Christopher Gardner, PhD, Professor of Medicine, Plant-Based Diet Initiative Director, Stanford University

Christopher Gardner holds a PhD in Nutrition Science and is a Professor of Medicine at Stanford. For >25 years his research has examined what to eat and what to avoid for optimal health. This includes more than 20 nutrition intervention trials conducted with >2,000 participants. He is also actively involved with the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, and the Menus of Change collaborative involving scientists, business leaders and chefs, focusing on unapologetically delicious, healthy food. Most recently his research interests have expanded to include studying the effects of diet on the gut microbiome and immune function. He published a landmark study on this topic in 2021 in the journal Cell with microbiologist colleagues Drs. Justin and Erica Sonnenburg from Stanford.

Ethan Brown, Founder and CEO, Beyond Meat  

Ethan Brown is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Beyond Meat, a company dedicated to building meat directly from plants. Ethan gained an appreciation for agriculture and the natural world from his father, a professor, conservationist, and hobby farmer. This interest shaped the direction of his career, where he sought to make a contribution to climate change through the clean energy sector.  His early work centered on electricity restructuring in support of an open grid, where his analysis at the gubernatorial level directly informed federal and state policies on grid management. Subsequently, Ethan joined the world’s leading Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems, rising to report directly to the Company’s Chief Executive Officer.  

Ellie Fajer, Stanford Undergraduate

Ellie is completing a double major in Biology and Earth Systems and starting to pursue a Masters in Earth Systems, with a specific focus on how our food systems can be reimagined to best promote human and planetary health. She hopes to disrupt our reliance on factory-farmed animal products through leading education efforts with the Stanford Alternative Protein Project and through organizing and working as a lead TA for the Rethinking Meat class. Additionally, Ellie strives to promote a plant-based default in catering and dining across the Stanford community (with DefaultVeg) and broader Jewish communities (with the Jewish Initiative for Animals, JIFA). She hopes to catalyze institutional-level shifts towards a more healthful, just, and sustainable food system. She is incredibly appreciative for PBDI's support for both of the Rethinking Meat and DefaultVeg initiatives at Stanford.

Zakaria Doueiri, Stanford Undergraduate, Human Biology  

Zakaria Doueiri is a fourth-year student majoring in Human Biology with a concentration in Neurobiology and Social Determinants of Health. He has been a research assistant with the Our Voice Initiative for two years. From San Bernardino, California, Zak noticed that at his high school, many students from low income/minority communities do not have equal access to nutritious food options. This is one reason that drew him to the work being done at the Plant Based Diet Initiative. Last summer, he traveled to Bogotá where he investigated the integration of virtual reality into the Our Voice Method to better understand the perspectives of unpaid care workers. In addition to his work at Our Voice, Zak volunteers in the Packard Hospital and coaches basketball to kids/young adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities.

Cintia Kimura, MD, Stanford Department of Surgery  

Cintia Kimura is a medical doctor from Sao Paulo, Brazil. She completed her training in general surgery and colorectal surgery at Hospital das Clinicas de Sao Paulo and is currently a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Surgery at Stanford. Dr. Kimura's research focuses on the gut microbiome and its role in surgical recovery, with an emphasis on how different diets can affect patient outcomes. She is particularly interested in promoting healthier lifestyle habits among surgical patients and has dedicated herself to exploring the benefits of plant-based diets and physical activity. Dr. Kimura's enthusiasm in the connection between food and health is not limited to her research, as she actively incorporates these principles into her own life to promote wellness.

