Archives: Speakers

Dr Dean Sherzai is a behavioral neurologist / neuroscientist whose entire life has been dedicated to behavioral change models at the community and population level. Dean finished his medical and neurology residencies at Georgetown University with a subsequent fellowship in neurodegenerative diseases at the National Institutes of Health, followed by a second fellowship in Dementia and Geriatrics at the University of California, San Diego. He also holds two master’s degrees in Advanced Sciences at UCSD and in Epidemiology from Loma Linda University. He has received a PhD in Healthcare leadership focused on community empowerment from Loma Linda/Andrews University. Finally, he completed the executive leadership program at Harvard Business School. His vision has always been to revolutionise healthcare by empowering communities to take control of their own health.

Dr Ayesha Z Sherzai is a vascular neurologist and a research scientist. After completing her residency, she completed a fellowship in vascular neurology and Epidemiology at Columbia University Neurological Institute of New York. Dr Sherzai is at the tail end of a master’s degree in public health in lifestyle epidemiology from Loma Linda University. Knowing the importance of empowering her patients, and their communities, she completed an extensive culinary training program in New York and now teaches large populations how to make tasty, easy, and healthy meals for their brain health. Dr Ayesha Sherzai and her husband, Dr Dean Sherzai, are the authors of two best-selling books, The Alzheimer’s Solution (2017, HarperCollins) and The 30 day Alzheimer’s Solution (2021, HarperCollins). They are currently leading the largest community-based brain health initiative in the country.

Doctor Alan Desmond is a Consultant Gastroenterologist who is dedicated to educating the public on the health benefits of a whole food plant-based diet.  His best-selling book, ‘The Plant-Based Diet Revolution: 28 days to a happier gut and a healthier you’, is available wherever books are sold.

Doctor Alan has made evidence-based dietary advice an essential part of his practice as a doctor specialising in gut health problems. He has presented at numerous international medical conferences on the benefits of this approach to food, alongside other renowned advocates including Dr Michael Greger, Dr Michael Klaper, Dietician Brenda Davis, Dr Kim Williams, and Dr Neal Barnard.  He is an Ambassador for Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, a not-for-profit group which educates members of the public, health professionals, and policy makers on the incredible health benefits of a plant-based diet.

Certified in both Gastroenterology and General Internal Medicine, Doctor Alan completed his medical training in Ireland and Oxford. He has a specialist interest in the role of diet in the prevention and treatment of Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. A fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, London, he has published several influential research papers in the field of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and is a dedicated advocate for the gut health benefits, and overall health benefits, of a whole food plant-based approach to nutrition.  He lives in South Devon with his wife and three children.

He is a sought-after podcast guest and has featured on several well-known podcasts, including “Deliciously Ella”, “Plant-Proof”, “The Doctor’s Kitchen”, “The Melissa Ambrosini Show” and “The Exam Room”. Dr Alan has also featured in The Sunday Telegraph and Virgin Radio’s Chris Evans Breakfast Show.

Doctor Alan shares plant-based meal inspiration alongside the latest research in nutritional science and health on Instagram and can also be found at his website.

Dr Gemma Newman is a medical doctor and Senior Partner at a family medical practice in West London. She studied at the University of Wales College of Medicine and has worked in many specialties as a doctor before her current specialty of General Practice. She has gained additional qualifications in gynaecology and family planning. Dr Newman has a specialist interest in holistic health, plant-based nutrition and lifestyle medicine. She is a founding member and ambassador for PBHPUK, a member of BSLM and a scientific advisor for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. She is regularly invited to teach other doctors and the general public via training programs, podcasts and conferences about the benefits of plant-based nutrition, and has authored ‘The Plant Power Doctor; a simple prescription for a healthier you‘ (Ebury, 2021) and ‘Get Well, Stay Well; six healing health habits you need to know‘ (Ebury 2024).

Doctors For Nutrition Board Director Dr Luke Wilson is a General Practitioner from Wellington, New Zealand, and is Board Certified by the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine. In addition to his medical degree (MBChB, Otago University), Luke holds a bachelors and a masters in psychology. In his final year of medical school, Luke studied and worked in Santa Rosa, California, as an intern for Dr John McDougall at the McDougall Health and Medical Center and also alongside Dr Michael Klaper and Dr Alan Goldhamer at the True North Health Center. After graduation, he worked at Gisborne Hospital and subsequently was co-lead researcher and creator of a community-based lifestyle intervention using whole food plant-based nutrition.

