Pediatric Obesity
The purpose of the Pediatric Obesity Section is to support and promote scientific efforts to understand the correlates, causes, and consequences of pediatric obesity and to inform its treatment and prevention.
Goals:
- Promote networking and collaboration among TOS Pediatric Obesity researchers and practitioners
- Promote pediatric obesity clinical practice
- Increase the national visibility of the pediatric obesity section as a leading resource in research, practice, and advocacy
Resources:
Join us at the annual Pediatric Obesity Section meeting! Each year during the Obesity Society Annual meeting, the Pediatric Obesity Section has a section meeting. This meeting is open to section members and those interested in joining. During the session, the Bar-Or Award for Excellence in Pediatric Obesity Research is presented and followed by a lecture that highlights excellence in pediatric obesity research. The session provides an excellent opportunity to network with other pediatric obesity researchers.
Bar-Or Award for Excellence in Pediatric Obesity Research
The Bar-Or Award was founded in 2007 by the Pediatric Obesity Section of TOS to recognize significant contributions to basic and applied pediatric obesity research that have resulted in major advances in scientific understanding of etiology, prevention, and treatment of pediatric obesity.
Past recipients of the Bar-Or Award:
- 2011 – Nancy Butte, PhD
- 2010 – Leann L. Birch, PhD
- 2009 – Michael Goran, PhD and Melinda Southern, PhD
- 2008 – William H Dietz, MD, PhD
- 2007 – Leonard Epstein, PhD
Childhood Obesity Resources
News:
March 2010 Section Announcement: COMP
The Response of the Pediatric Obesity Section of The Obesity Society to the March 16, 2010 Federal Register Request for Comments on the Actions of the Child Obesity Task Force. Read the full response.
March 2010 Section Announcement
February 2010 Section Announcement
Join the Pediatric Section:
All section members must be a member of The Obesity Society.
If you are not a member of The Obesity Society, join today. Be certain to select the Pediatric Section when completing your profile.
If you are already a member and would like to join the Pediatric Obesity Section please login to your member profile and select the Pediatric Obesity Section. Once you have updated your profile, you will receive all communications pertaining to the section.
Please contact Sadie Campbell, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Governance and Executive Assistant if you have any questions.
Pediatric Obesity ListServ
Section Listservs are now available for TOS members! Listservs are a great place to find and to share knowledge and ideas. Sign up Today!
Member Listserv Rules & Etiquette
Leaders:
Alison Field, ScD (Chair 2011-2012)
Alison E. Field, ScD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School and an Associate Professor in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. She has been a member of TOS for 12 years and member of the Pediatric Obesity Section since its inception. In addition to her involvement in the Pediatric Section, she currently is a Member-at-Large of Council and a member of the TOS Program Planning Committee. Her research focuses on the modifiable causes of excessive weight gain, obesity, and disordered eating among children, adolescents, and adult women.
Denise E. Wilfley, PhD (Chair-Elect 2011-2012)
Denise Wilfley is a Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, Pediatrics, and Psychology at Washington University in St. Louis, and also serves as Director of the Weight Management and Eating Disorders Program at Washington University School of Medicine. Dr. Wilfley is a TOS fellow, and has been a member of TOS since 1998 and a member of the Pediatric Obesity Section since 2000. She currently is a member of The Obesity Society Scientific Review Committee and previously served on the editorial board of Obesity. Dr. Wilfley’s vision for TOS Pediatric Obesity Section includes increasing the scope and support of the Section and bringing a greater focus on the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based interventions to “real world” clinical practice. Her research program focuses on the etiology, prevention, and treatment of obesity and eating disorders in youth, and her work been influential in developing innovative and cost-effective methods for early intervention and prevention of obesity and eating disorders.
Dana L. Rofey, PhD (Secretary/Treasurer 2011-2012)
Dana L. Rofey is currently the Director of Behavioral Health at the Weight Management and Wellness Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. Dr. Rofey earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology at Bucknell University and her clinical psychology degree at the University of Cincinnati with later training in nutrition and exercise physiology. She completed her predoctoral internship at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and her postdoctoral training at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. She currently is funded by the National Institute of Health and oversees several federally-funded grants aiming to optimize services for adolescents with polycystic ovary syndrome and depression; to enhance motivation and treatment success in health promotion for high-risk children; to investigate the impact that adolescent bariatric surgery has on psychosocial outcomes; and to examine the effects of obesity on the developing brain. She is the author and co-author of numerous articles that have been published in peer-reviewed scientific journals; she also serves as a reviewer for several journals. She has served as the Co-Chair of the Academy of Eating Disorder’s Membership, Recruitment, and Retention Committee and Special Interest Group Oversight Committee; she has served as a member of The Obesity Society’s Public Affairs Committee; and she was the Treasurer for the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies Obesity and Eating Disorders Group.
Ellen Demerath, PhD (Past Chair 2010-2011)
Ellen Demerath, PhD is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in Minneapolis, MN. She has been a member of TOS for 12 years and of the Pediatric Obesity Section for 5 years. Her research program seeks to understand the interplay of genetic and environmental influences on body composition changes during infancy, childhood, and adulthood.
Kirsten Davison, PhD(Council 2010-2012)
Kirsten Davison, an Associate Professor at the University at Albany (SUNY), conducts basic and applied research on parenting practices linked with obesity risk in children and adolescents. She has been a member of TOS for 10 years and a member of the Pediatric Section for 4 years.
Youfa Wang, MD, PhD, MS (Council 2010-2012)
Dr Youfa Wang is an Associate Professor in the Center for Human Nutrition, Departments of International Health and Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health. He has received multidisciplinary training in medicine, nutrition, epidemiology, sociology and laboratory medicine including a PhD in Nutrition Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has been a TOS member since 1999. His research focuses on the causes, assessment, health consequences, and prevention of childhood obesity.
Lori A. Francis, PhD (Council 2011-2013)
Dr. Lori Francis is an Assistant Professor of Biobehavioral Health at The Pennsylvania State University. She is a developmental psychologist with expertise in early childhood influences on problematic eating behaviors and overweight. As a developmental scientist with expertise in influences on dysregulated eating behaviors and the development of overweight and obesity in childhood, the results of her work provide evidence that factors within the family environment, including parenting behaviors and family resources, represent a context for problematic eating and weight outcomes in children. Her primary research interests are in understanding factors that influence the disproportionate burden of obesity in children from low-resource and minority families.
Erin Hennessy, PhD, MPH (Fellow 2010-2012)
Erin Hennessy, PhD, MPH is a graduate of the Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She has been awarded a National Cancer Institute Cancer Prevention Fellowship beginning June 2010. Her research interests include the study of socioenvironmental factors on childhood obesity with a particular emphasis on family dynamics; and on designing multilevel, theory-based community interventions. She has been a TOS and Pediatric Section member since 2006. Dr. Hennessy regularly attends the TOS annual and section meetings, and has presented abstracts in both the poster and oral sections.