Matt Landry, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford Prevention Research Center

Matthew Landry is a postdoctoral research scholar, registered dietitian nutritionist, and the current Stanford Plant-Based Diet Initiative research fellow in the Stanford Prevention Research Center. His current research focuses on identifying the optimal diet (or diets) for chronic disease prevention, addressing the  methodological challenges of designing, implementing, and reporting clinical trials that test dietary patterns, and quantifying behavioral and environmental factors that influence what people are eating and how much of it is driven by inequities and social justice issues. He received his bachelor’s degree in nutrition and food sciences from Louisiana State University and completed his doctoral degree in nutritional sciences and dietetic internship from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Yong Woong Jun, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford Chemistry

Yong Woong Jun received his undergraduate degree in chemistry from POSTECH in South Korea, and his Ph.D. training in chemistry at the same university under Prof. Kyo Han Ahn, where he studied the development of fluorescence probes and its bio-application. He then joined Prof. Eric T. Kool’s research team as a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University, where he studied DNA research. He is appointed as an Assistant Professor at KAIST, Korea, starting from May 2023. His current research interest is DNA damage and repair process.

Tamiko Katsumoto, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Immunology and Rheumatology, Stanford University

Tamiko Katsumoto, MD is a clinical assistant professor in the Division of Immunology and Rheumatology at Stanford University. She trained at UCSF, including a postdoc in immunology. She is passionate about climate advocacy and sustainable whole-food plant-rich diets for both individual and planetary health. She serves as the director of the Stanford Immune Related Toxicity Working Group, a multidisciplinary group which aims to improve the care of cancer patients on immunotherapy. She is currently studying the impact of diet on outcomes. She is involved in several clinical trials at Stanford and has spent time at Genentech, where she led several clinical trials in immunology. She is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Food Tank’s Academic Working Group, and the Stanford Plant Based Diet Initiative.

Maryam Makowski, PhD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University

Maryam Makowski, PhD is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and a nutrition scientist and national board-certified coach at Stanford University. Dr. Makowski completed her master’s and doctoral studies in clinical nutrition, nutritional epidemiology, and medical science at the University of Toronto in Canada. She has particular expertise in nutrition and well-being coaching to improve mood and optimize the physical and cognitive performance of physicians. Prior to joining Stanford, she served as a scientific associate at Toronto General Hospital, and as an advisor to Air Canada rouge pilots and cabin crew on optimal nutrition for fatigue mitigation. Over the course of her career, she has authored many highly cited scientific papers on nutrition and physician well-being.

Carlie Arbaugh, MD
Resident, General Surgery, Stanford Health Care
 

Dr. Carlie Arbaugh is a general surgery resident at Stanford Health Care. She holds a B.S. in Human Biology, Health, and Society from Cornell University and an M.D. from Stanford School of Medicine. Carlie is passionate about food at the intersection of preventative medicine and treatment, health equity, culture, and environmental sustainability. She is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Food Tank’s Academic Working Group, and the Stanford Plant Based Diet Initiative. During her research/professional development years of surgery residency, Carlie is pursuing culinary training and focusing on research initiatives aimed at promoting nutritional education and wellness among healthcare professionals, patients, and in the community. She loves spending time in the kitchen cooking and going on adventures with her partner and rescue dog.

Neha Shah, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Division of Immunology & Rheumatology, Stanford University

Neha Shah, MD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Immunology & Rheumatology at Stanford University. She serves as the Program Director for the Adult Rheumatology Fellowship. Dr. Shah completed her medical training at the University of Florida, residency at the University of Miami, and fellowship at Stanford University.   She also completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Dr. Shah has studied Functional Medicine, is board certified in Lifestyle Medicine, and is currently pursuing advanced training in Ayurveda. As a committed clinician and educator whose practice of evidence-based medicine is deeply informed by ancient wisdom, Dr. Shah has worked in partnership with hundreds of patients to develop personalized and comprehensive treatment plans that integrate diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and other mind-body techniques with modern medicine. She has pioneered a unique Integrative Rheumatology group visit model to advance optimal health amongst her patients. In her free time, Dr. Shah enjoys dancing, hiking, cooking (unapologetically delicious plant-based recipes), and spending time with her hubby, two kids, and her rescue Spanish greyhound.