Luke founded Two Zesty Bananas with colleague Dr Matthew Hobbs in 2014. Since then he has co-authored The 21st Century Food Course, completed the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition, worked part-time as a general practitioner, and spoken at events in New Zealand, Australia and the USA. He has experience helping hundreds of people transform their lives by adopting a whole foods plant-based lifestyle, particularly through his work on the BROAD Study.

Boyd Swinburn is Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and Honorary Professor, Global Centre (GLOBE), Deakin University, Australia.

Boyd trained as an endocrinologist and has conducted research in metabolic, clinical and public health aspects of obesity. His major research interests centre on community and policy actions to prevent childhood and adolescent obesity, and reduce, what he has coined, ‘obesogenic’ environments. He leads the INFORMAS initiative to monitor and benchmark food environments in over 60 countries. He established WHO’s first Collaborating Centre on Obesity Prevention at Deakin University in 2003, led two Lancet Series on Obesity in 2011 and 2015, was co-chair of World Obesity Policy & Prevention section 2009-2019 and co-chair of the Lancet Commission on Obesity 2015-2019. He has been an advisor on many government committees, WHO Consultations, and large scientific studies internationally.

Dr Renae Thomas is an Australian living in the USA, and a triple board-certified Physician in Family Medicine, General Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and Lifestyle Medicine. She completed medical school in Australia at Monash University. Her residency in Family and Preventive Medicine, and Master’s of Public Health in Population Medicine were completed at Loma Linda University in California. She has also completed an internship at True North Health Center, and yoga teacher training in India. Dr Thomas served four years on the Trainee board at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, with two years as president. She is a published co-author on vegetarianism and cancer, and author of an ACLM and WIC-collaborated guide to healthy eating for less than $4 per day, as well as numerous online, print, and audio content collaborations. Dr Thomas’s research has been in clinical Lifestyle Medicine, and Lifestyle Medicine curricula in medical education. She has presented at numerous conferences on evidence-based and clinically-relevant nutrition and health, both in the USA and internationally. Dr Thomas’s professional content largely focuses on evidence-based nutritional and Lifestyle Medicine for both physicians and patients. As a doctor, she strives to be a compassionate and understanding support system to her patients, helping to uncover the root cause of illness, and working with them to achieve their greatest health and happiness.

Dr Thomas is a DFN International Advisory Council member and the Medical Director of Fasting Escape, where she provides lifestyle-medicine based consultations.

Find Renae online via her website, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Dr Farshid is an Interventional Cardiologist working in Canberra. He has had a long-term interest in diet and nutrition for treatment of cardiovascular disease and risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and excess weight. He has been conducting community workshops for the last four years to promote a plant-based diet and regular exercise for prevention of heart disease, with the help of a dietitian and an exercise physiologist. He believes that as medical science advances, plant-based foods will be increasingly used to treat and prevent disease.

Martyn moved to New Zealand from the UK in 1986. He has spent the last 35 years in rural general practice, mixing this with a teaching and research role at Dunedin School of Medicine. He has always been passionate about helping people thrive and flourish, and over the last five years has turned his focus on helping people prevent, reverse and cure their chronic illnesses through Lifestrong Health, jointly run with his wife, Liz. Martyn was jointly nominated Plant-Based Practitioner of the Year for 2019 along with Liz, and in 2020 he obtained an International Certification in Lifestyle Medicine. He is committed to raising awareness about the power of whole food plant-based nutrition and the other pillars of lifestyle medicine, to revitalise health, and to treat disease. He has also trained as a life coach and as an NLP coach. When not working he and Liz spend their time cycling and exploring the great outdoors. They have three grown up children.

Clinical medical oncologist working in private practice over the past 12 years, previously worked in Australia and UK in clinical and research roles. Completed research higher degree (MD) through University of Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer centre in the area of therapeutic and molecular oncology including multiple peer reviewed publications in the field. Areas of clinical interest include GI, melanoma and lung cancer with a special interest in lifestyle medicine in the prevention and management of chronic diseases including cancer. Member of ASLM and board certified lifestyle medicine physician (2021). Actively promoting lifestyle medicine with a focus on nutrition in clinical practice and through social media platforms (@veganoncologist). Recently completed six part video series “what can I do doc” aimed at educating and empowering patients and other individuals using evidence based research to take some control of their own health destiny. Plant-based and vegan for the last 10 years, enjoys creative vegan cooking, travel adventures and is a tennis, running and kettlebell enthusiast.

Dr Anis Ta’eed is a nephrologist and general physician (FRACP) from Melbourne, working in Fiji since 2020. There he works as the head of Nephrology in the largest public hospital and serves as the director of the Fiji National Kidney Centre, focusing on improving the health care provided to Fijians with kidney disease. He is also a board-certified lifestyle medicine physician (IBLM) and is passionate about the benefits of whole food plant-based diets for kidney health as well as for overall chronic disease management.

