Dr. Robert Kushner is Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Clinical Director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity, and Medical Director for the Center for Lifestyle Medicine in Chicago. He recieved his medical degree from the University of Illinois. After finishing a residency in Internal Medicine at Northwestern University, he went on to complete a post-graduate fellowship in Clinical Nutrition and earned a Masters degree in Clinical Nutrition and Nutritional Biology from the University of Chicago. Dr. Kushner is past president of The Obesity Society (TOS), past president of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) and past president of the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists (ABPNS). Dr. Kushner is currently serving as the first Chair of the American Board of Obesity Medicine (ABOM). He is on the editorial board for Obesity and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. In November, 2010, Dr. Kushner was inducted as an Hororary member of the American Dietetic Association.

In 2002, Dr. Kushner was the recipient of the distinquished Dannon Institute Award for Excellence in Medical/Dental Nutrition Education presented by the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and recepient of the Atkinson-Stern Award for Public Service by The Obesity Society in 2011. Dr. Kushner has authored over 180 original articles, reviews, books and book chapters covering medical nutrition, medical nutrition education, and obesity, and is an internationally recognized expert on the care of the overweight and obese patient. He is author of Dr. Kushner’s Personality Type Diet (St. Martin’s Griffin Press, 2003; iuniverse, 2008), Fitness Unleashed (Three Rivers Press, 2006), and editor of the American Medical Association’s (AMA) Assessment and Management of Adult Obesity: A Primer for Physicians (2003) and Treatment of the Obese Patient (Humana Press, 2007) His most recent book, Counseling Overweight Adults: The Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Tool Kit, was published in August, 2009 by the American Dietetic Association. For more information, visit www.counselingoverweightadults.com.