Dr. Marwa Abu El Haija, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor, Pediatrics – Gastroenterology

I am a pediatric gastroenterologist with clinical and research interest in childhood obesity. I believe that each patient is unique in their disease and background, that is why they deserve to be approached in an individualized way. I aspire to discover what's unknown about the pathophysiologic causes of obesity, and the mechanisms of which treatments work. My clinical and research interests in pediatric obesity found home within Stanford's distinctive position academically, medically and geographically.

Lisa Goldman Rosas, PhD MPH, Assistant Professor, Stanford Medicine

Lisa Goldman Rosas, PhD MPH is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Population Health and the Department of Medicine, Division of Primary Care and Population Health at Stanford School of Medicine. An epidemiologist by training, Dr. Goldman Rosas’ research focuses on addressing disparities in chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, depression, and cancer among racial/ethnic minority families. She is passionate about integrating patients, caregivers, community organizations, and other key stakeholders in the research process in order to affect the greatest improvements in health and well-being.  

Elizabeth Markle, PhD, Executive Director, Co-Founder, Open Source Wellness

Dr. Elizabeth Markle is a licensed psychologist, speaker, writer, researcher, and Associate Professor of Community Mental Health at California Institute of Integral Studies.  She is the co-founder of Open Source Wellness, an Oakland-based nonprofit offering experiential behavioral health and wellness via a "Community As Medicine" approach in collaboration with healthcare providers and insurers.   Open Source Wellness partners with "Food As Medicine" delivery systems to provide individual and group health coaching, supporting patients with physical activity, healthy nutrition, stress reduction, and social connection to amplify the health outcomes associated with food.

Steven Chen, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Recipe4Health, Alameda County Health Care Services

Dr. Steven Chen is Chief Medical Officer of Alameda County Recipe4Health, an award winning integrative healthcare model that uses “food as medicine” interventions to bring together health care, food systems, and organic and regenerative agriculture to improve food/nutrition insecurity, chronic conditions, and health/racial equity. By centering the question: “Where does the food come from in ‘food as medicine’?”, Recipe4Health purposely prioritizes the sourcing and supply of “regenerative and organic” food to healthcare’s demand for “food as medicine”. This results in force multipliers for health – individual/community human health, soil and planetary health, economic health and community wealth, and equity. While leading the scale and spread of Recipe4Health (R4H), Dr. Chen and his team successfully implemented one of California’s first Medically Supportive Food and Nutrition services as a covered Medi-Cal (Medicaid) service in California.

Andy Ollove Food Access Program Director - Fresh Approach

Andy Ollove is the Food Access Program Director at Fresh Approach. Andy has been working to build resilient food systems since 2014. In that time, Andy has developed unique program interventions around the country: he has worked with corner store owners in the Bronx, food pantries in Brooklyn, gas stations in the Navajo Nation, farmers’ markets in Mexico, and cooperatives in rural Maine. In the Bay Area, he leads food access work at Fresh Approach, managing a diverse portfolio of projects including farmers’ market access programs, fruit and vegetable prescription programs, and the statewide implementation of Farms Together, a USDA funded $60 million hunger relief project to direct local food from small grower networks to regional food banks.

Sasha Shankar, Co-Director, Dig Deep Farms

Sasha Shankar, Co-Director of Dig Deep Farms, is a permaculture designer/instructor and regenerative farmer with 10 years of experience. Prior to her studies of permaculture, horticulture and agriculture, she studied public and behavioral health. Sasha is also the Co-Founder of Town and City Permaculture, a Bay Area based non-profit. Sasha is passionate and devoted to resilient community building, cultivating healthy, healing relationships with people and land, trauma healing, diversity in permaculture training and education, Fairshare, and ancestral, holistic cooking and herbal medicine.

Troy Horton, Farm Director, Dig Deep Farms  

Troy Horton is a co-farm director at Dig Deep Farms, where he and his team of farmers have a vision and mission of using regenerative farming as a vehicle to help equitably increase socio-economic opportunities, public health, and safety within communities throughout Alameda County. He is also co-founder of the non-profit Town and City Permaculture. An Oakland born Bay Area native, Troy helped to form Town and City Permaculture, which uses permaculture design science as a key tool for community members who are mainly underrepresented and/or underemployed to build resilient careers, hyper-local economies and expand access to healthy food.

