People
Obesity National Advisory Council (NAC)
NICHQ's National Advisory Council (NAC) is a group of national experts from diverse backgrounds who bring unique knowledge, skills, and connections to aid the organization in accelerating improvement in childhood obesity prevention and treatment. The NAC serves to make recommendations and provide key guidance to NICHQ on our obesity work.
Brook Belay MD, MPH
Senior Service Fellow, Obesity Prevention and Control Branch
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Dr. Belay is a Senior Service Fellow in CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. Dr. Belay works on a variety of initiatives that focus on identifying and promoting innovative strategies in the health care setting.
Debbie Chang MPH
Senior Vice President and Executive Director of Nemours Health and Prevention Services, Nemours
Katherine Kaufer Christoffel MD, MPH
Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC), Children's Memorial Hospital, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
Katherine Kaufer Christoffel, MD, MPH is a Professor of Pediatrics and Preventive Medicine, and the Director of the Community-Engaged Research Center of the NUCATS Institute. Dr. Christoffel is also Deputy Director of the Feinberg School of Medicine’s Programs in Public Health, in the Department of Preventive Medicine. In addition to her teaching commitments, Dr. Christoffel serves as the Director for the Center on Obesity Management and Prevention (COMP) and Medical Director for the Consortium on Lowering Obesity in Chicago Children (CLOCC) at the Children’s Memorial Hospital and Research Center in Chicago. She is also an attending pediatrician at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago.
Dr. Christoffel’s career has included research based in primary care practices, schools, and community based organizations. She has documented cholesterol screening guideline effects in primary care practice, intentional and unintentional injury patterns in the US and Chicago, and clarified family level risk factors for pedestrian injury. Her current work examines clinical, family, and community level obesity correlates in community samples. Dr. Christoffel has also established innovative and enduring clinical, research, and advocacy programs including the Children’s Memorial Hospital (CMH) Nutrition Evaluation Clinic, the Pediatric Practice Research Group, and several programs that grew into the endowed Smith Child Health Research Program at the Children’s Memorial Research Center (CMRC). As deputy director of FSM’s Programs in Public Health, she oversees community and international education for the Feinberg School's Public Health students. She has been principal investigator on federal grants from NICHD, MCHB, AHRQ, and on many innovation projects funded by philanthropy. Dr. Christoffel has mentored fellows and junior faculty who became independent researchers in areas ranging from child development to injury prevention and practice-based research.
Bonnie Gance-Cleveland PhD, RNC, PNP, FAAN
Associate Professor, Director, Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children, Teens and Families, College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, Arizona State University
Dr. Gance-Cleveland brings many years of experience as a pediatric nurse practitioner in clinical, research, and academic settings. She served as the Research Chair for NAPNAP’s obesity prevention guidelines published in 2006 and her contributions on the development of these guidelines led to her selection by the AMA Expert Writing Group for recommendations on prevention of childhood obesity published in Pediatrics in 2007. Her extensive publication record includes articles and book chapters on school-based health centers, motivational interviewing as a strategy to enhance families’ adherence to treatment regimens, faculty practice, and children with addicted parents. Her recent funding has focused on technology to support provider adherence to the obesity guidelines, school-based obesity prevention, substance abuse prevention, school health, and family-centered care.
William Dietz MD, PhD
Chief, Division of Nutrition and Physical Activity, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
William H. Dietz, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity at the CDC. Prior to his appointment to the CDC, he was a Professor of Pediatrics at the Tuft′s University School of Medicine, and Director of Clinical Nutrition at the Floating Hospital of New England Medical Center Hospitals. He received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, a recipient of the Holroyd-Sherry award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for his contributions to the field of children and the media, and the recipient of the 2006 Nutrition Research award from the AAP for outstanding research in pediatric nutrition.
Beth Dworetzky MS
Project Director, Mass Family Voices, Federation for Children with Special Needs
Ms. Dworetzky is the Project Director of the Massachusetts Family-to-Family Health Information Center, a project of Mass Family Voices @ Federation for Children with Special Needs. She promotes awareness of and access to Medical Home through her work at the Family-to-Family Health Information Center, with her contributions to Bright Futures Family Matters, the publication of the Family Voices IMPACT project, and with her work on the Family-Centered Care Self-Assessment Tools for Family Voices. Beth is the parent of a young adult son with complex health needs.
Sandy Hassink MD, FAAP
Director of the Weight Management Program, Nemours Biomedical Research, Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children
Jonathan Klein MD, MPH
Director, Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence and Associate Executive Director, American Academy of Pediatrics
Dr. Klein is Associate Executive Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and Director of the AAP Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence. The AAP Julius B. Richmond Center is a national center dedicated to the elimination of children’s exposure to tobacco and second hand smoke, funded by the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute and the American Legacy Foundation.
Dr. Klein is an expert in adolescent medicine and child and adolescent health services research. His research addresses tobacco prevention and control, access and quality of care, obesity screening in primary care, and other child and adolescent preventive services.
Dr. Klein attended Brandeis University, UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School, and the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed his residency in Pediatrics and a chief residency at the Boston Floating Hospital, New England Medical Center, and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He joined the University of Rochester faculty in 1992 where he was a professor of Pediatrics, Preventive and Community Medicine, and Family Medicine and then became Associate Executive Director of the American Academy of Pediatrics in September 2009.
Lenna Liu MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development, Odessa Brown Children's Clinic
Dr. Liu is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine and Seattle Children’s Hospital. Dr. Liu is active locally and nationally on childhood obesity prevention and management efforts, particularly with an emphasis on health disparities and low-income populations. She is involved in the prevention and management of obesity in primary care settings, a family YMCA-based healthy lifestyle program, community-based nutrition and physical activity promotion projects, and clinical services for overweight youth. Dr. Liu is also co-investigator on the SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth study that examines rates of diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes, in children and adolescents.
David Ludwig MD, PhD
Director, Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) Program, Children's Hospital Boston, Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
David S. Ludwig, MD, PhD is a practicing pediatrician and researcher at Children’s Hospital Boston. He holds the rank of Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Associate Professor of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health. Dr Ludwig is Founding Director of the Optimal Weight for Life (OWL) program at Children's Hospital, a multidisciplinary clinic for the care of overweight children. His research focuses on the effects of diet on hormones, metabolism and body weight. In particular, he has been developing a novel “low glycemic” diet (i.e., one that decreases the surge in blood sugar after meals) for the treatment of obesity and prevention of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. This work has been cited as providing a scientific basis for numerous popular diets, including The South Beach Diet, The Zone, SugarBusters, and The Glucose Revolution.
Described as an “obesity warrior” by Time Magazine, Dr. Ludwig has fought for fundamental policy changes to restrict food advertising directed at young children, improve quality of school nutrition programs and increase insurance reimbursement for obesity prevention and treatment programs. Dr. Ludwig is a fellow of The Obesity Society and recipient of the E.V. McCollum Award (2008) of the American Society for Nutrition. He is Principal Investigator on numerous grants from the National Institutes of Health and has published over 100 articles in scientific journals. Dr. Ludwig is author of a book on childhood obesity for parents entitled Ending the Food Fight: Guide Your Child to a Healthy Weight in a Fast Food/Fake Food World (Houghton Mifflin, 2007). He appears frequently in national print and broadcast media.
Victoria Rogers MD, FAAP
Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center
Dr. Victoria Rogers is the Director of the Kids CO-OP at The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center. There, she oversees the development, coordination, and promotion of community-oriented, pediatric healthcare initiatives. Over the past few years, Dr. Rogers has focused her efforts on combating the childhood obesity epidemic. Some of the state-wide initiatives targeting childhood obesity that she has been involved with include: the Countdown to a Healthy ME Program at The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital at Maine Medical Center, the Maine Youth Overweight Collaborative (MYOC), and 5-2-1-0 Goes to School. At a national level, she is involved with the Childhood Obesity Action Network. She is also the Medical Director to the Let’s Go! Initiative. Let’s Go! is a community initiative funded by local business and healthcare partners in the Greater Portland, Maine area. Let’s Go! is working in the healthcare sector, schools, childcare settings, workplace and communities to increase healthy eating and physical activity for youth and families. Most recently Dr. Rogers has been asked to participate in the American Academy of Pediatrics Obesity Leadership Workgroup, that is a cadre of expert consultants upon which the AAP calls on for expert opinion, review, spokespersons, etc.
