Committees

Neal Barnard, MD, FACC is the President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and Barnard Medical Center in Washington DC, and Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine. He has led numerous research studies investigating the effects of diet on diabetes, body weight, and chronic pain, including a groundbreaking NIH-funded study that paved the way for viewing type 2 diabetes as a potentially reversible condition for many patients. He has authored more than 150 scientific publications, as well as a number of books.

Tina Chiu, PhD, RD is Associate Investigator at the National Health Research Institutes, within the National Center for Geriatrics and Welfare Research. She investigates how plant-based diets impact health and wellness through prospective cohorts and randomized controlled trials. She is building a new cohort – the Tzu Chi Aging Study – in Taiwan to study how diets, lifestyle, and volunteerism impact healthy aging. She is enthusiastic about transforming communities in Taiwan into Healthy and Compassionate Longevity Blue Zones.

Winston J Craig, PhD, MPH, RD is Professor Emeritus of Nutrition at Andrews University School of Population Health, and Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Loma Linda University. His research focuses on plant-based diets in chronic disease prevention, including the health-promoting properties of phytochemicals. He is a registered dietitian and member of the American College of Nutrition and the American Society of Nutrition. He has authored over 25 scholarly articles and over 300 nutrition articles for health publications. He co-authored the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets in 2009 and 2016.

Gary Fraser, MD, PhD is a Distinguished Professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine and School of Public Health. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association. His professional research foci have been nutritional epidemiology, vegetarian nutrition, life expectancy, cancer and cardiovascular endpoints. For 36 years, he has served as the Director of Adventist Health Studies at Loma Linda. His work, which includes over 285 peer-reviewed publications, focuses on the health impacts of vegetarian nutrition and lifestyle on chronic diseases and longevity.

Frank Hu, MD, MPH, PhD is the Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Chair of the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is a world-leading researcher in diet, chronic disease prevention, and healthy aging. He has published over 1,000 scientific papers and is among the 10 most cited researchers in medicine and public health in the world (H-index 320). His work has significantly influenced national and international dietary guidelines, including his role on the 2015 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.

Markus Keller, PhD is the Managing and Scientific Director of the Research Institute for Plant-based Nutrition (IFPE) in Germany. His research focuses on vegetarianism/veganism, alternative diets, and sustainable nutrition, resulting in numerous publications. He served as the academic director of the B.A. program Vegan Food Management at the Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (FHM), where in 2018 he was appointed the world's first Professor of Vegan Nutrition. He is a lecturer at the Wilhelm Buechner Hochschule and the co-author of several German-language standard reference books.

I appreciate the ability to develop curriculum at universities related to Plant-Based Nutrition and Sustainable Food Systems. These are courses I already teach at my university to nutrition & dietetics students, and I truly believe these are options not available at many universities and a real gap.

Timothy Key, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Epidemiology at University of Oxford Nuffield Department of Population Health within the Cancer Epidemiology Unit. He is trained in veterinary medicine, nutrition and epidemiology. He works on diet, hormones and the etiology of cancer, and the health status of vegetarians and vegans. He established the EPIC-Oxford long-term study of vegetarians in the 1990s, with key findings on cancer, cardiometabolic and musculo-skeletal health, and most recently worked on the Cancer Risk in Vegetarians international consortium.

Alice H. Lichtenstein, D.Sc., PhD is a Senior Scientist and Leader of the Diet & Chronic Disease Prevention for Healthy Aging Directive at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging and Stanley N. Gershoff Professor of Nutrition Science and Policy at the Friedman School, both at Tufts University. Her research focuses on the interplay between diet quality and cardiometabolic health, and challenges of conducting systematic reviews in the field of nutrition.

Mark Messina, PhD, MS is Senior Research Fellow at the Soy Nutrition Institute Global and Adjunct Associate Professor at Loma Linda University School of Public Health. His work focuses on the health effects of soy foods and soybean components such as isoflavones. He has published 125 articles and book chapters for health professionals and has given more than 800 presentations to both consumer and professional groups in 58 countries.  Dr. Messina is the chairperson of the editorial advisory board for The Soy Connection, a quarterly newsletter that reaches over 250,000 health professionals.

Jordi Salas-Salvadó, MD, PhD is Distinguished Professor of Nutrition and Director of the Human Nutrition Unit at Rovira i Virgili University, ICREA Academia Research Professor, and Principal Investigator of the Nutrition Programme of CIBEROBN. He is Director of the Catalan Nutrition Centre, President of the International Nut and Dried Fruit Council Foundation, and Vice-President of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group. He is a principal investigator of the PREDIMED study and has published >950 scientific articles. His research focuses on clinical trials to evaluate the effects of foods, dietary compounds and dietary patterns on cardiometabolic disease.