Rakhi Singh, MD, Medical Director, Fair Oaks Health Center Adult Clinic

Rakhi Singh serves as the Supervising Physician for the Fair Oaks Health Center Adult Clinic, in Redwood City. She has a passion for tackling food insecurity and has collaborated with several community partners to find solutions and empower families to better understand that food is medicine. She currently is a UCSF Champion Provider Fellow where she is working with the San Mateo Department of Public Health to collaborate to improve the lives of country residents through local policy and systems changes. She has a daily meditation practice and is passionately committed to serving patients and colleagues with dignity and compassion. She happily lives in Palo Alto, CA with her husband and three children

Sean Spencer, MD, PhD
Gastroenterologist and Physician Scientist, Stanford University

Sean Spencer, MD, PhD, is a gastroenterologist and physician scientist at Stanford University working with Justin and Erica Sonnenburg to uncover the beneficial health effects of fermented foods. He is passionate about the healing powers of food and uses it as a vital component of his medical practice, where he treats patients with GI disease. Sean obtained his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, earning his PhD studying nutritional immunology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), after which he moved to Boston for residency training at the Harvard affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital and has recently completely gastroenterology, training at Stanford University and is continuing his post-doctoral studies in the lab of Justin and Erica Sonnenburg. (Twitter: @seanpaulspencer)

Erica Sonnenburg, PhD
Senior Reseach Scientist, Stanford University

Erica Sonnenburg, PhD, is a senior research scientist in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is co-author of the book The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-Term Health.  Her laboratory at Stanford develops and employs diverse technologies to understand basic principles that govern interactions between diet, the intestinal microbiota, and the host. 

Justin Sonnenburg, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Stanford University School of Medicine

Justin Sonnenburg, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and recipient of the NIH Director’s New Innovator Award and Pioneer Award.

He is co-author of the book The Good Gut: Taking Control of Your Weight, Your Mood, and Your Long-Term Health.  His laboratory at Stanford develops and employs diverse technologies to understand basic principles that govern interactions between diet, the intestinal microbiota, and the host. 

Ami Bhatt, Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics, Stanford University  

Ami Bhatt is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Genetics at Stanford University, with an MD and PhD from the University of California, San Francisco. Prof. Bhatt's laboratory applies novel molecular and computational tools to study strain level dynamics of the microbiome and predict the functional output of microbiomes. Her work focuses on understanding how microbes communicate with each other and with host cells to improve health and treat diseases. She has received several awards, including the Chen Award of Excellence from the Human Genome Organisation and the Distinguished Investigator Award from the Paul Allen Foundation, and is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation. Additionally, she is committed to ensuring that advances in research reach individuals in all income settings and is involved in research with the H3Africa Genomics Consortium and nonprofit work with Global Oncology.

Jim Leape, Co-Director, Center of Ocean Solutions, Stanford University

Michelle Tigchelaar, PhD
Research Scientist, Center for Ocean Solutions, Stanford University

Dr. Michelle Tigchelaar is a Research Scientist with the Center for Ocean Solutions. She is an interdisciplinary climate scientist whose work focuses on the impacts of climate change on food systems, spanning the aquatic and terrestrial and the ecological and human. Michelle obtained a MSc in Climate Dynamics from Utrecht University, and a PhD in Oceanography from the University of Hawaii. At COS, she coordinates the Blue Food Assessment (http://bluefood.earth), an integrative assessment of the role of aquatic foods in transformations towards healthy, sustainable, just and resilient food systems. Michelle is passionate about leveraging scientific findings for positive impact through policy engagement and strategic communication. Her work has been covered extensively in popular media such as The Guardian, CBS News, The Atlantic, and PBS Newshour.

