Milton Mills, MD
Talk Title: Overcoming Metabolic Derangement Syndromes that Masquerade as Discreet Diseases: Using Whole-Food, Plant-Based Diets to Arrest & Reverse Most Chronic Diseases
Practicing critical care in the Washington DC area, Dr. Milton Mills is a renowned board certified clinician and educator with over four decades of clinical and presentation experience. Earning his medical degree at Stanford University School of Medicine, Dr. Mills completed his Internal Medicine residency at Georgetown University Hospital and has published several research journal articles addressing racial bias in federal nutrition policy. Dr. Mills has been prominently featured in popular documentary films such as What the Health, The Invisible Vegan and They’re Trying to Kill Us and frequently donates his time practicing at free medical clinics, and travels widely, speaking at hospitals.
Vesanto Melina, MS, RD
Talk Title: Optimizing Plant-Based Nutrition: Clinical Guidelines and Practical Strategies
Vesanto Melina, MS, Registered Dietitian is co-author of books that have won awards internationally and received star rating by the American Library Association as “the go-to books” on plant-based nutrition. Most recent are Plant-Powered Protein (which reached #1 on Amazon.com in the sustainability category), The Kick Diabetes Cookbook (now used by 7 New York Hospitals), and Becoming Vegan (Comprehensive and Express Edition) (all co-authored with Registered Dietitian Brenda Davis). With over a million books in print in English, their books are now in 9 additional languages. Vesanto has taught nutrition at the University of British Columbia and at Seattle’s Bastyr University and received the Ryley-Jeffs award, and a 2023 lifetime achievement award as a dietitian. She is lead author of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics last Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets. She is an internationally known speaker (in 14 countries).
Douglas Lisle, PhD
Talk Title: The Pleasure Trap
Douglas J. Lisle is a clinical psychologist specializing in health and wellness. He received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Virginia, and was then appointed Lecturer in Psychology at Stanford University. Dr. Lisle worked at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center on a major clinical trial of cognitive therapy and depression. He then joined True North Health Center and became the psychologist for the McDougall Wellness Program. He is the co-author of The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force that Undermines Health and Happiness, and is the author of Sherlock Holmes and the Secret of Life.
Debra Shapiro, MD
Talk Title: Optimizing Your Patient’s Health for Pregnancy, Baby, and Future Wellness
Dr. Debra Shapiro has practiced medicine for over 3 decades, and is Board Certified in both Obstetrics and Gynecology as well as Lifestyle Medicine. She has been studying Plant-Based Nutrition for 12 years, with a Certificate from eCornell and the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies. She is a Certified Health Coach and a Vegan Lifestyle Coach and Educator.
Dr. Shapiro’s passion is using plant based nutrition and lifestyle medicine to prevent, treat and reverse chronic disease. In addition to coaching one on one, she co-created a novel group coaching program, The Pregnancy Advantage, to help people prepare physically and emotionally for pregnancy, with the goal of increasing fertility, decreasing pregnancy complications and improving the health of future generations.
Dr. Shapiro is a contributor to the 2022 ACLM textbook, Improving Women’s Health Across the Lifespan, and has appeared on numerous podcasts, in print magazines and has spoken at national conferences.
María José Hummel, PhD, MPH
Talk Title 1: Culinary Medicine: Support for Dietary Transformation
Talk Title 2: Improving Patient Outcomes Through Community Resources
María José Hummel is a nutritionist, health educator, author, international speaker, and former engineer. She holds multiple degrees, which include a Bachelor’s in Engineering from Cal Poly, a Master’s of Science in Nutrition from the University of Bridgeport, Connecticut, a Master’s in Public Health from San Jose State, a certification in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies at Cornell University, and she holds a doctorate in naturopathy as well as a Doctorate in Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Natural Medicine from the International Institute of Original Medicine.
As a health educator and plant-based nutritionist, certified by the American Association of Lifestyle Medicine, María José enjoys sharing not only her knowledge, but her passion for nutrition, health, and plant-based cooking. She has appeared on cooking shows on radio and television networks such as 3ABN, 3ABN Latino, and other radio and television networks. She has taught nutrition courses at the Adventist University of Chile and the Peruvian Union University. María José is the author of two vegetarian cookbooks and a book on reversing diabetes (in Spanish).
Martha Sandoval, MD
Panelist
Martha Sandoval, MD has been a family medicine physician at Palo Alto Medical Foundation in Watsonville, CA since 2000. She graduated from Stanford School of Medicine in 1996. She is the current Medical Director for Eat for the Earth.
Dr. Sandoval is the Healthy Eating Active Lifestyles Medical Director, has received board certification from American Board Obesity Medicine, and holds a Whole Foods Plant Based Certificate from T Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.
Steven Leib, MD
Panelist
Over a nearly five-decade career Dr. Leib has compassionately served his community as a family and lifestyle medicine physician. He earned his M.D. at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, followed by a residency in family medicine at UCLA. Though he officially became board certified in lifestyle medicine in 2017, Dr. Leib has passionately practiced with a preventive oriented, lifestyle centric, humanistic yet fiercely scientific-based approach throughout his career. His passion is driven by the relationships he has built with his patients over the course of their lives and the joy he has experience in keeping them healthy and well.
Since his recent retirement, Dr. Leib has remained active in the community. His goal remains to educate and inspire folks to improve their healthspan by way of the latest evidence-based approaches to health behavior change.
On a personal note, Dr. Leib lives in Ben Lomond, California in a historic Victorian home with his wonderful wife Vivian and adorable dog Mollie. He loves spending time with his kids and grandkids. Along with indulging his lifelong love of learning, he enjoys being in his garden, as well as walking or biking in nature.
Chef Beth Love, MDiv
Talk Title 1: Culinary Medicine: Support for Dietary Transformation
Talk Title 2: Improving Patient Outcomes Through Community Resources
Rev. Chef Beth Love is the founder of Eat for the Earth, an ordained New Thought minister, and the author of the Tastes Like Love book series. She has brought a message of transformation to multiple audiences with her speaking and facilitation skills, in contexts as diverse as the California state prison system, schools, nonprofits, churches, radio, various online forums, local community television, and The Oprah Winfrey Show. She is known for her fierce commitment, wise counsel, strategic mind, and huge capacity for love.
Rev. Beth’s life calling has taken many twists and turns, but has always been centered on human transformation. She has taught in and run Montessori schools, helped to found a New Thought church and served in various capacities in that community for over 20 years, facilitated trainings on issues of power and privilege, run nonprofit organizations focused on the topic of child abuse, and done extensive volunteer work with prison inmates. Due to her concern about the contribution of animal agriculture to the climate crisis and other environmental crises, Beth started Eat for the Earth, an organization that supports a human dietary shift towards more plants and less animal products to sustain all life on Earth.