2009 Elections

Nominating Committee Candidates

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Rexford S. Ahima, MD, PhD
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA

Daniel H. Bessesen, MD
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO

Dympna Gallagher, EdD
Columbia University, New York, NY

Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD
University ofNorth Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC

Mary-Ellen Harper, PhD
University of Ottawa, ON, CA

Naima Moustaid-Moussa, PhD
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN

Anne E. Sumner, MD
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD

Andre Techernof, PhD
CHUL Research Center (CHUQ), Quebec City, CA

Rexford S. Ahima, MD, PhD

Background and Experience
Dr. Rexford Ahima is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.He received a BSC degree from the University of London, MD from the University of Ghana and PhD in Neuroscience from Tulane University in New Orleans. Dr. Ahima completed his residency training in internal medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, and subspecialty training in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. He was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation in 2005. Dr. Ahima is the director of the Obesity Unit of the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism, associate editor of Gastroenterology, and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Investigation and Endocrinology. Dr. Ahima is member of the Integrative Physiology of Obesity and Diabetes (IPOD) study section of the National Institutes of Health, Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), and National Institutes of Health Strategic Taskforce on Obesity and Diabetes. He is an attending endocrinologist at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and director of the Weight Management and Metabolism Clinic. His research which is funded by the National Institutes of Health is focused on how adipocyte hormones act in the brain to regulate feeding, the neuroendocrine axis, and glucose and lipid metabolism. He has published in leading journals, and been invited to speak at Keystone Symposia, Nobel Forum, Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences, and annual meetings of The Obesity Society (TOS), Endocrine Society, American Diabetes Association, and American Physiological Society.

Service to The Obesity Society
Dr. Ahima is a fellow of TOS, serves on the editorial board of Obesity Online, and has recently contributed a slide set on the central regulation of feeding.

Vision for The Obesity Society
As a basic scientist, clinician and member of several professional organizations, Dr. Ahima hopes to highlight the multidisciplinary approach to obesity. He will reach out to neuroscientists, physiologists, endocrinologists, diabetologists and other specialists to join TOS.

Daniel H. Bessesen, MD

Background and Experience
Dan Bessesen MD is currently Professor of Medicine in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Diabetes at the University of Colorado Denver and Chief of Endocrinology at Denver Health Medical Center. He is also Associate Director at the Colorado Center for Human Nutrition. He cares for patients and conducts patient oriented research with the support of the NIH. His research interests are dietary fat metabolism and physiological factors that promote or protect against weight gain.

Service to The Obesity Society
Dan has been a member of the Obesity Society since 1995 and has provided service in a number of areas including a member of the Council from 2004-06, Annual Meeting Planning Committee 2004-06, Pilot Project Review Committee 2006-present, Annual Meeting Abstract Reviewer 2005-present, Education Committee Chairman 2008-present, and Diversity Committee mentoring program 2008-present.

Vision for The Obesity Society
He feels that the leadership of the Obesity Society needs to maintain the longstanding focus on outstanding basic, clinical, behavioral and epidemiological research in obesity while also meeting the needs of those who are engaged in the clinical care of obese patients and relevant advocacy activities.

Dympna Gallagher, EdD

Background and Experience
Dympna Gallagher is an Associate Professor of Nutritional Medicine at Columbia University and is the Director of the Body Composition Unit at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital: a Core laboratory of the New York Obesity Research Center. She is also Associate Program Director of the Center's post-doctoral training grant in obesity. Dr. Gallagher's scientific interests are in the areas of energetics and body composition. She is particularly interested in the effect of body weight and body composition on health risk throughout the life cycle. Dr. Gallagher's scientific interests fall into the following categories: (a) resting energy expenditure at the organ/tissue level; (b) the composition of weight change in elderly, during growth and development, and during intentional weight loss (lifestyle intervention and bariatric surgery induced); and (c) the understanding of race differences in body composition. Dr. Gallagher has mentored graduate students, post-doctoral fellows, and advanced fellows receiving senior fellowship support. Dr. Gallagher is a highly productive investigator, publishes actively, and has had uninterrupted NIH competitive research funding over the past 12 years.