Zach Koehn, PhD, Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University,
Blue Food Assessment

Zach works on the Blue Food Assessment, a broad coalition that seeks to improve the role of marine and freshwater foods to the global food system. He focuses on the potential for these blue foods to contribute critical micronutrients to meet dietary requirements for people in different social and economic contexts. He also uses an environmental justice lens to identify inequities in the production and distribution of blue foods with respect to nutrition and livelihood security. Zach completed his doctorate at the School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences at the University of Washington. He has worked for NGOs, as well as US federal agencies, academic research institutions, and international organizations. Prior to his PhD, Zach managed a direct market company for local seafood, Real Good Fish, based in Monterey Bay, California.

Michelle Hauser, MD, Chef and Clinical Associate Professor, General Surgery, Stanford University School of Medicine

Michelle Hauser, MD, MS, MPA, FACP, FACLM, DipABLM, Chef, is Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, General Surgery, and by courtesy, Primary Care and Population Health at Stanford University School of Medicine and Obesity Medicine Director of the Medical Weight Loss Program in the Stanford Lifestyle and Weight Management Center and also started the medical weight loss program at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. She is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine. She is currently course director for the Stanford Teaching Kitchen Elective for MD & PA Students—the course upon which her Culinary Medicine Curriculum (published with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine) is based. This curriculum has been used in over 100 countries for health professional education and patient care. Beyond delivering patient care and medical education, Dr. Hauser is a prevention researcher and Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef. She combines her skills to help patients move away from lifestyles that lead to chronic disease and toward those that promote health and well-being.

Julia Nordgren, MD
Clinical Instructor, Stanford Medicine Pediatrics

Dr. Julia Nordgren is a proud member of the collection of physicians who are also trained chefs. She earned her medical degree at Dartmouth and her chef’s training at the Culinary Institute of America in the Napa Valley, California. She is a practicing physician at Stanford’s Pediatric Weight Clinic as well as Palo Alto Medical Foundation, where she cares for patients with cholesterol disorders and prediabetes. This provides her the joyous challenge of practicing culinary medicine at its finest, as she strives to have her patients leave her office with an inspiring recipe, rather than a prescription. Dr. Nordgren enjoys speaking at culinary conferences, teaching medical students how to cook and eat well, and training her teenage boys to be skilled and helpful kitchen wizards. Her cookbook is called “The New Family Table” and can be found on Amazon and her website, DrJuliaCooks, along with recipes and thoughts about creating a delicious and healthy life.

Chef Terry J. Braggs, Executive Chef of Student Food Experiences, Stanford Dining Services

Charlie Hoffs, Graduate Student, Stanford University

Charlie Hoffs (she/her) is pursuing a Stanford MS degree in Community Health and Prevention Research, and completed her BS in Chemical Engineering at Stanford. Since 2019, she has participated in the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative, through which she helped co-teach 6 quarters of HUMBIO 14: Understanding Connections Between Food and the Environment and coordinated the MCURC nationwide Student Fellows program. In 2021-2022 she served as the Haas Center's Issue Area Coordinator on Affordability, and this year is Haas's annual Catherine Milton Fellow, working to improve Stanford's service impact on San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. From 2020-2023, she co-directed a youth-led food policy organization called unBox. She is currently a graduate research fellow with the Stanford Food Institute.

Matt Landry, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Stanford University

Matthew Landry is a postdoctoral research scholar, registered dietitian nutritionist, and the current Stanford Plant-Based Diet Initiative research fellow in the Stanford Prevention Research Center. His current research focuses on identifying the optimal diet (or diets) for chronic disease prevention, addressing the methodological challenges of designing, implementing, and reporting clinical trials that test dietary patterns, and quantifying behavioral and environmental factors that influence what people are eating and how much of it is driven by inequities and social justice issues. He received his bachelor’s degree in nutrition and food sciences from Louisiana State University and completed his doctoral degree in nutritional sciences and dietetic internship from The University of Texas at Austin. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Jodi Krefetz, CDM, CFPP, Administrative Director of Food & Express Services, Stanford Health Care

Jodi Krefetz, CDM, CFPP has led the Stanford Health Care Food Services Department since 2016. Prior to joining Stanford, she acquired an extensive culinary background that includes food services, culinary education, and event management. Jodi is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the California Culinary Academy. She subsequently attended several cooking schools around the globe to further her education. 

