Meet Our Keynote Speakers
From 2000-2010, Dr. Eisenberg served as the Bernard Osher Distinguished Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, founding director of the Osher Research Center and the founding chief of the Division for Research and Education in Complementary and Integrative Medical Therapies at Harvard Medical School. He simultaneously served as the director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the Brigham & Women’s Hospital. His current educational and research interests include: Novel multi-disciplinary strategies (aka “Teaching Kitchen curricula”) to optimize lifestyle and self-care behaviors. These models include practical information about nutrition, cooking, exercise, optimal use of IT, mindfulness and behavioral change strategies to prevent, treat and manage common medical conditions and optimize wellbeing; and, Optimal models of “Integrative Care.”
David is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Medical School. He completed his fellowship training in general internal medicine and primary care and is Board Certified in Internal Medicine. In 1979, under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, David served as the first U.S. medical exchange student to the People’s Republic of China. In 1993, he was the medical advisor to the PBS Series, Healing and the Mind with Bill Moyers.
He has served as an advisor to the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and the Federation of State Medical Boards with regard to complementary, alternative and integrative medicine research, education and policy. From 2003-2005 David served on a National Academy of Sciences Committee responsible for the Institute of Medicine Report entitled, ―The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine by the American Public. He recently completed his tenure as a member of the US National Board of Medical Examiners Clinical Skills Committee and its Communications Task Force.
David has authored numerous scientific articles involving complementary and integrative medical therapies and continues to pursue research, educational and clinical programs relating to integrative and lifestyle medicine. As the son and grandson of professional bakers, David aspires to bring together the culinary and medical communities to enhance comprehensive health care for all.
Broad Leib is recognized as a national leader in Food Law and Policy. She was named by Fortune and Food & Wine to their list of 2016's Most Innovative Women in Food and Drink. The list highlights women who had the most transformative impact in the last year on what the public eats and drinks. Broad Leib was one of the inaugural recipients of Harvard President Drew Faust’s Climate Change Solutions Fund in 2015. Broad Leib’s project, “Reducing Food Waste as a Key to Addressing Climate Change,” was one of seven chosen from around the university to confront the challenge of climate change by leveraging the clinic’s food law and policy expertise to identify systemic solutions that can reduce food waste, which is a major driver of climate change. Broad Leib’s work has been covered in such media outlets as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, The Guardian, TIME, Politico, and the Washington Post. She has appeared on CBS This Morning, CNN, The Today Show, and MSNBC.
Broad Leib founded the Academy of Food Law and Policy, and from 2016-2019, served as Founding Co-Chair of the Academy's Board of Trustees. She is the faculty supervisor for the Harvard Mississippi Delta Project and Harvard Food Law Society.
Before joining the Harvard faculty, Broad Leib spent two years in Clarksdale, Mississippi as the Joint Harvard Law School/Mississippi State University Delta Fellow, serving as Director of the Delta Directions Consortium, a group of university and foundation leaders who collaborate to improve public health and foster economic development in the Delta. In that role, she worked with community members and outside partners to design and implement programmatic and policy interventions on a range of health and economic issues in the region, with a focus on the food system. She received her B.A. from Columbia University and her J.D. from Harvard Law School, cum laude.
Francis Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), appointed Christopher J. Lynch, Ph.D., as Acting Director of the NIH Office of Nutrition Research in January 2021.
Dr. Lynch completed Ph.D. studies at Northeastern University on the Regulation of Hepatic Glucose Output in 1983 and continued to work on this topic and hepatic calcium signaling at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He joined the faculty of Penn State University College of Medicine in 1988, where he led collaborative efforts to advance understanding of the role of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) in nutrient signaling and insulin resistance, metabolism of BCAAs, the metabolic side effects of antipsychotics, and the mechanisms of metabolic improvements after gastric bypass surgery. During his tenure at Penn State, Dr. Lynch co-chaired the Nutrition Task Force for Medical Curriculum and the medical school course in Gastroenterology and Nutrition along with graduate student courses and training. He served on the Institutional Review Board for the College of Medicine, Co-Chaired the Scientific Review Committee for Internal Research Funding and served on 40 NIH Study Sections and Panels.
In 2016, Dr. Lynch joined NIDDK in the dual role as the chief of a new Nutrition Research Branch of their Digestive Diseases and Nutrition Division, and Director, of the NIDDK Office of Nutrition Research. In that role he served as the Exec. Sec. of the Nutrition Research Task Force (NRTF) which developed the first ever Strategic Plan for NIH Nutrition Research and stood up seven trans-NIH implementation workgroups to guide its implementation. He also collaboratively led efforts to develop a common fund project that was announced in 2020, Nutrition for Precision Health, powered by the All of Us research program. The first ancillary study nested in All of Us.
disease health disparities. Dr. Farmer is an alumni of Howard University College of Medicine, received her internal medicine training from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital,
and held a prior appointment at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. She has also completed fellowship level training in Integrative Medicine from the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona and Duke University Integrative Medicine.