Service to The Obesity Society
Dr. Gallagher has been a member of The Obesity Society and has attended the annual meetings since 1994 which has involved presenting papers and serving as the moderator/chair for sessions. She serves as an ad hoc reviewer for the journal Obesity on a frequent basis.

Vision for The Obesity Society
As the obesity epidemic grows, so too must organizations such as The Obesity Society that can advocate for more research support and better health care in the obesity area with government and policy makers. I view The Obesity Society as playing a pivotal role in fostering and supporting research in obesity, supporting legislation that would enhance obesity prevention, such as culturally appropriate education beginning in early childhood with regards to healthy eating habits and regular physical activity in schools and communities. The society must continue to expand its membership by including many more disciplines whose research and interests could enhance the society's agendas. I believe that my strong organizational skills and leadership experiences would be an asset to The Obesity Society.

Penny Gordon-Larsen, PhD

Background and Experience
Penny Gordon-Larsen is an associate professor the Department of Nutrition in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a human biologist by training and her work integrates biological, behavioral, and environmental factors in understanding obesity and its consequences, with an emphasis on societal inequalities. One line of her NIH-funded research is aimed at understanding genetic variants influencing trajectories of weight gain across various race/ethnic groups and the environmental circumstances under which they are most relevant. A second line of NIH research includes Geographic Information Systems-derived research on neighborhood crime, facilities, and sociodemographics and their relationship to individual-level physical activity, diet, obesity, and cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors. She is on the Editorial Boards of the journals Obesity, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and Annals of Human Biology.

Service to The Obesity Society
Dr. Gordon-Larsen has been an active TOS member since 1998. She served on TOS Council from 2005 to 2008 and on the Annual Scientific Meeting Program Committee (2004 to 2007). She is currently Chair of the Pediatric Obesity Section and serves on the Diversity Committee, the Audit Committee, and the Scientific Review Committee.

Vision for The Obesity Society
Dr. Gordon-Larsen is committed to TOS as an interdisciplinary society devoted to basic, clinical, and epidemiological research aimed at understanding, preventing, and treating obesity from cell to society. She feels strongly that the organization must continue its excellence in its journal, scientific research meeting, promotion of obesity research, and in its professional education efforts, as well as efforts to promote and support young investigators. In the future, TOS must concentrate on financial development and forming strategic relationships with other scientific societies and professional organizations studying obesity and its consequences, while taking care to maintain the highest ethical standards and remain focused on what best serves the TOS membership.

Mary-Ellen Harper, PhD

Background and Experience
Mary-Ellen Harper is an Associate Professor of Biochemistry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa in Canada. Current research interests are mitochondrial energetics, proton leaks and the role of the uncoupling proteins; their fundamental mechanistic aspects are studied, and are examined in the contexts of obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, oxidative stress and aging. She has published 80 peer-reviewed papers or book chapters/collective works, and has lectured internationally on her research. Dr. Harper has served on many national and international grant review panels. Dr. Harper collaborates with clinical and basic research scientists internationally. Currently her research is funded through NSERC of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Institute of Nutrition Metabolism and Diabetes), Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario, and the NIH.

Service to The Obesity Society
Dr. Harper has been an active member of the Obesity Society/ NAASO for over 15 years.

Vision for The Obesity Society
Augmented professional interactions between basic scientists and clinicians, and increased educational outreach (e.g., to other societies, to governments, to the public).

Naima Moustaid-Moussa, PhD

Background and Experience
Naima Moustaid-Moussa received her Ph.D. in Endocrinology from the University of Paris, P&M Curie, France, in 1989. After a postdoctoral training in molecular nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, she joined the Nutrition Department faculty at the University of Tennessee in 1993. She is currently Professor in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture and Co-Director of the University of Tennessee Obesity Research Center. Her research focuses on the endocrine function of adipose tissue and its modulation by nutrient and hormones. Her research addresses mechanisms of nutrient and hormonal control of metabolic gene transcription and nutrient-gene interactions. Her primary interests include the role of adipokines in general and specifically angiotensins in obesity and insulin resistance. Her studies contributed to our understanding of the roles of the adipocyte angiotensinogen/angiotensin II in regulating insulin signaling, lipogenesis and inflammation in a receptor-dependent manner in adipose tissue.

