. Barnard received his M.D. degree at the George Washington University School of Medicine and completed his residency at the same institution. He practiced at St. Vincent’s Hospital in New York before returning to Washington to found the Physicians Committee.

Ashley Gearhardt, PhD

Ashley Gearhardt, Ph.D., is a Professor of Psychology in the Clinical Science area at the University of Michigan. She also earned her B.A. in psychology from The University of Michigan as an undergraduate. While working on her doctorate in clinical psychology at Yale University, Dr. Gearhardt became interested in the possibility that certain foods may be capable of triggering an addictive process. To explore this further, she developed the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) to operationalize addictive eating behaviors, which has been linked with more frequent binge eating episodes, an increased prevalence of obesity and patterns of neural activation implicated in other addictive behaviors. It has been cited over 800 times and translated into over ten foreign languages. Her areas of research also include investigating how food advertising activates reward systems to drive eating behavior and the development of food preferences and eating patterns in infants. She has published over 100 academic publications and her research has been featured on media outlets, such as ABC News, Good Morning America, the Today Show, the Wall Street Journal, and NPR.

David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD

David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD is an endocrinologist and researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. He holds the rank of Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Ludwig is founder of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program, one of the country’s oldest and largest multidisciplinary clinics for the care of overweight children. He co-directs the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. For more than 25 years, Dr. Ludwig has studied the effects of diet on metabolism, body weight, and risk for chronic disease – with a special focus on low-glycemic index, low-carbohydrate, and ketogenic diets. He has made major contributions to development of the “carbohydrate-insulin model,” an alternative perspective on the pathogenesis of obesity. In addition, he conducted some of the original studies linking sugar-sweetened beverages and fast food to obesity. Described as an “obesity warrior” by Time Magazine, Dr. Ludwig has fought for fundamental policy changes to improve the food environment. Dr. Ludwig received the E.V. McCollum Award (2008) of the American Society for Nutrition, the Oded Bar-Or Award (2015) of The Obesity Society, and the Samuel J. Fomon Nutrition Award of the American Academy of Pediatrics (2019). He has been Principal Investigator on numerous grants with 20+ years of NIH funding and has raised over $50 million in philanthropic support. He coauthored over 250 scientific articles, many in the world’s leading medical and scientific journals. He was a Contributing Writer for JAMA and presently serves as associate editor at American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. He has written 3 books for the public, including the #1 New York Times bestseller Always Hungry? Conquer Cravings, Retrain Your Fat Cells, and Lose Weight Permanently (Grand Central Publishing, 2016). He appears frequently in national and international print and broadcast media. Dr. Ludwig resides part time in Denmark, with a joint appointment at Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen.

Bobby Mukkamala, MD

Dr. Bobby Mukkamala a board-certified otolaryngologist—head and neck surgeon—in private practice in his hometown of Flint, Michigan, is the president of the American Medical Association.    A passionate advocate for public health, Dr. Mukkamala is deeply committed to creating a more sustainable health system that better supports physicians and more effectively serves the needs of people and communities. Dr. Mukkamala joined AMA’s Board of Trustees in 2017 and has been active in the AMA and organized medicine since residency. He is a past Michigan representative to the AMA Young Physicians Section, and a past recipient of the AMA Foundation’s “Excellence in Medicine” Leadership Award.   After completing his residency in Chicago, he returned to Flint to set up a private practice dedicated to addressing urgent health needs of the community. He now shares an office with his wife, Dr. Nita Kulkarni, an obstetrician-gynecologist.   Dr. Mukkamala previously served as chair of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint where he guided its focus on funding projects to reduce the effects of lead in children. Today, he continues to serve on the foundation’s committee board as it now works to increase high-quality early education opportunities for children. He also co-chairs efforts of the CRIM fitness foundation to incorporate mindfulness in its efforts to improve community health. And recently joined the board of the CS Mott Foundation headquartered in downtown Flint but doing work across the world to build a just, equitable and sustainable society.