James Annesi, PhD

Dr. James Annesi is the Director of Wellness Advancement at the YMCA of Metropolitan Atlanta. Jim's research program includes over 90 peer-reviewed studies related to behavior change theory and methods applied to exercise adherence, weight management, and the effects of physical activity on depression, stress, self-image, and other mental health and quality-of-life factors. Jim has also authored numerous articles and chapters, and three books, translating scientific research for practitioners' professional use. His evidence-based protocols, THE COACH APPROACH, Youth Fit For Life, and The Health and Fitness Experience, are applied through a variety of preventive medicine, community health promotion, and academic medicine settings in the U.S., United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, and Japan.

Pamela Clark, PhD

Dr. Pamela Clark is a Professor of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland who is a leading expert in state and community approaches to tobacco control. She was instrumental in the development of the Strength of Tobacco Control Indices for the ASSIST and SmokeLess States evaluations, was co-chair of the 1st and 2nd national meetings on the consequences of mentholation of cigarettes. She was task leader on evaluating the effects of menthol cigarettes on smoking topography and biomarkers, and the PI of a study to determine the physiologic effects of variation in cigarette smoke particle pH. She was the PI in determining the first national estimate of illegal sales of tobacco to youth, the prevalence and density of tobacco advertising/promotions among retail stores, and national estimates of the availability/accessibility of novel tobacco products. Dr. Clark has co-authored 3 medical textbooks, been a scientific editor of 2 NCI tobacco control monographs, a contributor to 2 Surgeon General Reports, and has published over 100 papers in the medical and public health literature.

Robert Feldman, PhD

Robert H. Feldman, Ph.D., is a Professor of Health Behavior in the Department of Behavioral and Community Health at the University of Maryland. He is also an Affiliate Professor in the Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health, and an UNIBE International Professor of Psychology at the Universidad de Iberoamérica (UNIBE) in San José, Costa Rica. Dr. Feldman has collaborated on a number of grants from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health. He has been investigating worksite smoking cessation among government workers in Costa Rica and Latino immigrant construction workers in Maryland. He has also examined the effectiveness of interventions to encourage healthier eating among low income women in the WIC program and infant nutrition programs for Latina mothers. Dr. Feldman has published over 60 journal articles, 4 books, numerous book chapters, and has given over 100 professional presentations.

James Neff, PhD

Dr. James Alan Neff is a Professor of Community Health in the College of Health Sciences at Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia. He received his PhD in medical sociology from Florida State University and his MPH from the University of Texas School of Public Health. Dr. Neff also served as an NIMH Pre-doctoral Scholar in psychiatric epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health. He is a social-behavioral scientist with research interests including research methodology, health disparities, alcohol/substance use, and substance abuse prevention and treatment approaches.  He as published over 70 refereed journal articles and has been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on approximately $13 million of externally funded research grants.

Marcia Ory, PhD

Dr. Marcia Ory is Regents Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Health, School of Rural Public Health at The Texas A&M Health Science Center.  She is also the Director of the SRPH Health Promotion and Aging Program and involved in 2 Special Initiative Projects funded through the CDC Prevention Research Centers: the Central Texas Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (PI) and the Texas Healthy Aging Network (Co-PI). She is also the PI on a 5-year NIH Health Maintenance Resource Center charged with serving as the coordinating hub for a 21 grant consortium designed to improve research on long-term behavioral change. Her major research emphasis is chronic disease management with attention to strategies for improving the translation of diabetes prevention and treatment guidelines, as well as examining the implementation and dissemination of best strategies for enhancing the quality of life for cancer survivors. She has been the author of nearly 200 publications on a variety of health-related topics.