Service to The Obesity Society
Her obesity research program has been continuously funded throughout her postgraduate and independent career by multiple agencies including the American Diabetes Association (Career Development Award), several awards from the American Heart Association (including an Established Investigator Grant) and from The United States Department of Agriculture. She received several awards including the 2007 University of Tennessee Chancellor's Award for Research and Creative Achievement; a Fulbright Scholarship and Invited Professorship at The University of Bordeaux, France. She co-edited two books: Nutrient-Gene Interactions in Health and Disease, CRC and Genomics and Proteomics in Nutrition, Marcel Dekker. She served on scientific review panel for the AHA, and several NIH study sections (Nutrition, Integrative Physiology of Obesity and Diabetes, Clinical Nutrition Research units, Obesity Nutrition Research Units and F31/F32 fellowships). She previously served on the International Congress on Obesity, as member of the adipose biology program committee and as session chair; and also chaired/co-chaired several sessions, mini-symposia and symposia at the American Diabetes Association, TOS/NAASO and participated in panel discussion of the TOS diversity and young investigators and has been a member and regular participant of the TOS meetings since Mid-90's. She also contributed significant service to related societies including as a Chair, steering committee member and advisory board member of the ASN nutrient-gene Interactions RIS; symposia and mini-symposia chair at Experimental Biology; co-organizer the 2005 FASEB summer conference on nutrient control of gene expression and signaling; she also previously served on the ASN program committee, ASN young investigators awards committee and ASN pre-doctoral fellowship Committee.

Vision for The Obesity Society
"I look forward to serving on this most important committee of TOS, the nominating committee, and help select future leaders of the society. Such selection is a crucial step in advancing our mission as the prime organization in multidisciplinary and science-based prevention and treatment of obesity, which will ultimately impact a significant number of lives. It is equally important that work of TOS members can be clearly disseminated through simple messages that the general public can use and benefit from".

Anne E. Sumner, MD

Background and Experience
Anne E. Sumner graduated from Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Sumner did a residency in internal medicine and two fellowships, the first fellowship was in nutrition and the second fellowship was in endocrinology. In the 1990's Dr. Sumner served as Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Chief of both Hypertension and Lipid Clinic at the Philadelphia VA Hospital. In 1998 Dr. Sumner moved to Bethesda to work at NIH, first as a clinical scientist than as a tenure track investigator.

Dr. Sumner's research career is focused on understanding insulin resistance and fat metabolism in blacks. Her goal is to refine the Metabolic Syndrome paradigm in order to achieve the most effective profile to predict and prevent cardiovascular disease and diabetes in people of African ancestry! For her work, Dr. Sumner, a fellow of the American Heart Association and the American College of Physicians, has received outstanding researcher awards from both the Association of Black Cardiologists and the International Society on Hypertension in Blacks. In addition, Dr. Sumner was recently elected to the Board of Governors of the Association of Black Cardiologists.

Service to The Obesity Society
I have been a member of the Obesity Society for ten years and I have worked at NIDDK for the same amount of time. I have served on;the Diversity Committee since 2008.

Vision for The Obesity Society
I would be honored to serve on the nominating committee of the Obesity Society. My goal is to increase minority membership, both in general and on committees, as well as in program development. I would like to see the Obesity Society expand its focus on minority health by increasing its emphasis on the physiological reasons for the high rate of obesity as well as the psychosocial.

Andre Techernof, PhD

Background and Experience
Dr. Andre Tchernof is a professor in the Department of Nutrition at Laval University, Quebec City, Canada. He established his laboratory at the Laval University Medical Center in 2000. His primary research interests focus on human body fat distribution patterns, specifically on subcutaneous and visceral adipose tissue physiology and its link with or modulation by sex hormones. His experimental approaches combine clinical studies in humans with cellular biology experimentation in vitro. Over the years, he has secured continuous salary awards from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec. Current projects are funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Service to The Obesity Society
Although I never sat on the Obesity Society committees before, I have been closely following the growth and transformations of the Society over the years and have been a regular attendee of the annual meeting.

Vision for The Obesity Society
The Obesity Society has been the leading organization in this field and has played a central role in strengthening communication between scientists, clinicians, patients and the public. It would be an honor to join the Nominating Committee and contribute to the best of my abilities.

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