Dr. Michael Klaper
Talk Title: Mechanisms of Disease Reversal Utilizing Plant-based Nutrition
Michael A. Klaper, M.D. is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He has practiced acute care medicine in California, Hawaii, Canada, Florida and New Zealand. After a fifty year career as a primary care physician, Dr. Klaper, a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, now focuses on the non-profit, Moving Medicine Forward initiative, wherein he shares with medical students and fellow health professionals the science of how health-promoting food and lifestyle choices can arrest and reverse chronic disease.
A long-time radio host and a pilot, Dr. Klaper has served as nutrition advisor to NASA’s programs for space colonists on the Moon and Mars and on the Nutrition Task Force of the American Medical Students Association. On his websites, DoctorKlaper.com visitors can find the latest nutrition information through his numerous articles and videos and at Movingmedforward.com you can learn about the Moving Medicine Forward initiative to promote applied nutrition being taught in medical schools.
Dr. Rak Jotwani
Talk Title: 10 Things I Wish I Had Known Before Going Plant-Based
Dr. Rakesh Jotwani, aka Dr. Rak (“rock”), became passionate about helping others make lifestyle changes after his own health dramatically improved with lifestyle changes. Dr. Rak completed his undergraduate degree in neuroscience at Duke University, his medical degree from the University of Chicago, and his internal medicine residency training at the University of California in San Francisco. He is dual board certified in Internal Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. He has worked in direct patient care for over a decade, first as a hospital physician, then as a primary care physician. He previously served as the Director of Lifestyle Medicine for a large community hospital in San Francisco. Dr. Rak has an avid interest in how we can effectively change our habits, and regularly speaks about this subject to other healthcare providers across the United States. Dr. Rak is also an active member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine’s subgroup HEAL (Health Equity Achieved Through Lifestyle). Dr. Rak is married and has three kids. Outside of work, he enjoys spending time cooking and enjoying plant-based meals, hiking, and strength training.
Dr. Columbus Batiste
Talk Title: SELFish: A cure for a stressed and broken heart
Columbus Batiste, MD FACC FSCAI is Chief of Cardiology for Kaiser Permanente Riverside and Moreno Valley Medical Centers, and was co-founder in 2011 and continues as Director of the Integrative Cardiovascular Disease Program at Kaiser Permanente Riverside. He earned his Doctorate in Medicine at Loma Linda University Medical School, and is a board-certified Internist, Cardiologist and Interventional Cardiologist. He also serves as an Assistant Clinical Professor at University of California Riverside School of Medicine, and as Medical Director of Southern California Permanente Medical Group Regional Home-Based Cardiac Rehab. He received the Kaiser Permanente Physician Exceptional Contribution Award in 2017 and the NAACP Community Health Service Award in 2016.
Though Dr. Batiste has performed nearly 2,000 coronary interventions and hundreds of pacemaker implantations, he became profoundly convinced that cardiovascular disease as well as stroke, hypertension and diabetes are preventable conditions, and he also saw that these major causes of death in the United States disproportionately affected African Americans. He came to be known as the “Healthy Heart Doc”, and has long been a strong advocate for use of plant-based diets, exercise and stress reduction as key lifestyle components for health promotion and patient empowerment. Since 2010 he has lectured across the United States, organizing local community health initiatives, cooking classes, and one-on-one coaching apart from his regular medical practice. He is co-founder of the “Slave Food” project, documenting the racial dimensions of health care disparities in the U.S., and he was featured in the celebrated documentary The Game Changers. He says that his sole goal is to educate so that “each one can teach one” about the power of health promoting foods in the form of plant based natural food sources, combined with activity, sleep and gratitude, in striving for a Healthy Heart Nation.
Dr. Elise Atkins
Talk Title: Thinking Outside the (Cereal) Box: Effective Weight Management with Plant-Based Nutrition
Dr. Elise Atkins’ greatest joy is using her knowledge and passion to help people live their healthiest lives. She is triple board certified in Family Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine and Obesity Medicine. With a deep-seated dedication to her patients’ success, she combines extensive medical knowledge with a genuine passion for lifestyle transformation. After discovering the magic of whole food plant-based nutrition in 2018, she and her husband transitioned their diet almost overnight and haven’t looked back since. Seeing their own medical issues resolve inspired Dr. Atkins to delve further into learning about nutrition and lifestyle medicine and sharing these life-changing principles with her patients.
In early 2023, Dr. Atkins founded Coastal Vitality MD, a pioneering medical practice dedicated to empowering individuals to lose excess weight, reverse chronic disease, and embrace a life of vitality and longevity. For each patient, she customizes a set of powerful lifestyle tools and provides individualized support to help them achieve their health goals. Dr. Atkins completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and Columbia University, and she studied medicine at the State University of New York Health Sciences Center at Downstate. She brings her rich experience from her career in primary care and physician leadership into her Lifestyle Medicine and Weight Management specialty medical practice.
María José Hummel, PhD, MPH
Talk Title: Community Rx/ Salud En Tu Plato: A Plant-Based Nutrition Program
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).
Dr. Debra Shapiro
Panelist
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 10 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.
Reed Mangels, PhD, RDN
Panelist
Reed Mangels, PhD, RDN is a Nutrition Advisor for the non-profit, educational Vegetarian Resource Group as well as a regular columnist and Nutrition Editor for the quarterly publication, Vegan Journal (formerly Vegetarian Journal). She is a co-author of the recently released 4th edition of The Dietitian’s Guide to Vegetarian Diets and of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2009 and 2003 position papers on vegetarian diets. She is a past Chair of the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group. She has written numerous articles and book chapters for professionals and the public on vegetarian nutrition in the life-cycle.
Reed has authored several books for the public including Your Complete Vegan Pregnancy and Simply Vegan. She was an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Nutrition, University of Massachusetts Amherst until her retirement.
Dr. Martha Sandoval
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.
Beth Love
Cooking Demo: Whole Food Plant-Based Meals for Your Full Life
Rev. 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.