Speakers 2007: James O. Hill, PhD
James O. Hill, Ph.D. is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Hill also serves as the Director of the Center for Human Nutrition, a nutrition center funded by the National Institutes of Health. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Tennessee and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New Hampshire in Physiological Psychology. Dr. Hill is a leader in addressing the global epidemic of obesity. He served as Chair of the first World Health Organization Consultation on Obesity in 1997. He is vice president of the American Society of Nutrition. He is a Past President of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NASSO). He was also a member of the Expert Panel on Obesity of the National Institutes of Health that developed the first U.S. guidelines for the treatment and prevention of obesity. Dr. Hill serves as an advisor to many U.S. Government agencies and to Government agencies in many other countries.
Dr. Hill has published more than 350 scientific articles and book chapters in the area of obesity and has received many awards for his research. Dr. Hill is a co-founder of the National Weight Control Registry, a registry of individuals who have been successful in maintenance of a reduced body weight. His work with the National Weight Control Registry has identified high levels of physical activity as being critical to maintaining weight loss. Dr. Hill has been a major advocate of walking and the use of pedometers in promoting increased walking in Americans of all ages. Dr. Hill has spent the past few years translating science into programs to reduce obesity. Dr. Hill is co-founder of America on the Move, a national weight gain prevention initiative that aims to inspire Americans to make small changes in how much they eat and how much they move to prevent weight gain. He is the author of the Step Diet Book, published in June 2004 in which he makes the case for why increasing physical activity is essential for addressing problems of body weight. He is leading an effort in Denver, Colorado to make that community the healthiest in the U.S. Dr. Hill lives in Denver and enjoys being physically active in the Rocky Mountains during all seasons of the year.