Dr. Metlay received his bachelor's degree from Yale University, his PhD in Immunology from Rockefeller University, and his MD from Cornell University Medical College. He completed residency and chief residency in internal medicine at the University of Pittsburgh and a fellowship in general internal medicine and epidemiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. He also received a Master of Science in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Metlay's research spans two major areas, the epidemiology of drug resistance among common bacterial respiratory pathogens, particularly S. pneumoniae and the development and evaluation of interventions to improve the quality of treatment decisions for respiratory tract infections. This research has led to numerous federal grants from NIAID, CDC, and AHRQ and roles on national advisory committees in the area of infectious diseases epidemiology.
Dr. Metlay is dedicated to education and mentorship. He has been recognized with a number of honors including the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2008 (Pen's highest teaching honor), the Mid-Career Research and Mentorship Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine in 2010, and the Arthur Asbury Outstanding Faculty Mentorship Award from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 2011.
Dr. Collings has board certifications in Cardiology, Internal Medicine, Nuclear Cardiology and Lifestyle Medicine. She holds a graduate degree in exercise physiology, as well as professional culinary and coaching certifications. She received her education from the University of California, University of Wisconsin, and Stanford University Medical Center and is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha National Medical Honor Society.
Dr. Collings has over 30 years’ experience as a general, invasive, and imaging cardiologist. She has served in multiple capacities and leadership positions including Founding Medical Director of El Camino Hospital Cardiopulmonary Wellness Center and as a member of the ACLM Board of Directors for 6 years. As ACLM president, she is focused on guiding lifestyle medicine into mainstream medicine, scaling programs and practitioners nationwide, and bringing awareness to lifestyle medicine as the primary solution to address chronic disease epidemics through the lens of personalized and population health. Dr. Collings serves in other nonprofit board and advisory positions including with the True Health Initiative, the Physical Activity Alliance, and the Global Positive Health Institute. She has advised on digital health platforms to optimize clinical, coaching, and client engagement features.
Dr. Guerrero received her MD from UCLA School of Medicine, and her MPH in Health Services Organization from the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health. Dr. Guerrero’s current work focuses on building caregiver skills, family cohesion, and caregiver knowledge to target childhood obesity among families residing in East Los Angeles.
Dr. Essel has dedicated his career to advocacy/research around healthcare training, health disparities, and community engagement, with expertise and national recognition in the areas of addressing obesity stigma, and food insecurity in families. Dr. Essel sits on the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Obesity Solutions Lived Experience Innovation Collaborative and was nationally recognized by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation for helping to create an innovative curriculum to enhance pediatric resident trainee skills on obesity management. He also co-authored a national toolkit for pediatric providers to address food insecurity in their clinical settings with the AAP and the Food Research & Action Center.
Dr. Essel earned a BS from Emory University with a focus on Human Biology and Anthropology, and earned his Medical Degree and Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology from GWU. He completed pediatric residency and General Academic Pediatric fellowship training at Children’s National Hospital.
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Dr. Stone was recognized by Washingtonian magazine as a Top Doctor in 2012 2017,2018,2019,2020
Dr. Albin earned her medical degree at George Washington University School of Medicine. She completed a residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, where she served as Chief Resident of Pediatrics. She is certified by the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, as well as the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine.
Dr. Albin launched UT Southwestern’s Culinary Medicine Program and serves as the Director of the program’s education, research, clinical, and equity missions. Dr. Albin is a certified culinary medicine specialist and serves on the national advisory board for the Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist program. She studies the impact of hands-on culinary medicine classes in medical education and patient care settings.
Dr. Albin is passionate about nutrition, lifestyle, and environmental influences on health, and she seeks to drive positive change at a population health level. She believes food as medicine offers a unique opportunity to integrate the clinical, educational, and research aspects of this work through the training of future health care professionals, delivery of innovative patient support in lifestyle behavior change, and high-quality research that uplifts the health of communities.More information coming soon.
Currently, she works as a consultant focused on building sustainable nutrition initiatives with plant-based brands, co-developed the first Certificate of Training on Sustainable Food Systems for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, teaches at California State University, Los Angeles and USC Keck School of Medicine.
Sherene serves as the Chair for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Vegetarian Practice Group, the Nutrition Advisor for the Plant Based Foods Association and on the Advisory Council for Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine on Universal Meals. She has a M.S. in Nutrition from California State University, Los Angeles, B.S. in Public Policy and Business Law from USC, Chef’s Training from the Natural Gourmet Institute and Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate from Cornell.
