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Amy Adkins For the last 15 years, Ms. Amy Adkins, MEd, has worked with schools and community-based organizations throughout the Bay Area to develop and implement programs to support children, youth and their families.
Ms. Adkins began to focus specifically on working with schools to create healthier learning environments in 1999 as the Program Manager for California Pacific Medical Center’s Health Champions Project. This school-based program was developed to address the growing issue of childhood overweight. Ms. Adkins took the vision of Health Champions from a written proposal to an innovative program serving over 3,000 children, their parents, and teachers.
Ms. Adkins has participated in both local and national collaboratives that promote
healthy eating and active living environments as a disease prevention strategy. Currently, she works with San Francisco Unified School District’s ExCEL After School Programs to improve and enhance the delivery of physical activity during after school time. She also serves as ExCEL’s point of contact for the Healthy Behaviors Learning Centers.
School-based health promotion affords Ms. Adkins the opportunity to combine her passion for providing children and adolescents with the information that they need to make healthy decisions and offering them daily opportunities to be active and to eat healthier. Elizabeth Baca
Elizabeth Baca, MD, has had a passion for nutrition, fitness and working with diverse communities for more than twelve years. Dr. Baca currently serves on the general pediatric faculty at Stanford where she spends her clinical time attending at Ravenswood Family Health Center, a federally qualified health center. She also co-directs the Community Pediatrics and Child Advocacy Rotation, a core rotation for the pediatric interns to learn about working with underserved, diverse populations. She is devoted to reducing health disparities, in particular access to healthy nutrition and physical activity. The Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative (BANPAC) recently recognized Dr. Baca for her support of the Soda Free Summer Campaign in San Mateo County. Jennifer Brand Jennifer is a Program Manager for WellPoint State Sponsored Business, Clinical Programs. She has extensive experience working for a variety of not-for-profit and for-profit organizations. Her diverse career history afforded her the experience to develop a wide variety of skill sets including (but not limited to): data analysis; quality metrics; program planning, development, implementation and evaluation; cultural competency; community outreach and organization; capacity building; developing organizational objectives, policies, and procedures; and strategic planning. Jennifer received her B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Arizona, Tucson and her M.P.H. from the University of Northern Colorado, Greeley. Nadine Burke
Nadine Burke, MD, MPH, is a pediatrician and the Medical Director of the CPMC Bayview Child Health Center. Her area of specialty is in improving healthcare for underserved communities, eliminating health disparities as well as evaluation and treatment of child trauma. Dr. Burke engages in extensive community outreach to schools, community based organizations and parenting groups to educate families about such topics as nutrition, diabetes and post-traumatic stress disorder.
She has earned awards for her service to the medically needy from the State of California Assembly, the City and County of San Francisco and the American Academy of Pediatrics, among others. Currently, she serves as volunteer clinical faculty for the UCSF School of Medicine, as well as on the African American Health Disparities Committee for the Hospital Council. Dr. Burke was appointed to the Citizens Committee for Community Development by Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2005.
Mary De Busman
Mary De Busman, MS, RD, is a Registered Dietitian with a Master’s degree in Kinesiology /Exercise Physiology. She is currently working for Alameda County Public Health Department’s Child Health and Disability Prevention Program. Mary has been teaching nutrition for the past fifteen years in a multitude of settings, from community groups to college-level courses. She also created a ten-week adult weight management program that emphasized physical activity and behavior change along with dietary changes. The topic of obesity and weight management is of particular interest to her and this has been the focus of much of her work for the past ten years. Mary has recently redirected her efforts in obesity prevention to the childhood obesity epidemic. Elizabeth Edwards
Elizabeth Edwards is currently Manager of Health Programs at Alameda Alliance for Health. The Alliance is the Medi-Cal Managed Care Plan in Alameda County. She has been in this position for nine years. In addition to health education coordination, she is involved with quality improvement activities and the plan’s cultural and linguistic program. Elizabeth engages with a variety of community coalitions in Alameda County, including the newly formed Alameda County Obesity Prevention Coalition, the Asthma Coalition of Alameda County and the county’s Breastfeeding Coalition. She also has an interest and commitment to the Special Needs Committee and the Pediatric Diabetes Coalition. Her prior work experience includes stints as an elementary school teacher, a small business owner and research associate in data quality control for research projects. Andrea Garber
Andrea Garber, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). She is the Chief Nutritionist for the UCSF Eating Disorders Program and Childhood Obesity Program.
