Prof. Donna H. Ryan

Donna Ryan MD is Professor Emerita at Pennington Biomedical in Baton Rouge, LA, USA, where she oversaw Clinical Research for 25 years. Her research interests included lifestyle intervention and diet for weight loss, and she was an investigator on NIH studies including POUNDS Lost, Look AHEAD, DPP, and DASH. She was Principal Investigator for the US Department of Defence for a series of awards which targeted military nutrition approaches to improve soldier readiness and performance.  A particular research interest was improving primary care management of obesity and evaluating commercial approaches to weight management. She also studies the use of medications and devices to aid weight management. She was President of The Obesity Society and was designated Master of Obesity Medicine by the American Board of Obesity Medicine.  She received The Obesity Society’s George Bray Founder’s Award (2013) and the George Blackburn Award (2019), was named Obesity Action Coalition Health Care Provider of the Year (2017) and was invited to give the Francisco Balmis Lecture (2019).

Dr Ryan serves as Publications Committee Chair following her tenure as Past President of the World Obesity Federation up until 13 July 2022.  Donna is also Co-Chair of the SELECT Steering Committee and member of the Data Safety Monitoring Board for setmelanotide. She has more than 300 publications and remains an active consultant and advisor to companies developing drugs, devices, lifestyle programs and medical approaches to obesity management.