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Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs (1995)

Chapter: Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members

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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
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E Biographies of Committee Members

JUDITH S. STERN (Chair) is a Professor in the Department of Nutrition at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of California, Davis. Concurrently, she is a Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine. She also serves as Director for the university's Food Intake Laboratory Group. Dr. Stern is a registered dietitian and is a member of the American Institute of Nutrition, the Vice-President Elect of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (and past chair of the Public Information Committee), the American Dietetic Association, the Gerontological Society of America, the Institute of Food Technologists, the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (where she is a Past President), and the Society for Ingestive Behavior, among others. She has served on several advisory boards and committees, including the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Nutrition Components of Food Labeling. In addition to her many journal publications, Dr. Stern frequently writes for popular magazines as well. She is currently an executive editor for Appetite and is on the editorial board of Obesity Research and Weight Control Digest. She earned a B.S. in Food and Nutrition at Cornell University and an M.S. and Sc.D. in Nutrition at the Harvard University School of Public Health.

JULES HIRSCH (Vice Chair) is the Sherman Fairchild Professor at Rockefeller University, Physician-in-Chief at Rockefeller University Hospital, and Senior Attending Physician at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×

As a senior member of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, he has served on the Committee on the Health Consequences of Bereavement, the Board on Biobehavioral Sciences and Mental Disorders, the Panel on Clinical Sciences, and the Panel on Metabolism, Endocrinology, and Hematology. Dr. Hirsch is a Past President of the American Psychosomatic Society and the American Society of Clinical Nutrition. He is a fellow of the American Institute of Nutrition, the Royal College of Physicians in Edinburgh, the New York Academy of Medicine, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American College of Physicians. He has received the McCollum Award and the Herman Award of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition and an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from the State University of New York. In addition to being a section editor for Obesity Research, Dr. Hirsch is a member of several editorial boards, including those of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, Weight Control Digest, and the International Journal of Obesity. He attended Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, and holds his M.D. from the Southwestern Medical School at the University of Texas, Dallas.

STEVEN N. BLAIR is Director of Research and Director of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. For seven years, Dr. Blair served as the exercise epidemiology section editor for Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport and continues work on the editorial boards for several epidemiology, exercise, and sports medicine journals, including the Macmillan Health Encyclopedia . He was a contributor and co-principal investigator for the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial. In the past, he was on the Board of Trustees and was a Vice President for the American College of Sports Medicine. Dr. Blair has received several awards from the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (AAHPERD), and he received a Citation Award from the American College of Sports Medicine and a Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Free University of Brussels. He holds a B.A. in Physical Education from Kansas Wesleyan University and an M.S. and P.E.D. in Physical Education from Indiana University, Bloomington. Dr. Blair was a postdoctoral scholar in preventive cardiology at Stanford University and is a certified exercise program director with the American college of Sports Medicine.

JOHN P. FOREYT is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and Director of the DeBakey Heart Center's Nutrition Research Clinic. Concurrently, he is a clinical professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Houston and is a member of the Medical Scientist Staff for Internal Medicine Service at

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×

The Methodist Hospital. He is licensed by the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists. In addition to serving as a manuscript reviewer for several publications, Dr. Foreyt is currently an editorial board member for the Journal of the american Dietetic Association; Eating Disorders; Medicine, Exercise, Nutrition and Health; Obesity Research; Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation; American Journal of Health Promotion; Journal of Behavioral Medicine; and Health Values . Among his professional affiliations, he is a fellow of the Behavior Therapy and Research Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. Dr. Foreyt received his B.S. in Psychology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and holds his M.S. in Psychology and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Florida State University, Tallahassee.

ARTHUR FRANK is the Medical Director of the Obesity Management Program at the George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., where he is also on the faculty in the Department of Medicine. He is an internist and completed his specialty training, including a U.S. Public Health Service Fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism, at Stanford University. He studied lipid kinetics as a research fellow at the National Heart Institute. He also served as the Director of the Food and Nutrition Programs for the Office of Economic Opportunity and as a consultant to the Assistant Secretary for Health of the Department of Health and Human Services. He has been on the faculty at Georgetown University School of Medicine and was the first Medical Director of the university's community health plan. In addition to publications in obesity and lipid kinetics, Dr. Frank has written for the public on issues of medical care as a health columnist for Mademoiselle and is coauthor of The People's Handbook of Medical Care. Dr. Frank holds his B.S. in Chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania, and M.D. from New York University.

