Tel: 303-770-9100
2696 S. Colorado Blvd.
Suite #340
Denver, CO 80222
State Medical License: California
Medical Residency: University of Washington
Board Certification: Surgery; Obesity Medicine
Dr. John Morton is Chief of Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine. He also heads the Bariatric and Minimally Invasive Surgery Fellowship and is Co-Director of the Stanford Digestive Health Center. Dr. Morton received undergraduate, Masters in Public Health, and Medical Doctor Degree from Tulane University and a Masters in Health Administration from University of Washington. He was the first surgical resident to receive a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar Fellowship in the program’s history at University of Washington and also completed an advanced laparoscopic fellowship at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He served on Capitol Hill as Senator Bill Frist’s Health Policy Intern. He is a Diplomate of both the American Board of Surgery and American Board of Obesity Medicine and certified in Medical Quality by the American College of Medical Quality.
He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and 15 book chapters with over 200 national and international presentations. His research has focused on quality improvement and bariatric surgery and has published influential articles on patient safety, adolescent bariatric surgery, diabetes and gastric bypass, fertility and birth outcomes following weight loss surgery, probiotics, pre-operative weight loss, family effects of weight loss surgery, effect of weight loss on testosterone, obesity disparities in health care, changes in cancer screening tests following weight loss, endoscopy, and impact of gastric bypass upon alcohol metabolism and cardiac risk factors. He led 5 site FDA Pivotal Trials and has received funding from National Institutes of Health and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. He serves as editor of Morbid Obesity: Perioperative Management, The ASMBS Textbook of Bariatric Surgery, Volume 1: Bariatric Surgery and SAGES Handbook on Quality, Patient Safety and Outcomes. Furthermore, he serves on the editorial boards of Obesity Surgery, Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases, Bariatric Times, Journal of Surgical Case Reports and World Journal of Gastroenterology. His research efforts have been recognized by 15 research awards from 4 different surgical societies including the Society for Advanced Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) Golden Laparoscope Award as 2008 Young Investigator of the Year. As a teacher, Dr. Morton has received five teaching awards at Stanford University in 8 years including the 2008 Arthur Bloomfield Clinical Teacher of the Year and 2011 Henry J. Kaiser Teaching Award.
As Director of Surgical Quality at Stanford University Medical Center from 2007-2013, Dr. Morton led efforts to improve the Department of Surgery’s University Health Consortium’s annual ranking from 24/98 to 1/98 and their Annual NSQIP mortality ranking from Average to Exemplary. Among NSQIP Surgical Champions, he was chosen to chair the monthly Surgical Champions forum for the American College of Surgeons. He has been an invited speaker on surgical quality by the American College of Surgeons, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, National Patient Safety Foundation, and American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and served on the National Quality Forum’s Surgical and GI/GU Steering Committees. Currently, he is the national co-chair of the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP), a collaboration between the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the American College of Surgeons. In 2014, the Stanford Bariatric Surgery program was noted to be Exemplary in five different categories by MBSAQIP.
From 2014-5, he served as elected President of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery composed of over 4000 members from 52 countries. With over 2000 bariatric surgeries performed, he has been recognized as a bariatric surgery leader by Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, RAND, American College of Surgeons, Who’s Who and America’s Top Surgeons. His clinical skills have resulted in being named Castle Connolly’s Physician of the Year for Clinical Excellence in 2012. Dr. Morton has been featured on the Today Show, Good Morning America, NY Times, National Public Radio, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, BBC, Newsweek, Time, Medscape, Washington Post, LA Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, International Herald Tribune, Reuters, United Press International, Wall Street Journal, and Associated Press.
Donna H. Ryan, MD is Professor Emeritus at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She served as Associate Executive Director at Pennington Biomedical for 34 years where she was active in research, teaching and administration. Her research accomplishments include landmark studies of omega 3 fatty acids, and membership on the teams that developed the NIH-sponsored feeding studies, DELTA (Dietary Effects on Lipoproteins and Thrombosis in Atherosclerosis) and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). Dr. Ryan was an Investigator on NIH multicenter lifestyle intervention studies DPP (Diabetes Prevention Program) and POUNDS Lost and the Look AHEAD study. Dr. Ryan worked with the Louisiana Office of Group Benefits to conduct LOSS (Louisiana Obese Subjects Study), a pragmatic clinical trial of intensive medical therapy for severe obesity conducted in six Louisiana primary care clinics. This work continues in a translational phase as HEADS UP!. Dr. Ryan was PI of a Military Nutrition Grant from 1988-2011 to develop improvements to soldier readiness, nutrition and health.
Dr. Ryan maintained contact with patients throughout her career and continues to participate in the cohorts involving long-term care of patients with obesity using behavioral, dietary, pharmacologic and surgical approaches. She is an active participant in continuing medical education efforts for primary care physicians and her interest in these activities is communicating findings from the laboratory to inform clinical practice and especially primary care practices.
