The American Board of Obesity Medicine is pleased to announce the following changes to the 2016 Board of Directors.

Effective January 1:

• Louis J. Aronne, MD, who has served on the board of directors since the inception of ABOM in 2011, assumed the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors.
• Jennifer Seger, MD joined the board as director.
• Edmond (Trey) Wickham, MD joined the board as director.

Learn more about Drs. Aronne, Seger and Wickham below:

Louis J. Aronne, MD, FACP is a leading authority on obesity and its treatment. He is the Sanford I. Weill Professor of Metabolic Research at Weill-Cornell Medical College and directs the Center for Weight Management and Metabolic Clinical Research, a state-of-the-art, multidisciplinary obesity research and treatment program. He has an adjunct appointment at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Aronne is Founder and CEO of BMIQ, a weight control program that is delivered by health care providers to their patients during office visits.

Dr. Aronne graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Trinity College with a BS in biochemistry and from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He completed his internship and residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center, followed by a Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Fellowship at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society.

Dr. Aronne is former president of the Obesity Society and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. He has authored more than 60 papers and book chapters on obesity and edited the National Institutes of Health Practical Guide to the Identification, Evaluation, and Treatment of Overweight and Obesity in Adults. He served as a consultant to the VA Weight Management/Physical Activity Executive Council in the development of the MOVE program, the nation’s largest medically based weight control program. Dr. Aronne has won several awards for medical teaching, including the Davidoff Prize from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Elliot Hochstein Award from Cornell University.

Dr. Jennifer Seger is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas Medical School at San Antonio. After completing her residency at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, she established a family medicine practice in San Antonio, where she developed a strong interest in wellness and preventative health care. As a Board Certified Family Medicine physician, Dr. Seger saw many patients affected by obesity yet found herself struggling to provide effective recommendations for them. Dr. Seger decided to dedicate her practice to the prevention and treatment of obesity and became a diplomate of American Board of Obesity Medicine in 2011.

She is currently the director of the medical weight loss program at the Bariatric Medical Institute of Texas, which offers a comprehensive, integrated approach to the treatment of obesity. She recently served as co-chair of the Obesity Medicine Association’s Obesity Algorithm project. Dr. Seger is active in her community and enjoys teaching and working with medical students through the University of Texas medical school nutrition elective and in a rotation she created called the Comprehensive Treatment of Obesity. Dr. Seger is dedicated to raising awareness of obesity and committed to providing excellent, comprehensive and compassionate care to patients.

Dr. Edmond Wickham (‘Trey’), Associate Professor of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), is a physician-scientist with clinical and research expertise in the pathophysiology and treatment of obesity and weight-related comorbidities across the lifespan. Dr. Wickham graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia, and subsequently completed medical school at VCU where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. Afterwards Dr. Wickham completed a combined residency program in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, followed by additional fellowship training in Endocrinology, Diabetes & Metabolism and a Master’s of Public Health.

Dr. Wickham holds dual appointments in the Divisions of Adult and Pediatric Endocrinology and oversees a multidisciplinary translational obesity research program at VCU. He was the recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of Health and is the Principal Investigator for TEENS (Teaching, Encouragement, Exercise, Nutrition, and Support), a clinical research protocol investigating the impact of a multidisciplinary lifestyle modification protocol for adolescents with overweight and obesity and their families. Based on the success of TEENS, Dr. Wickham successfully led efforts to develop the Healthy Lifestyles Center (HLC) at Children’s Hospital of Richmond. Dr. Wickham serves as the Director of Research and Medical Director for the HLC, a comprehensive pediatric obesity research and treatment program that provides integrated, compassionate, age-appropriate care for children, adolescents and young adults with overweight and obesity. Additional clinical and research interests include metabolic syndrome and Type 2 diabetes mellitus in children, adolescent weight loss surgery and transition of care from pediatric to adult specialty care. Dr. Wickham is actively involved in regional obesity prevention efforts and educational initiatives.