Area of Expertise: Obesity
Area of Expertise: Weight Management
Jamy Ard, MD
Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Public Health Sciences, Co-Director of Weight Management Center
Ard specializes in obesity and weight management in adults. He has more than 15 years of experience in clinical nutrition and obesity. His research interests include clinical management of obesity and strategies to improve cardiometabolic risk using lifestyle modification. Ard has been conducting research on lifestyle modification since 1995 and has worked on several National Institutes of Health-funded multi-center trials, including Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), DASH-sodium and Weight Loss Maintenance Trial. Currently, he is serving as a member of the Expert Panel on the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults, which is sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of NIH.
Faculty Profile, Research and PublicationsArea of Expertise: Bariatric Surgery
Area of Expertise: Surgery - Laparoscopic
Adolfo Fuzz Fernandez, MD
Associate Professor, Surgery, General
Fernandez is the medical director of the Bariatric Surgery Program at Wake Forest Baptist. He has performed several hundred bariatric surgeries, including a live webcast in 2004. Fernandez has authored numerous papers and has given several presentations on gastric bypass surgery as a treatment of morbid obesity. A Thomas Brown McClelland Trust Scholar while in medical school at Duke, Fernandez was later inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He is listed in Best Doctors in America.
Faculty Profile, Research and PublicationsArea of Expertise: Women's Health
Andrea S. Fernandez, MD
Associate Professor; Section Head, Section on General Obstetrics and Gynecology
In 2009, Dr. Fernandez successfully performed laparoscopic total hysterectomy requiring only one incision. Wake Forest Baptist is the first in western North Carolina to do the single-incision procedure. She also specializes in adolescent gynecology, obstetrics, endometriosis, uterine bleeding, and menopause management. Her research interests are in hypertensive disorders and pre-eclampsia, polycystic ovarian syndrome, menopausal therapies, menstrual irregularities and obesity.
Faculty Profile, Research and PublicationsArea of Expertise: Endocrinology - General
Area of Expertise: Minority Health - Internal Medicine/ Endocrinology and Metabolism
Kristin G. Hairston, MD, MPH
Associate Professor, Internal Medicine-Endocrinology
Hairston's clinical specialties include osteoporosis, diabetes, endocrinology, thyroid disease and pituitary gland disorders. Her research currently focuses on the impact of visceral/abdominal fat accumulation and metabolic disorders (especially type 2 diabetes) among African-American and Hispanic populations.
Faculty Profile, Research and PublicationsArea of Expertise: Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
Stephen B. Kritchevsky, PhD
Director, Sticht Center on Aging
Professor, Internal Medicine and Translational Science
Associate Director, Translational Science Institute
Kritchevsky is an epidemiologist specializing in nutrition, chronic disease and physical function in older adults. He has leadership positions in several multi-center observational studies and clinical trials focused on the functional health of older adults including the Lifestyle Interventions and Independence for Elders Clinical Trial, the Health Aging and Body Composition Study, the Cardiovascular Health Study – All-Stars Study, and the Look AHEAD Memory and Movement Study. Kritchevsky is the principal Investigator of the Wake Forest Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, one of 13 such centers supported by the National Institute on Aging. He has authored more than 350 publications and has been recognized by Thompson-Reuters as one of the most highly cited researchers in his field. Kritchevsky is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences which is one of the highest impact journals in the field of aging. He is broadly knowledgeable about issues related to health and aging in older adults, with particular expertise in the areas of obesity, body composition and nutrition.
Faculty Profile, Research and PublicationsArea of Expertise: Public Health
Scott D. Rhodes, PhD, MPH, CHES
Professor, Public Health Sciences
Rhodes is a public health scientist whose research focuses on the integration of community engagement, health promotion and disease prevention in both rural and urban communities nationally and internationally. Specifically, his research explores sexual health; HIV and sexually transmitted diseases; and health disparities, including substance use and obesity, among vulnerable communities.
Rhodes has extensive experience in developing, implementing and evaluating interventions for African American, Hispanic/Latino and immigrant populations; persons living with HIV and AIDS; self-identified gay and bisexual men; men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender persons.
He recently edited a new book entitled: Innovations in HIV Prevention Research and Practice through Community Engagement, published by Springer, 2014.
Area of Expertise: Pathology - Social Stress
Area of Expertise: Psychiatry - Research
Carol A. Shively, PhD
Professor, Pathology - Comparative Medicine
Shively investigates social stress effects on health, particularly women's health, including heart disease, obesity and depression, using non-human primate models. Her research focuses on how social stress, particularly the stress of low social status, increases the risk of coronary heart disease, depression, metabolic syndrome, obesity, and endometrial cancer. She uses non-invasive brain imaging to learn more about the brain mechanisms behind disease. She received the National Association for Women’s Health award for “Excellence in Research” and is listed in both Who’s Who of American Women and International Who’s Who. She has authored or co-authored more than 70 research papers.
Area of Expertise: Childhood Obesity
Area of Expertise: Pediatrics Bariatric Surgery
Area of Expertise: Obesity Treatment and Research
Joseph A. Skelton, MD
Assc. Professor of Pediatrics, Gastroenterology
Skelton, a pediatric gastroenterologist and national obesity expert, heads the region's first and most comprehensive pediatric obesity program. Called Brenner FIT (Families in Training); the program has several components, including a year-long intensive treatment program for overweight children with an underlying medical problem. Brenner FIT works with families to identify habits to change and then help them restructure their lives in a way that promotes physical fitness, healthy eating habits and overall wellness. Skelton consults with other pediatric specialists at Brenner Children's Hospital to treat children with high cholesterol, diabetes, sleep apnea and other obesity-related diseases. His team includes a behavior specialist, a physical therapist, a dietitian, and a nurse case manager.In addition to the Brenner FIT program, Skelton is working with pediatric surgeons at the children's hospital to offer the state's only adolescent bariatric surgery program for children.
Faculty Profile, Research and PublicationsArea of Expertise: Nutrition - Public Health
Mara Z. Vitolins, MPH, DPH
Professor and Interim Chair -Department of Epidemiology and Prevention, Division of Public Health Sciences
Vitolins is a nutrition researcher and a registered dietitian whose studies focus on lifestyle interventions for chronic diseases, especially for heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity. She has worked extensively with soy in several research studies, in particular for women in the menopausal transition. She is also a health educator and is able to discuss basics of nutrition, the role of nutrition in prevention and control of disease, and keeping people on their diets.