Upon joining SHC, Jodi and her leadership envisioned a future for food as medicine in the healthcare environment where healthy, delicious food would enhance the healing process for patients. A commitment to local and sustainable ingredients became the core of the program.  Under Jodi’s leadership, the team set out to improve the nutritional quality, flavor profile and dining experience for patients, visitors, and staff.  

The award-winning team has been featured in publications and has been a consistent contributor to evoke change in the health care environment. Jodi envisions a zero-waste operation and hopes to someday open a teaching kitchen for patients, staff & visitors to continue health and healing through food.

Helen Wirth, Executive Director, Sustainability Program Office & Hospitality Services, Stanford Health Care

Helen oversees 7 operating departments supporting non-clinical functions including: Sustainability Program Office, Environmental Services, Food Services, Patient Transport, Patient Equipment Management Solutions, Facility Management, and Facilities, Services, Response Center.  She has a wide array of experiences in food service operations and systems including leading the Food Transformation journey for Stanford Health Care, contract management with Sodexo, and restaurant owner. Helen is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) who is passionate about supporting environmental stewardship initiatives in the workplace and everyday life.

Cindy Kin, MD, MS, FACS, FASCRS, DipABLM
Associate Professor of Surgery, Stanford University

Cindy Kin is a colorectal surgeon who takes care of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, colorectal cancer, diverticulitis, and other colorectal ailments. Her research focuses on how we might improve surgical outcomes and overall health by offering patients nutrition and exercise interventions before surgery. She is the principal investigator in several clinical trials of prehabilitation prior to surgery.  When she’s not prehabilitating or operating on patients, she enjoys running with friends, playing tennis, cooking, and spending time with her husband and two daughters.

Nora LaTorre, CEO, Eat Real

As CEO at Eat REAL, Nora is galvanizing individuals, communities, health advocates, and the organization to scale impact to make society and especially the next generation healthier. Before joining Eat REAL, Nora led growth and partnerships at Ganaz, which is a new agtech startup. At Ganaz, she was employee #3, Head of Sales, and was on the Exec Team. Nora was a sustainability leader within the Produce Industry and the Tech world. Previously, she was VP of Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail at Fair Trade USA, which is a leader in third-party certification that seeks sustainable livelihoods for farmers and workers around the world while engaging consumers on that journey.

Michael Jochner, Director of Student Nutrition, Morgan Hill Unified School District

Michael Jochner is the Director of Student Nutrition at Morgan Hill USD. He’s a professionally trained Chef, having worked in world class French restaurants, country clubs, and at Google here in the bay area.  In his 5 yrs as Nutrition Director, he’s reshape the MHUSD nutrition ecosystem in his district. Michael introduced biodegradable and compostable silverware and trays, removed single use plastics, and sources produce and meats from local and organic farms. His menus focus on healthy vegetarian and vegan options across all grade levels.  Michael’s latest achievement is the installation of 2 Freight Farms, which produces 100% of his district's lettuce.

Miguel Villarreal
Co-executive Director, National Farm to School Network

With over 30+ years’ experience in public schools in Texas and California pioneering healthy food in schools, Miguel Villarreal worked at redefining the role of School Food Service Programs and improving the diet of the students locally and around the Nation.  His innovative community model and established credibility among many community groups, policy makers, and foundations, as well as state and national officials gave his programs a high degree of success that supported and contributed to efforts to create nutrition and wellness environments in schools and the community.  He serves on numerous local, state and national Boards focused on improving the Culture of Wellness in communities.  He currently serves as the Interim Co-Executive Director for the National Farm to School Network.