Christopher Gardner, PhD

For more than 30 years Christopher Gardner, PhD, Rehnborg Farquhar professor of medicine at Stanford, and nutrition scientist, has studied what to consume and to avoid for optimal health, and how best to motivate individuals to achieve healthy dietary behaviors. He recently completed a 2-year term serving on the US Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and is the past chair of the American Heart Association’s Nutrition Committee. For the past two years he has been actively involved with the American Heart Association in publications and pilot studies on the topic of Food is Medicine. He has conducted and published dozens of human nutrition intervention trials, including trials of Mediterranean, Ketogenic, Vegan, Low-Fat and Low-Carb diets and their effects on cardiometabolic health. Some of his current interests include Stealth Nutrition, Unapologetic Deliciousness and Institutional Food Settings. Professor Gardner’s work was recently featured in a Netflix docuseries (Jan 2024) – “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment”.

Michelle Hauser, MD, MS, MPA, FACP, FACLM, DipABLM, Chef 

Michelle Hauser, MD, MS, MPA, FACP, FACLM, DipABLM, Chef is President-elect of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and 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 Stanford Lifestyle and Weight Management Center. She is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine. She is currently course director for the Stanford Culinary Medicine (Teaching Kitchen) Elective for MD & PA Students—the course upon which her Culinary Medicine Curriculum (published with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine) and related resources are 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. Her current studies focus on co-treating food insecurity and obesity in Spanish-speaking adults, dietary behavior change, nutrition, culinary medicine, and interventions for patients with obesity. Prior studies have also examined diet quality, utilizing technology for physical activity and nutrition interventions, food literacy, and evaluation of weight management programs. Dr. Hauser is an invited fellow of the American College of Physicians and a fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. She completed her medical degree, residency, the Zuckerman Fellows Program in Leadership & Public Service and a Master of Public Policy and Administration degree at Harvard. She also completed a Master of Science in Epidemiology and Clinical Research degree and the Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention at Stanford. She previously worked 8 years for the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in MOVE TIME/obesity medicine and developed the lifestyle and medical weight management program. She has >15 years’ experience in clinical program development and using the shared medical appointment model to deliver patient counseling and education on healthy lifestyle, obesity, and obesity-related comorbidities.