Raised in Melbourne, Dr Sharma undertook her undergraduate medical degree (MBBS) at Adelaide University before coming back to Melbourne to undertake her internship at Royal Melbourne Hospital. After a few years of working in different parts of Australia, including remote areas, she decided to specialise in Dermatology.

As part of her four year post graduate training, Dr Sharma spent one year in Singapore at the National Skin Centre learning the nuances of treating Asian skin and their diseases. After finishing her Dermatology fellowship exams (FACD), Dr Sharma undertook a sub-speciality fellowship at Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago in paediatric dermatology. This institution is a world leader in treating children’s skin diseases. Dr Sharma worked under the guidance of Professor Mancini and Professor Amy Paller, two prominent figures in dermatology.

Dr Sharma has also undertaken her Masters of Public Health (MPH), specialising in nutrition, policy and advocacy, at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. Dr Sharma opened Inside Out Dermatology to help patients approach their skin diseases in a holistic manner.

A member of the DFN Advisory Council, Hollie Waters is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Credentialled Eating Disorder Clinician. She holds a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics from Griffith University, and a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition through eCornell. Hollie is a passionate advocate of the benefits of plant-based nutrition, having followed a plant-based diet herself for the past 12 years.

Through her private practice, Etico Nutrition, Hollie supports others to adopt and maintain a healthy whole food plant-based diet. She also works to highlight the many benefits of a compassionate and low-impact lifestyle. Hollie has a special interest in dietary management of inflammatory and autoimmune conditions, cardiovascular disease, as well as sustainable food production practices and zero-waste strategies. Her goal is to provide her patients with the tools and knowledge they need to improve their health through sustainable dietary and lifestyle choices.

A member of the DFN Advisory Council, Dr Alyce Churchill is a General Practitioner and a Senior Medical Practitioner in Psychiatry. Before joining general practice she worked at several Western Australian hospitals as a resident medical officer and later as a Psychiatry Registrar. Alyce has been an advocate of plant-based nutrition and preventative medicine since adopting a whole food plant-based diet in 2013. Her catalyst for changing from a vegetarian diet was learning the evidence of a whole food plant-based diet in preventing and reversing so many Western diseases that she encountered every day at work. In 2015, Alyce created and launched the recipe and meal planning app Plant-Based Easy to the iPhone store and in 2016 started the Facebook meet-up and education group Plant Powered Perth with Kelsey Brymer and Kamarra Morris. Alyce also holds a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Centre for Nutrition Studies at eCornell University and has twice attended the International Plant-Based Nutrition in Healthcare conference in California.

Dr Juliette Roex (MBBS, Hons (BMedSc)) is a member of the DFN Advisory Council, and a GP registrar in Adelaide, South Australia, soon to be Fellow of the RACGP. In 2017, she completed a rotation at True North in Santa Rosa, California, under the guidance of Dr Alan Goldhamer, Dr Michael Klaper and Dr Doug Lisle. She holds a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition through eCornell University and has enjoyed attending and speaking at numerous national and international symposia and conferences. She hopes to empower as many people as possible to adopt a healthier lifestyle, so that they can optimise not only their own wellbeing, but also that of the animals and the planet.

Tracy understands the value and significance of ancestral and traditional food systems and foods and advocates their positive impact on culture, food security, health and wellbeing for First Nation Peoples of Australia.

In 2013, deciding to be a part of the change she wanted to see, Tracy combined her passion for First Nations Peoples health and wellbeing and love of food and commenced her studies in Nutrition and Dietetics.

In 2016, Tracy was awarded “Future Leader in Indigenous Allied Health”, at Indigenous Allied Health Australia’s National Forum in Canberra. During their graduation ceremony in 2018, Tracy was also honoured to be awarded the University of the Sunshine Coast’s Chancellor’s Medal.

In April 2019, Tracy decided to further pursue her passion for traditional food systems, bushfoods and traditional food security and commenced a PhD researching Indigenous food sovereignty and food security for First Nations Peoples of Australia. Tracy has since taken leave from the PhD so that she may focus 100% on her business, Wattleseed Nutrition, and support grassroots, community-based projects, work and action.

A member of the DFN Advisory Council, Jenny is a nutritionist, librarian consultant and trainer. With her partner Dr Malcolm Mackay, they have created numerous nutritional health related resources for the community such as the website Whole Foods Plant-Based Health, the Facebook page Plant-Based Health Australia and the Facebook group Whole Food Plant-Based Aussies. They run seminars and 6-day immersion programs in Victoria and interstate and work collaboratively with other plant-based nutrition practitioners.