Dr. Ryan served as co-Chair the panel to revise the NIH-supported evidence-based Guidelines on the Evaluation and Management of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. Dr. Ryan is past President of The Obesity Society. She is currently Associate Editor in Chief of the journal, Obesity. Her scholarly activities include authorship of more than 190 original publications and 45 books, chapters and reviews, primarily in the field of obesity. Dr. Ryan has served the scientific community as a reviewer and advisor in many capacities including the following: NSF Medical R&D Expenditures Workshop 2006; National Dairy Council Review Team for Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute, 2006; Chair, Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), NIH Grant, “Safety and Efficacy of Low and High Carbohydrate Diets,” 2002-2008, Member DSMB for EARLY Studies 2010- present and reviewer for European Union Innovative Medicines Initiative, 2011 and 2012. Dr. Ryan has served as a scientific advisor and/or consultant to Abbott, Knoll, Procter and Gamble, Novartis, TAP Pharmaceuticals, Slim Fast, Solvay, Weight Watchers, Alere Wellbeing, Nutrisystem, Vivus, Arena, Sanofi-Aventis, Ajinomoto, Merck, Takeda, Vivus, Eisai, Arena, Novo-Nordisk, Janssen and Scientific Intake.
Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, FAAP, FTOS is an Instructor of Medicine and Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Assistant in Medicine and Pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital. At Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), she is an obesity medicine physician for children, adolescents, and adults, Associate at the Disparities Solution Center, and Affiliated Faculty at the Mongan Institute of Health Policy. At the MGH Weight Center, she provides behavioral, pharmacologic, and bariatric surgery pre and post-op care. She is one of a handful of clinicians fellowship trained in obesity medicine in the United States. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and The Obesity Society.
Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as a MLK Scholar, MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, and her MPA from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government where she was a Zuckerman Fellow. She served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and worked as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completion of her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor that Congress bestows upon America’s youth. Dr. Stanford has completed a medicine and media internship at the Discovery Channel. An American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Leadership Award recipient in 2005, an AMA Paul Ambrose Award for national leadership among resident physicians in 2009, she was selected for the AMA Inspirational Physician Award in 2015. In 2017, she was selected for the Harvard Medical School Diversity Award and by the Massachusetts Medical Society for their Women’s Health Award.
Dr. Stanford completed her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine/Palmetto Health. She completed her three year obesity medicine and nutrition fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has served as the socio-medical affairs officer for the World Medical Association Junior Doctors Network executive board where she co-wrote the World Medical Association policy on physician well being that was adopted at their annual meeting in Moscow, Russia in 2015. The American College of Physicians selected her as the 2013 recipient of the Joseph E. Johnson Leadership Award. Additionally, she is the 2015 recipient of the MA ACP Young Leadership Award. Her current research focuses on obesity, health disparities, and health policy. She is widely published in peer reviewed journals such as NEJM, Circulation, and Annals of Internal Medicine, in popular press outlets such as the NY Times, and as a featured expert on numerous broadcast television outlets such as CNN. She served as the keynote speaker on obesity for the AMA House of Delegates prior to their decision to acknowledge obesity as a chronic disease at their 2013 meeting. She currently serves on the governing council for the AMA Minority Affairs Section.
Dr. Stanford teaches medical students, residents, and fellows at Harvard Medical School. She was selected for the Certificate of Excellence in Tutoring for her instruction in the Harvard Medical School Health Policy New Pathway Course, and she was a nominee for the Harvard Medical School Donald O’Hara Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching.
State Medical License: Pennsylvania
Medical Residency: Geisinger Medical Center
Board Certification: Internal Medicine; Nutrition; Obesity Medicine
Dr. Christopher Still has been studying developments in nutrition, metabolic syndrome, and obesity for nearly three decades. His work has included research into genetic markers for obesity, NASH and diabetes; the metabolic differences among obese, formerly obese, and normal-weight men; surgical options for severely obese persons, and leptin-level determination among elderly obese women. He serves as principal investigator on a rural elderly nutrition and aging study of some 22,000 individuals.
He has recently edited CRC Press 2014 Nutrition and Bariatric surgery as well as 2014 ASMBS Textbook of Bariatric Surgery, Volume1. He has also published in several journals, including Obesity, PNAS, Lancet Endocrinology, Annals of Surgery, Gastroenterology, Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, Surgery for Obesity and Related Disorders, Human Molecular Genetics, among others. He has lectured on such subjects as vitamin and mineral metabolism; diet, nutrition, and exercise; obesity through the life cycle; and peri-operative medical and nutritional management of the bariatric surgery patient.
Dr. Still is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Obesity Medicine, the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists, and the American College of Nutrition. He belongs to several professional societies, including The Obesity Society, American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery and the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Nutrition. He served on the board of directors for The Obesity Action Coalition and is the past President of the National Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists as well as others editorial boards. He and his program have been featured on CNN, National Public Radio, ABC News, The Discovery Health Channel and several local affiliates. He most recently was awarded the 2011 ASMBS’ Integrated Health Circle of Excellence Award.
Dr. Still received Masters of Science degree from Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition and his osteopathic medical degree from The Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. He completed his internship at the University of Buffalo at Sisters of Charity Hospital, followed by a residency in internal medicine and a subsequent fellowship in clinical nutrition and obesity treatment at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pa.