Dr. Garber is a theme leader for nutrition in the School of Medicine curriculum at UCSF and she teaches two courses in the graduate Public Health Nutrition Program at UCB. Her research focuses on obesity and eating disorders. She is currently the Principal Investigator on .a study of adolescents with anorexia nervosa and a study of state-wide menu labeling legislation. In the community, Dr. Garber has been a member of the San Francisco, Board of Supervisors Childhood Obesity Task Force, and the co-Chair of the Mayor Shape Up initiative.
Bernadette Garcia-Roger
Bernadette Garcia-Roger has been a fitness professional for over 25 years. She began her career working with adults at the Downtown Berkeley YMCA, but found her love working with preschoolers during a stint with the University of California Cooperative Extension. At UCCE, Bernadette initiated the Nutrition Education and Training Academy where she developed and taught nutrition and physical activity curriculum for the Early Childhood Education Department of Oakland Unified School District. She became a part-time SPARK Early Childhood Trainer in 2003. In 2006, Bernadette became a full-time trainer for 18 months in New York City and trained over 4000 teachers in the implementation of the SPARK Early Childhood Curriculum. Cindy Gershen By the age of 26 Cindy Gershen opened her first business with two small children and one on the way. Nearly 30 years later, her Sunrise Bistro and Catering has become a mainstay of the East Bay and is renowned for its delicious food. By age 40 she decided to start taking care of herself in addition to her business and lost 90 pounds.
Cindy has become a well known advocate for healthy living. She is founder of the Wellness City Challenge, which has received proclamations of support from all Contra Costa Cities, the County Board of Supervisors as well as the State Assembly and Senate for creation and implementation of a wellness action plan to promote practical, affordable and healthy nutritional guidelines in schools, restaurants, local businesses, food producers and consumers.
Her passion is to take the lessons of healthy diet and exercise and then condense that information into simple, practical solutions that people can use every day. She often speaks to local businesses and organizations to share her tips for healthy eating and its effects on productivity in the workplace/school, occasionally including cooking demonstrations. Christina Goette
Christina Goette, MPH, serves as a Senior Health Program Planner in the SF Department of Public Health and coordinates the Mayor’s Challenge: Shape Up San Francisco Initiative. Shape Up SF focuses on policy and environmental prevention strategies, primary prevention using data-driven decision making, and creates opportunities for people to become more physically active and eat healthfully.
Christina has served as a part time faculty member at San Jose State University’s Master of Public Health Program, on the Board of the Community Response Network and the Chair of the Bay Area Nutrition and Physical Activity Collaborative. She also staffs the Southeast Food Access Working Group, a collaborative partnership between government agencies, community based organizations, and residents, working to create a healthy, robust food system in an underserved San Francisco neighborhood. Louise Greenspan
Louise Greenspan is a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente, San Francisco Medical Center, and her focus is in the area of childhood obesity. Gabby Guinea Gabrielle Guinea began coordinating and directing the ExCEL After School Program at ER Taylor Elementary in San Francisco. Well into her third year at one of the largest elementary schools in her native city, Ms. Guinea is now an integral part of the unique Coordinated Services Team offered at Taylor.
In 2008, under Gabrielle’s leadership the ER Taylor After School Program was recognized for exemplary practices in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Food Security. Because of this distinction, ER Taylor’s After School Program is a Healthy Behaviors Learning Center, serving as a model for other after school programs.
In September of 2009, ER Taylor was recognized as a Distinguished School and received the National Blue Ribbon Award in Washington DC. Gabrielle was chosen by the faculty to represent ER Taylor in accepting this prestigious award alongside the school’s Principal. M. Jane Heinig
M Jane Heinig, PhD, is an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant and an Academic Administrator on the faculty in the Department of Nutrition at UC Davis where she conducts research in the areas of public health nutrition, clinical lactation, nutrition education, program evaluation and infant nutrition. Dr. Heinig also serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Human Lactation and is the Executive Director of the UC Davis Human Lactation Center. She has published widely in the scientific literature and is a member of the International Lactation Consultant Association, the American Public Health Association, and the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation. Richard J. Jackson
Richard Jackson, MD, is Professor and Chair of Environmental Health Sciences at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. He recently served as a professor at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and at the University of California, Berkeley. In addition, Dr. Jackson has worked in many leadership positions with the California Health Department, including the highest, State Health Officer. For nine years he was Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) National Center for Environmental Health in Atlanta.
Dr. Jackson’s work led to the establishment of the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program and state national laws that reduced risks, especially to farm workers and to children, from dangerous pesticides. Dr. Jackson established the national asthma epidemiology and control program, and advanced the childhood lead poisoning prevention program. He instituted the current federal effort to “biomonitor” chemical levels in the US population.
In 2005, he was recognized with the highest civilian award for US Government service, the Presidential Distinguished Executive Award. In 2006, he received the Breast Cancer Funds Hero Award and at the UC Berkeley 2007 Commencement, the School of Public Health graduate students recognized him as the Distinguished Teacher and Mentor of the Year. Carolyn Bradner Jasik Carolyn Jasik, MD, is an adolescent medicine specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. She is primarily interested in the impact of mental health on pediatric obesity prevention and treatment, specifically in adolescents. Her current research projects include an analysis of mental health screening trends among overweight California adolescents seeking primary care, rates of disordered eating and depressive symptoms in a morbidly obese clinic population, and the use of computer technology for mental health screening among overweight teens. In the future, Dr. Jasik plans to develop innovative interventions for obesity prevention and targeted treatment strategies for adolescents. Her clinical responsibilities include staffing the UCSF eating disorder and weight management clinics, as well as the Children’s Hospital and Research Center Oakland Healthy Hearts Clinic. Christine M. Kennedy
Christine Kennedy, PhD, serves as a Professor at the University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing. Her research is focused on the impact of daily life events on young children's development, specifically on the underpinnings to health in early childhood, from the perspective of self-regulation and motivation. Dr. Kennedy’s research has primarily targeted children's nutritional and health compromising behaviors (e.g. risk taking) exploring three areas of influence- media, culture/ethnicity, and illness.
She has earned honors and awards for her work in the field. Dr. Kennedy earned the Sigma Theta Tau Award and the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Faculty Award. In addition, she was awarded the UCSF Centennial Wall of Fame, Distinguished Faculty Award in 2007 and the Jack & Elaine Koehn Chair in Pediatric Nursing in 2008.
Robert Lustig
Robert Lustig, MD, is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and Director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program at UCSF. Dr. Lustig is a neuroendocrinologist, with basic and clinical training relative to hypothalamic development, anatomy, and function. Dr. Lustig’s clinical research has focused on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system.
He is currently investigating the contribution of biochemical, neural, hormonal, and genetic influences in the expression of the current obesity epidemic both in children and adults. He is studying the interplay between the changes in the nutritional environment and defective hormone signaling; in particular, the role of fructose and lack of fiber in the genesis of the metabolic syndrome. He is assessing the cardiovascular morbidity associated with insulin excess, and developing methods to evaluate and prevent this phenomenon in children. In addition, he is analyzing the utility of assessing insulin dynamics in targeting obesity diagnosis and pharmacotherapy.
He is the current Chairman of the Ad hoc Obesity Task Force of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, a member of the Pediatric Obesity Practice Guidelines Subcommittee of The Endocrine Society, a member of the Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society, a member of the Pediatric Obesity Devices Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a member of the Steering Committee of the International Endocrine Alliance to Combat Obesity. He is also the Endocrine and Obesity representative to the Program Committee of the Pediatric Academic Societies. He provides consultation for several childhood obesity national advocacy groups. Kristine Madsen
Kristine Madsen, MD, is a pediatrician and research scientist with expertise in the design and evaluation of interventions related to pediatric obesity and the promotion of physical activity. She is the Principal Investigator on grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the American Heart Association to assess the impact of after-school programming on youth physical activity and health, and build evidence around existing programs with promise to increase physical activity among low-income youth. She is currently conducting a randomized trial of America SCORES, an after-school program promoting soccer and literacy. Dr. Madsen is also the Principal Investigator on a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Active Living Research office to examine the impact of policies related to school-based BMI and fitness screening on child obesity and fitness at the population level. She is affiliated with UC Berkeley’s Center for Weight and Health (CWH) where she is leading the Center’s evaluation of the fitness/physical activity data from the 19 intervention and control schools participating in The California Endowment’s Healthy Eating, Active Communities (TCE-HEAC) initiative to prevent childhood obesity. Lucy Massey, RD, CDE Lucy Massey is a registered dietitian and certified diabetes educator at Brookside Community Health Center. She has a special Certification in Childhood and Adolescent Weight Management. Ms. Massey has a degree in the Science of Nutrition form the University of California at Davis and did an internship at UC Berkeley. Although she has worked in hospitals, her preference is to work with patients in a clinic setting.
Ms. Massey has been working for Brookside Community Health Center since 1998. She first started at the clinic to help with the diabetic patients and worked there only 2 half days a week. This part time position quickly grew into a full time position including 2 educators and three perinatal educators.
