Christie Ballantyne, MD
Professor of Medicine
Chief-Sections of Cardiovascular Research & Cardiology
Director-Center for Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention
JS Abercrombie Chair-Atherosclerosis & Lipoprotein Research
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Dr. Christie Ballantyne is one of the nation’s foremost experts on lipids, atherosclerosis and heart disease prevention. His research interest in the prevention of heart disease has led him to become an established investigator for the American Heart Association and to receive continuous funding from the NIH since joining the faculty in 1988 in basic research of leukocyte-endothelial interactions, translations research in biomarkers and clinical trials. Over the past 34 years, his many accomplishments have included being elected as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. In 2012, he received the American College of Cardiology Distinguished Scientist Award (Basic Domain). In 2014 and 2015, Thomson Reuters recognized Christie as one of “The World's Most Influential Scientific Minds.” With over 600 publications in the area of atherosclerosis, lipids and inflammation, Dr. Ballantyne also serves as an Editorial Director for www.lipidsonline.org as well as serving on the Editorial Board for Circulation.

Dr. Ballantyne is the Vice Chair of Research for the Department of Medicine, the Chief of Cardiology and the Chief of Cardiovascular Research at Baylor College of Medicine. He is currently the Director of the Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerosis Clinic Center for Cardiometabolic Disease Prevention at Baylor College of Medicine. Dr. Ballantyne received his MD from Baylor College of Medicine and performed both his internal medicine residency and postgraduate training at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. He completed a cardiology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine and an American Heart Association/Bugher Foundation Fellowship at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Institute for Molecular Genetics at Baylor.

Jan N. Basile, MD, FACP, FASH, FAHA
Professor of Medicine
Seinsheimer Cardiovascular Health Program
Medical University of South Carolina
Ralph H Johnson VA Medical Center
Previous Vice-Chair of Clinical Programs AHA Council of Hypertension
Charleston, SC

Dr. Jan N. Basile earned his medical degree in 1978 from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond. He then completed his internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, where he was also Chief Resident. He is board certified in internal medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), the American Society of Hypertension (FASH), and the American Heart Association (FAHA). For many years he served on the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) Board of Directors and recently completed serving within the AHA as Vice-Chair of Clinical Programs on the Council of Hypertension.

His honors and awards include the MUSC School of Medicine Excellence in Teaching award, the Golden Apple award, and, in 2014, he was the first recipient of the SC Department of Health and Environmental Control Hypertension Physician of the Year award. Recently, he received the Marvin Moser Clinical Hypertension Award from the American Heart Association Council on Hypertension. He was President of the Southern Medical Association from 2008-2009.

Currently, he is Professor of Medicine at MUSC. He spent 31 years at the Ralph H Johnson VA Medical Center while faculty at MUSC having retired from federal service as Chief of Primary Care in 2009. He continues to direct the resistant hypertension clinic within the Seinsheimer Cardiovascular Health Program in the division of cardiology, a multi-risk factor lipid and resistant hypertension referral clinic at MUSC.

Dr. Basile’s research interests include outcome-based studies involving hypertension, lipid disorders, and diabetes. He has been involved in many large hypertension trials including the ALLHAT, ACCORD, VALUE, ONTARGET, ACCOMPLISH, ACCORD and SPRINT and SPRINT-MIND trials mostly under the auspices of the NHLBI. He was a contributing reviewer of the Seventh Report of the Joint National Committee on the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC 7) and the 2017 ACC-AHA Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults. Dr. Basile has published more than 400 original papers, abstracts, and book chapters, as well as a textbook, Hot Topics: Hypertension. He is a contributing author for the hypertension section of "Up To Date".

Ralph A. DeFronzo, MD
Professor of Medicine
Chief, Diabetes Division
University of Texas Health Science Center
Deputy Director, Texas Diabetes Institute
San Antonio, TX

Dr. Ralph A. DeFronzo is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Diabetes Division at the University of Texas Health Science Center and the Deputy Director of the Texas Diabetes Institute, San Antonio, Texas. His major interests focus on the pathogenesis and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus and the central role of insulin resistance in the metabolic-cardiovascular cluster of disorders known collectively as the Insulin Resistance Syndrome. For his work in this area, Dr. DeFronzo has received many national and international awards including the Banting Award from the ADA (2008), the Claude Bernard Award from the EASD (2008) and most recently, Dr. DeFronzo received the Hamm International Prize (2017). These represent the highest scientific achievement awards given by the American and European Diabetes Associates, respectively. With more than 800 articles published in peer-reviewed medical journals, Dr. DeFronzo is a distinguished clinician, teacher, and investigator who has been an invited speaker at major national and international conferences on diabetes mellitus.

Ken Fujioka, MD
Director, Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center
Center of Weight Management
Diabetes and Endocrinology
Scripps Clinic Medical Group
San Diego, CA

Dr. Ken Fujioka is the Director of the Nutrition and Metabolic Research Center and the Center for Weight Management at Scripps Clinic in the department of Diabetes and Endocrinology. He spends his mornings doing clinical research and the afternoon runs the Center for Weight Management. The Center was started 20 years ago by Dr. Fujioka and has grown to 5 physicians, 2 NPs, 1 PA, 3 RDs, Behavior specialist, Psychologist and sees over a 1000 patients per month.

Dr. Fujioka has authored over 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals (NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, DOM, Obesity, etc) on weight management and related comorbid disease. He has participated as a Principal Investigator on over 100 clinical trials and sub PI on numerous NIH grants. He has authored a comprehensive standard of care for the California State Medical board (1997) on obesity treatment and lectured to numerous political groups (Sacramento, Washington DC, etc) on obesity treatments.