Lisa Simpson MB, BCh, MPH, FAAP
Director, Child Policy Research Center, Professor, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, University of Cincinnati
Dr. Simpson is the National Director for Child Health Policy at NICHQ. She holds the ACH Guild Endowed Chair in Child Health Policy at All Children's Hospital and the University of South Florida, Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Simpson, a board-certified pediatrician, was formerly the Deputy Director at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality at the US Department of Health and Human Services. She has served as a Clinical Assistant Professor for John Hopkins University School of Public Health and University of Hawaii's Schools of Public Health and Medicine. She has received numerous awards including the Excellence in Public Service Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Senior Executive Service Meritorious Presidential Rank Award, and the DHHS Secretary's Distinguished Service Award for the development of a user-driven and integrated planning, budget and evaluation strategy for the Agency.
Elsie Taveras MD
Assistant Professor of Ambulatory Care and Prevention and Pediatrics, Co-Director, DACP's Obesity Prevention Program, Harvard Medical School, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention
Dr. Taveras is an Assistant Professor of both Population Medicine and Pediatrics, and is a pediatrician and health services researcher who works with DPM's Center for Child Health Care Studies. She also co-directs DPM's Obesity Prevention Program. Her research interests include nutrition and physical activity as they affect child health and childhood obesity prevention. Dr. Taveras is a recipient of the Physician Faculty Scholars Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to examine opportunities for childhood obesity prevention among underserved populations. Dr. Taveras trained in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston and Boston Medical Center and received her Master's Degree in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health. She is also the Director of the One Step Ahead clinic, a multidisciplinary childhood overweight prevention and early management program at Children's Hospital Boston.
Reginald Washington MD
Chief Medical Officer, Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children
Dr. Reginald Washington is clinical professor of pediatric cardiology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Chief Medical Officer of the Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children in Denver.
Dr. Washington has been chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Committee on Sports Medicine and Fitness, and co-chair of its National Task Force on Obesity. He also served as co-chair of the Commission on School Nutrition and Physical Activities for Denver Public Schools, and is the former President of the American Heart Association (AHA) of Colorado, and served on the National Board of Directors of the AHA.
Dr. Washington's publications include contributions to several textbooks, dozens of presentations at professional conferences and papers such as Guidelines for Pediatric Cardiovascular Centers (Pediatrics, 2002). His professional interests focus on exercise physiology of children, cholesterol and hypertension, and preventative cardiology.
Dr. Washington was a member of the Expert Committee on the Assessment and Prevention of Childhood Obesity convened by the American Medical Association, Centers for Disease Control, and Health Resources and Services Administration; a member of the Expert Panel on Cardiovascular Risk Reduction in Children convened by the National Institutes of Health; a member of the Measurement Advisory Panel on Childhood Obesity for the National Committee for Quality Assurance; and a member of the Expert Committee on Obesity for the American Academy of Pediatrics. He serves on the board of Action for Healthy Kids and serves as its chairman. He is a member of the Expert Panel on Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Children for the NIH.
Dr. Washington was named Cardiologist of the Year by HCA, The Healthcare Company (2004) and Physician of the Year by the National American Heart Association (1995). He has been chosen by 5280 Magazine as the Best Pediatric Cardiologist in Denver for seven years. In 2004 he was awarded the William E. Morgan Alumni Achievement Award from Colorado State University, where he received his B.S. He received his M.D. from the University of Colorado. In 2008 he was named a Champion in Healthcare by the Denver Business Journal.