Ms. Massey loves working with patients from many different backgrounds. Her Diabetic classes, particularly those in Spanish, are very well attended and have a lot of fun and interaction. The clinic gives out prizes and keeps classes very friendly and casual. Brookside Community Health Center also has classes for high cholesterol, hypertension, weight management and gestational diabetes. Ms. Massey started classes for overweight pediatric patients about 1 year ago. She teaches these classes with one of the clinic pediatricians and interns. The classes include the whole family including any interested grandparents. The series of classes concludes with a cooking demonstration with the Chef’s from the farmers’ market; and engages class participants in meal preparation. Ms. Massey notes that it is wonderful to see class members gobbling up the vegetables in the vegetarian tacos. Laurel Mellin
Laurel Mellin, MA, is an associate clinical professor of family and community medicine and pediatrics, and the director of the Emotional Brain Training (EBT) Center of Excellence in the Center for Health and Community, associated with the Center for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment (COAST). Ms.. Mellin began her career at UCSF, developing interventions for pediatric obesity and eating disorders, with her background in nutritional sciences (University of California, Berkeley and California State University, San Francisco). Her research and teaching led to becoming a nationally-recognized expert in pediatric obesity, writing the National Guidelines for Pediatric Obesity for President Clinton and the development of interventions for obese and eating disordered youth. Ms.. Mellin has received recognition and awards, including a research award from the National Association of Bariatric Physicians and Health magazine named the method “One of the Top 10 Medical Advances of the Year.” She is a New York Times best-selling author of The Pathway, and developed the Shapedown Program for Pediatric Weight Management and Emotional Brain Training for stress symptoms. Irene Reveles-Chase
Ms. Reveles-Chase has a Master's degree in Public Health-Health Education from UC Berkeley, and 25 years of experience planning and evaluating multifaceted comprehensive health education programs at the state and local level; and in developing programs and policies for state funded tobacco control, breast cancer, teen pregnancy prevention, and women's health programs. In her current position with the Department of Health Care Services, Medi-Cal Managed Care Division (MMCD) she is responsible for: Developing health education standards and policies for Medi-Cal Managed Care health plans, - Providing health education leadership, technical assistance, and guidance for the development of health education quality improvement initiatives for Medi-Cal managed care, and
- Chairing MMCD's statewide Health Education and Cultural & Linguistics Workgroup (HECLW), whose members include health plan directors and managers of health education, and cultural linguistic services.
Lorrene Ritchie
Lorrene Ritchie, PhD, is Research Director at U.C. Berkeley’s Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Center for Weight and Health. Dr. Ritchie obtained her doctorate in Nutrition at U.C. Berkeley and presently works to promote the development of interdisciplinary, science-based and culturally relevant solutions to the obesity epidemic in children and families. Her work includes identify promising target behaviors for the prevention of obesity and its co-morbidities, she has been recently involved in several evidence-based reviews of the scientific literature.
Dr. Ritchie has served on the American Dietetic Association’s Pediatric Weight Management Workgroup to formulate evidence-based practice guidelines and the California Department of Education’s Child Care Nutrition Standards Workgroup to improve nutrition standards for licensed child care. Current research projects include evaluation of: nutrition environments in child care in California, dietary patterns and timing of eating in relation to obesity development in adolescent black and white girls, changes in dietary behaviors among California WIC participants in response to a new California educational program and the federal food package, impact of yogurt coupons on the dairy intake of women in WIC, and the impact of the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program on student’s dietary intakes in low-income schools. Luis Rodriguez Luis Rodriguez is a clinical dietitian at UCSF Medical Center and a nutritionist at the WATCH clinic. As a nutritionist at the WATCH clinic, Luis Rodriguez provides nutrition counseling to overweight children, teenagers, and their families. He also conducts the clinic's teaching breakfast program where he provides hands-on educational sessions on optimizing nutrition. Rodriguez has a very strong interest in the prevention and treatment of overweight and obesity-related complications in children, such as type 2 diabetes. As an undergraduate student at the University of California, Berkeley, he conducted research in an overweight children population to prevent the development of type 2 diabetes. He also worked in a number of research projects to improve the eating habits of children and their families. Rodriguez earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutritional Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, and completed his dietetic internship program at UCSF Medical Center. He is a registered dietitian and a member of the American Dietetic Association.
Giancarlo Scalise
Giancarlo Scalise, PT, DPT, is a pediatric physical therapist, who has worked with children and adolescents of all ages and with all types of physical and mental abilities. Over the past few years, he has had the opportunity of using his professional expertise about physical activity for children dealing with weight management issues. He has helped develop several clinic-based programs, both in Chicago and San Francisco, for children who struggle with their weight and who are typically sedentary.