He enjoys teaching other health care providers about all aspects of obesity medicine and is proud to say he is ABOM certified.

Scott Kahan, MD, MPH
Director, National Center for Weight and Wellness
Medical Director, Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance
Johns Hopkins University/George Washington University
Washington, DC

Dr. Scott Kahan is the Director of the National Center for Weight and Wellness in Washington, DC, Medical Director of the Strategies to Overcome and Prevent (STOP) Obesity Alliance at George Washington University, and past Chair of the Clinical Committee for The Obesity Society. Dr. Kahan’s clinical practice and research addresses obesity prevention and treatment, chronic disease risk reduction, health behavior changes in populations, and clinical aspects of weight management. His public policy work focuses on expanding access to care for obesity treatment services, addressing weight stigma, and training physicians in obesity treatment modalities. Dr. Kahan holds faculty appointments at the Johns Hopkins University, where he has served as associate director of the Johns Hopkins University Weight Management Center and as a member of the core faculty of the Preventive Medicine Residency Program, and George Washington University, where he has previously served as co-director of the George Washington University Weight Management Program. Dr. Kahan is a fellow of The Obesity Society and serve on leadership committees at The Obesity Society, American Diabetes Association, and The Endocrine Society. He received a B.S. in bioengineering from Columbia University, received his medical degree from the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and completed his residency at Johns Hopkins University, where he also trained in public health.

Kristen Kulasa, MD
Clinical Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism
Director, Inpatient Glycemic Control
University of California, San Diego
San Diego, CA

Dr. Kristen Kulasa is Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at the UC San Diego Medical Center in California. In her current role as the Director of Inpatient Glycemic Control, she oversees the Clinical Diabetes Nurse Educators and leads the Inpatient Glycemic Control Team for her hospital and as the Chief of Endocrinology she has been working on revamping diabetes care across the entire UCSD Health System as well as focusing on building an outpatient diabetes center. In these roles Dr. Kulasa has become recognized for her expertise and is seen as an innovative leader in glycemic control. Dr. Kulasa earned her medical degree from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at UC San Diego.

Mary E. Rinella, MD, FAASLD
Professor of Medicine
Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Director, Northwestern Fatty Liver Program
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Chicago, IL

Dr. Mary E. Rinella is a Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and is the Director of the Northwestern Fatty Liver Program. She received her medical degree from the University of Illinois. She completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago and her fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Northwestern University, where she remains on faculty. She studied basic mechanisms of steatohepatitis with the support of the American Gastroenterological Association and the National Institute of Health for 10 years. Currently her focus is in clinical research in the area of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/NASH both before and after liver transplantation. Her primary clinical focus within the NASH realm is on the associations between NASH and other metabolic co-morbidities, emerging NASH therapeutics and the recurrence of NASH after liver transplantation. She established a multicenter consortium to study the risk factors for liver disease recurrence and outcomes of patients transplanted for NASH cirrhosis (NailNASH Consortium).

Dr. Rinella is actively involved in the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases where she currently serves as Councilor-at-large on the Governing Board. She has held several national leadership roles in the field of NAFLD including Chair of the AASLD NAFLD Special Interest Group (SIG) and most recently as Chair of the AASLD NASH Task Force. As Chair of the NASH Task Force, she is charged with fostering research collaboration and advancing best practice through collaboration with other medical societies, federal agencies and patient advocacy organizations

Robert Toto, MD
Associate Dean, Translation Science Professor
Professor of Kidney Disease
UT Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, TX

Dr. Robert Toto is the Mary M. Conroy Professor of Kidney Disease in UT Southwestern’s Department of Internal Medicine. He specializes in kidney disease treatment and research. Dr. Toto also is the Associate Dean of Clinical and Translational Research in the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences; the Director of the Center for Translational Medicine; and the Medical Director of UT Southwestern’s Multi-Specialty Clinic.

Dr. Toto earned his medical degree at the University of Illinois Medical School. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Michigan and Baylor College of Medicine and then received advanced training in nephrology through fellowships at the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital and UT Southwestern Medical Center. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 1983.

Dr. Toto has been named a D Magazine Best Doctor for nephrology and hypertension every year since 2009 and has been named a Texas Monthly Super Doctor multiple times, including in 2018. He is nationally and internationally known for clinical research and teaching. He has been awarded numerous teaching awards from medical students and residents at UT Southwestern and is a regular speaker at national and international nephrology meetings on a variety of topics in renal disease. He has served on program committees for the American Society of Nephrology, the International Congress of Nephrology, and the National Kidney Foundation and is actively involved with training and research policy development at the national level through the American Society of Nephrology and the National Institutes of Health.

Dr. Toto’s research interests include detection, prevention, and treatment of progressive kidney diseases, including diabetes and hypertension. He has an active laboratory and has been intimately involved in the design and conduct of phase I clinical trials as well as several major outcomes trials in patients with chronic kidney disease, including NIH- and non-federally funded trials (e.g., the AASK trial, the HEMO study, and TREAT).

He has authored more than 100 original articles and textbook chapters related to diagnosis and management of hypertension and kidney diseases. His published work includes pathophysiology of hypertensive and diabetic renal diseases, dyslipidemia in chronic kidney disease, novel risk factors for diabetic nephropathy, anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease and dialysis-related morbidity and mortality, and other complications of kidney disease. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of Kidney International, Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, American Journal of Kidney Disease and Nephrology, American Journal of Nephrology, Nephrology Dialysis and Transplantation, and Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension.