Obesity Specialty Practice Group

Hello distinguished colleagues and members of the AANP Obesity Specialty Practice Group. I am thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to serve you for the next two years as SPG co-chair. I have been a nurse for close to 20 years and am a family nurse practitioner, nurse scientist, and associate professor and director of special projects and evaluation at the University of South Alabama College of Nursing in Mobile, Alabama. I have been the faculty director of an interprofessional culinary medicine program at my university and am on an interprofessional team of researchers studying health promotion and the prevention and treatment of obesity in multiple vulnerable populations including nursing students. My research team has also studied NP-student observations of obesity bias in clinical settings. I have worked with a team of nursing faculty to implement the AANP Introductory Certificate of Obesity Management in Primary Care modules in advanced practice nursing classes, noting marked improved knowledge of evidence-based practices resulting from this education. I look forward to engaging with you and learning from you, and I want to highlight all the wonderful things you are doing to combat the disease of obesity in practice, research, and education!

Welcome to the Obesity Specialty Practice Group! As a Pediatric NP who has worked in the field of obesity medicine for 15 years, I am excited to serve as Co-chair along with Rebecca Graves. This is an exciting time for our subspecialty with an emerging understanding of how humans regulate energy, what pathophysiology is manifested in the disease of obesity, and why some people are susceptible to environmental modulators resulting in obesity while others show more resistance. In pediatrics, phenotypes with different presentations are emerging along with a better understanding of genetic predisposition. Weight bias remains a major challenge not only as a contributor to obesity itself but also as a barrier to obesity care. NP are well positioned throughout the healthcare system to advocate, counsel, treat, and participate in research and policy. I look forward to conversations that will address all aspects of the disease of obesity, both in children and adults.