SHIRIKI K. KUMANYIKA is Professor and Associate Director for Epidemiology, Center for Biostatistics and Epidemiology at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Previously, she taught at Cornell University and The Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Kumanyika has a long working relationship with the National Institutes of Health; she served as an investigator for the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National Institute on Aging, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Some of her most recent consulting activities have been for the Women's Health Trial at the University of Alabama, Birmingham; the Women's Health and Aging Study at The Johns Hopkins University; the

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×

University of Wisconsin School of Nursing, Milwaukee; and the Clinical Epidemiology Unit at the University Canton Hospital in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Kumanyika served on the Institute of Medicine's Committee to Study the Legal and Ethical Issues Relating to the Inclusion of Women in Clinical Studies and is a member of the 1995 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee of the U.S. Public Health Service. Among her many professional affiliations, Dr. Kumanyika includes the American Institute of Nutrition, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, the Gerontological Society of America, the North American Association for the Study of Obesity, and the Society for the Analysis of African American Public Health Issues. She is a registered dietitian and holds her B.A. in Psychology from Syracuse University, M.S. in Social Work from Columbia University, Ph.D. in Human Nutrition from Cornell University, and M.P.H. from The Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health.

JENNIFER H. MADANS is Director of the Division of Epidemiology at the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in Hyattsville, Maryland, where she is also the Acting Chief of the division's Demographic Analysis Staff. She is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Georgetown University School of Medicine and has been a Lecturer at The Catholic University of America. Dr. Madans was a member of several CDC committees and chairs the Interagency Coordinating Committee of NCHS and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the Health Interview Survey Scientific Advisory Committee. In addition to several student prizes, she received the Public Health Service Superior Service Award, NCHS Directors Award in Methodological Statistics, and NCHS Elijah White Memorial Award. She is a member of the American Sociological Association, the American Statistical Association, the Population Association of America, the American Public Health Association, the Society for Epidemiological Research, and the Gerontological Society of America. Dr. Madans received a B.A. in Sociology from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

G. ALAN MARLATT is Professor of Psychology and Director, Addictive Behaviors Research Center, Department of Psychology, at the University of Washington. He has conducted research at the Harvard University Center for Addiction Studies; La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia; the Addiction Research Unit of the Institute of Psychiatry at Maudsley Hospital, London; and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Dr. Marlatt served as president of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy and the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×

He has also served on the Institute of Medicine's Committee on the Treatment of Alcohol Problems. He is also on the editorial board of several journals, including Weight Control Digest, Addictive Behaviors , and Cognitive Therapy and Research, and is a consulting editor for Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Dr. Marlatt received an Annual Research Award from the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors, the Distinguished Psychologist for Professional Contributions to Knowledge award from the Washington State Psychological Association, and Jellinek Memorial Award for Alcohol Studies from the International Council on Alcohol and Addiction. He holds a B.A. in Psychology from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University, Bloomington.

SACHIKO TOKUNAGA ST. JEOR is Professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the Nutrition Education and Research Program in the School of Medicine and Professor of Nutrition in the College of Human and Community Sciences at the University of Nevada. Her research interests are weight management, obesity, nutrition assessment, cancer prevention, and nutrition education in medical schools. Dr. St. Jeor has been honored as an outstanding alumna from both the College of Health and Human Development at Pennsylvania State University and the College of Health at the University of Utah. She also received the Award for Excellence in the Practice of Dietetic Research and chaired the Council of Research of the American Dietetic Association and is a founding member of the Council on Renal Nutrition of the National Kidney Foundation. Dr. St. Jeor was a member of the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences and has served in the Behavioral Medicine Study Section and on the Clinical Applications and Prevention Advisory Committee for the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health. She is currently a member of the 1995 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee of the U.S. Public Health Service. She has served on the editorial boards of Behavioral Medicine Abstracts, Clinics in Applied Nutrition, Weight Control Digest, and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. Dr. St. Jeor holds a B.A. in Nutrition from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City; an M.S. in Nutrition from the University of Iowa City; and a Ph.D. in Nutrition from Pennsylvania State University, University Park.