As a Physical Activity Counselor, his current position at both UCSF Valencia Health Services and at San Francisco General Hospital – Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, he receives referrals from the providers to meet with patients and their families to discuss their current behavioral habits related to physical activity and nutrition. After assessing readiness to make behavioral changes, and developing an understanding of individual resources and environments, he assists patients in designing a personally tailored program that reflects individual needs and preferences.
He is also the coordinator for the TeenFit Program at UCSF Mission Bay, which is a structured and supervised exercise program for adolescents who are overweight or obese. In addition, he is an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science. Robert Schwartz
Robert Schwartz, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Section of Pediatric Endocrinology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC. Dr. Schwartz's research interest has been in the area of childhood obesity prevention. He was primary investigator with the AAP and CDC in the Healthy Lifestyles Pilot Study on obesity prevention in young children. Dr. Schwartz is co-investigator for an NIH funded national expansion of this study using office-based motivational interviewing by pediatricians and dieticians as the primary intervention to prevent childhood obesity. He directs a statewide YMCA-based obesity prevention pilot study and a Spanish childhood obesity program at a local YMCA in Winston-Salem, NC.
Dr. Schwartz has served as President of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP); the Residency Review Committee for Pediatrics; the Maintenance of Certification in Pediatrics Examination Committee of the American Board of Pediatrics; Chairperson of the Section on Endocrinology of the AAP; and the North Carolina Newborn Screening Advisory Committee. He was a member of the Executive Committee and Medical Advisor for the North Carolina Task Force for Healthy Weight in Children and Youth and a member of the Consensus Panel for Developing Nutritional Standards for Schools in North Carolina.
Dr. Schwartz received the Denny, Katz, Simon, Tingelstad Academic Service Award in 2002 and the NC Health and Wellness Trust Fund Leadership Award in Preventive Health in 2005. And in 2008, Dr. Schwartz received the Outstanding Achievement Award for childhood obesity prevention from the North Carolina Pediatric Society. Naomi E. Stotland
Naomi Stotland, MD, is Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. She is a Women's Reproductive Health Research Scholar (WRHR) through the NICHD/NIH. Dr. Stotland's research interests include weight gain, nutrition, and obesity in pregnancy. She has recently completed qualitative research on prenatal care providers and their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors regarding weight gain counseling. She is currently planning a clinical trial of a Video Doctor (multimedia) intervention to reduce excessive weight gain during pregnancy, in collaboration with Dr. Barbara Gerbert. She is also a co-investigator in a clinical trial of a low-glycemic diet for overweight and obese pregnant women (PI Dr. Janet King). Dr. Stotland practices obstetrics and gynecology at San Francisco General Hospital, where she teaches UCSF residents and students. She is also the medical director of Sage Femme Midwifery, a freestanding birthing center in San Francisco. Alice Tam
Alice Tam currently works as the ExCEL After School Program Coordinator at Sunset Elementary School, which is in collaboration with the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center. She has been with the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center since August 2004. Prior to working with the Sunset Neighborhood Beacon Center, she taught at a Chinese immersion school in San Francisco. She has ten years of experience working with elementary school students.
In 2008 under Alice’s leadership the Sunset After School Program was recognized for exemplary practices in Nutrition, Physical Activity and Food Security. Because of this distinction, Sunset’s After School Program is a Healthy Behavior’s Learning Center, serving as a model for other after school programs.
Hannah Thompson Hannah Thompson, MPH directs school-based pediatric obesity research at UCSF’s Division of general pediatrics. She taught physical education and health in the Oakland Unified School District for three years before obtaining her MPH in Nutrition from UC Berkeley. She leads physical activity interventions for UCSF’s Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Clinic. Ms. Thompson manages multiple on-going research studies in the San Francisco unified School District that are funded by the National Institute of Health and the American Heart Association.
Seleda Williams
Seleda Williams, MD, MPH, is a Public Health Medical Officer with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS). She currently is working with Children’s Medical Services Branch. Previously she worked with the Office of Clinical Preventive Services (OCPM) January of 2000 –July 2009, and prior to that, she worked with the Maternal and Child Health Branch from 1996-2000. She also is an Assistant Professor and Volunteer Clinical Faculty in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of California Davis Medical Center.
Dr. Williams is also Chair of the California Food Guide Editorial Committee, along with being a committee member on several nutrition, physical activity, and obesity committees
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