John Sievenpiper, MD, PhD is a Professor at University of Toronto Departments of Nutritional Sciences and Medicine, and Staff Physician and Scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital. He leads an internationally recognized research program using RCTs and epidemiological approaches to address questions related to diet and cardiometabolic disease prevention. He has received numerous awards. He is directly involved in the development of clinical practice guidelines. He has authored >300 papers and been recognized as a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher and Stanford/Elsevier Top 2% Scientist.

Marco Springmann, PhD is a Senior Researcher in Environment and Health at the University of Oxford Environmental Change Institute and Professorial Research Fellow in Climate Change, Food Systems and Health at University College London Institute for Global Health. His research examines how food systems impact health and the environment. He has published in leading journals, including Nature, Science, and The Lancet. He has contributed to major reports, including the EAT-Lancet Commission on Healthy Diets from Sustainable Food Systems, the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, and the Global Nutrition Report.

Connie M. Weaver, PhD is a Distinguished Research Professor in Exercise and Nutritional Sciences at San Diego State University. She is an elected member of The National Academy of Medicine and fellow of the American Society for Nutrition, the Institute of Food Technologists, and the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research.  She is a member of the Science Advisory Boards of FDA and Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center and past president of the American Society for Nutrition. She has extensive experience conducting dietary intervention studies. Her research focuses on women's health, botanicals, and age-related diseases.

Sujatha Rajaram, PhD is a Professor of Nutrition and Director of the Doctoral Programs at Loma Linda University School of Public Health. Her research focuses on plant-based diets and plant foods like nuts, berries, and soy on cardiometabolic health, cognition, and immunity. She has conducted over 20 RCTs with over 100 publications, including many in leading medical/nutrition journals. She was the chair of the program planning committee of the 4th-7th ICVN helping advance evidence-based vegetarian nutrition science for human and planetary health.

Edward Bitok, DrPH, MS, RDN serves as the Chair and Program Director of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at the Loma Linda University School of Allied Health Professions. He is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, researcher, and educator. His work focuses on vegetarian nutrition, cardiometabolic health, healthy aging, and nutrition education. He has contributed to major clinical trials and numerous peer-reviewed publications.

Ujué Fresán, PharmD, MPH, PhD is a researcher at the Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA, Spain), where she leads the “Study and Promotion of Sustainable Diets” research line. Her career has been fully dedicated to dietary sustainability, integrating epidemiology, life cycle assessment, and interventions to promote sustainable diets, with experience at leading institutions worldwide. Recently, she was one of the recipients of the prestigious L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Prize.

Julie Jones, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Loma Linda University School of Medicine and School of Allied Health Professions. She completed a fellowship in Breast Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. She practiced breast surgery for approximately 10 years and then received a PhD in Nutrition at Loma Linda University. She currently divides her time between the Loma Linda School of Medicine and the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics, teaching anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pharmacology, and research proposal writing.

Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, MBA is the Director of Clinical Research at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. She is a board-certified endocrinologist, with a PhD in human physiology and pathophysiology, and board certification in lifestyle medicine. She has published 100 scientific papers in peer-reviewed medical journals. A member of the American Diabetes Association and chair of the board of the Diabetes and Nutrition Study Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes, she is directly involved in the process of updating the recommendations for people with diabetes.

Michael Orlich, MD, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Preventive Medicine at Loma Linda University School of Medicine and School of Public Health. He is a physician with triple board certification in Preventive Medicine, Family Medicine, and Obesity Medicine. His research on vegetarian dietary patterns and chronic disease outcomes has been published in leading journals, drawing on his long-standing involvement with the Adventist Health Study-2. He practices at LLUH Center for Health Promotion and directs the fourth-year medical student clerkship in Preventive Medicine and Public Health.

Sapna Peruvemba, MS, RDN is a registered dietitian and PhD candidate in Nutrition at Loma Linda University School of Public Health within the Environmental Nutrition academic research group. She has served as a clinician for multiple nutrition intervention trials. Currently, she is a lecturer in sustainable food systems and is conducting her dissertation research on the impact of a food guide that integrates human health and environmental sustainability on dietary choices.

Joan Sabaté MD, DrPH is a Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at Loma Linda University School of Public Health and a board-certified physician in Internal Medicine. He led a nutrition intervention trial that directly linked the consumption of walnuts to significant reductions in serum cholesterol. He has served as principal investigator of many human nutrition intervention trials investigating the health effects of nuts and other plant foods. He has authored >200 high-impact research articles (h-index 85, >45,000 citations) and was a member of the US 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.