ALBERT J. STUNKARD is Professor of Psychiatry and former Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. His research has investigated sociological, psychological, metabolic, and genetic determinants of human obesity and treatment of the disorder by behavioral, dietary, pharmacological, and surgical measures. He has

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×

twice been awarded the Annual Prize for Research of the American Psychiatric Association and received the Joseph Goldberger Award in Clinical Nutrition of the American Medical Association. He serves on several editorial boards and is Executive Editor of Appetite. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and most recently served on its Committee on Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences. Dr. Stunkard is also Past President of the American Psychosomatic Society, the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the Association for Research in Nervous and Mental Disease. He holds a B.S. from Yale University, an M.D. from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons, and an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Edinburgh.

PAUL R. THOMAS (FNB Staff, Project Director) has served as Project Director of the Committee on Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences and the Committee on Dietary Guidelines Implementation. He was editor for the report Improving America's Diet and Health: From Recommendations to Action, co-editor of Opportunities in the Nutrition and Food Sciences: Research Challenges and the Next Generation of Investigators, and assisted the FNB subcommittee that produced the 10th Edition of the Recommended Dietary Allowances. Dr. Thomas also was the co-editor of the popular book Eat For Life: The Food and Nutrition Board's Guide to Reducing Your Risk of Chronic Disease . In addition, he co-authored The Nutrition Debate: Sorting Out Some Answers with Joan Dye Gussow, Ed.D. Prior to joining the FNB, he established and directed the Division of Nutrition Services at the Monongalia County Health Department in Morgantown, West Virginia. Dr. Thomas holds a B.A. degree in Biology from the State University of New York at Buffalo; an M.S. degree in Public Health Nutrition from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland; and Ed.M. and Ed.D. degrees in Nutrition Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, New York.

Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
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Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×
Page 238
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×
Page 239
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×
Page 240
Suggested Citation:"Appendix E: Biographies of Committee Members." Institute of Medicine. 1995. Weighing the Options: Criteria for Evaluating Weight-Management Programs. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/4756.
×
Page 241
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Nearly one out of every three adults in America is obese and tens of millions of people in the United States are dieting at any one time. This has resulted in a weight-loss industry worth billions of dollars a year and growing. What are the long-term results of weight-loss programs? How can people sort through the many programs available and select one that is right for them? Weighing the Options strives to answer these questions. Despite widespread public concern about weight, few studies have examined the long-term results of weight-loss programs. One reason that evaluating obesity management is difficult is that no other treatment depends so much on an individual's own initiative and state of mind.

Now, a distinguished group of experts assembled by the Institute of Medicine addresses this compelling issue. Weighing the Options presents criteria for evaluating treatment programs for obesity and explores what these criteria mean—to health care providers, program designers, researchers, and even overweight people seeking help.

In presenting its criteria the authors offer a wealth of information about weight loss: how obesity is on the rise, what types of weight-loss programs are available, how to define obesity, how well we maintain weight loss, and what approaches and practices appear to be most successful.

Information about weight-loss programs—their clients, staff qualifications, services, and success rates—necessary to make wise program choices is discussed in detail.

The book examines how client demographics and characteristics—including health status, knowledge of weight-loss issues, and attitude toward weight and body image—affect which programs clients choose, how successful they are likely to be with their choices, and what this means for outcome measurement. Short- and long-term safety consequences of weight loss are discussed as well as clinical assessment of individual patients.

The authors document the health risks of being overweight, summarizing data indicating that even a small weight loss reduces the risk of disease and depression and increases self-esteem. At the same time, weight loss has been associated with some poor outcomes, and the book discusses the implications for program evaluation.

Prevention can be even more important than treatment. In Weighing the Options, programs for population groups, efforts targeted to specific groups at high risk for obesity, and prevention of further weight gain in obese individuals get special attention.

This book provides detailed guidance on how the weight-loss industry can improve its programs to help people be more successful at long-term weight loss. And it provides consumers with tips on selecting a program that will improve their chances of permanently losing excess weight.

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