6th Annual Food As Medicine Symposium Agenda
Welcome!
Our 6th Annual Food As Medicine Symposium, Strategies for a Unified Approach to Lifestyle Medicine, will take place on October 15 & 16, 2026.
We are looking forward to gathering together again to share the latest insights and best practices in the Food as Medicine and Lifestyle medicine spaces.
Below is a preview of what’s in store for this year. We will update this page as our 2026 agenda is confirmed.
Priority Topics for Strategies for a Unified Approach to Lifestyle Medicine:
- Integrative, complementary, and functional approaches to medicine and health (Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbal medicine, Ayurveda)
- Gut health, the microbiome, gut barrier function, and clinical application
- Autoimmune conditions and nutrition-based anti-inflammatory approaches
- Medical education, clinician mental health, and burnout prevention
- Women’s health, including PCOS, endometriosis, gynecology, and reproductive endocrinology
- Environmental sustainability, agriculture, soil health, and nutrition
- Policy and systems innovation, including CMS 1115 waivers and implementation and evaluation of federal government-led health and nutrition initiatives
- Lifestyle medicine in underrepresented populations
- Aligning clinical practice, health systems, and policy to advance lifestyle medicine
The 2026 Agenda
Day 1 – October 15
8-9 am – Fueling Connection: Light Refreshments & Clinical Networking
9:15-10:15 am Keynote: From ROI to Return on Whole Health: Why the Care Model is the Treatment. Kristi Artz, MD FACLM, CCMS
Learning Objectives:
- Describe why traditional ROI frameworks may be insufficient for evaluating Whole Health approaches.
- Examine how the care model becomes the treatment in Whole Health and identify approaches for scaling these models across health systems.
- Explore a broader framework for measuring Return on Whole Health across clinical, human, workforce, community, and financial domains.
10:45-12 pm Panel Discussion: Partnerships for Implementing a Novel Pediatric Food Prescription Program
- Lucia Leone, PhD
- Joshua McGuire
- Brianna Wallenhorst, MS, RDN, CDN
- Amanda Mikels, MPS
- Anne Lally Mathiebe, PhD
- Colleen Mattimore, MD, FAAP
The science is not the barrier. The partnerships are.
This session offers a real-time case study in what it takes to move a food prescription model from research design into a family’s kitchen. Led by researchers at the University at Buffalo, a study now underway is comparing the effectiveness of three food prescription interventions for families with young children experiencing food insecurity, and this panel brings together the people making it work: the academic team designing and evaluating the study, the food systems partners delivering fresh food to participating families, a health plan-based community nutrition program, and a pediatric primary care practice implementing the intervention at the point of care.
Panelists will speak candidly about what alignment across sectors actually requires: building communication loops between grant teams, delivery partners, and front-line clinical staff; adapting a program in real time based on what participating families need, and keeping providers engaged with the mission so momentum doesn’t stall between visits. Attendees will leave with a working model for how research, food delivery, health system, and clinical partners can move a Food is Medicine intervention from pilot to practice, and with concrete strategies to bring back to their own cross-sector partnerships.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Describe the potential impact of food prescription programs on participant health-related outcomes.
- Identify barriers and challenges to implementing a multi-partner food prescription program and strategies to address them in real time.
- Explain how cross-sector partnerships between research, food systems, health plans, and clinical practice can improve scalability.
12-1 pm Lunch & Strategic Networking
1-2 pm Innovation in Action: Vendor Fair & Research Poster Presentations
Concurrent Sessions
2-3:30 pm Panel Discussion: Beyond Conventional Care: Integrative & Functional Medicine Approaches That Deliver Results.
- Sanford Levy, MD, FACP, ABIHM
- Siri Chand Khalsa, MD, MS
- Leonard Kaplan, DO
- Jennifer Jennings, DNP, MS, APRN, FNP-BC
Learning Objectives:
- Differentiate integrative and functional medicine approaches from conventional care in chronic disease management.
- Evaluate evidence supporting complementary therapies (nutrition, herbal, and lifestyle interventions).
- Apply integrative care principles to enhance patient-centered treatment plans and outcomes.
3:30-4:45 pm Panel Discussion: The Root Cause Playbook: Gut Health, Autoimmunity, and Inflammation Through Nutrition & Lifestyle.
- Catherine Brown, MS, RDN, LD, FAND
- Melissa Mondala, MD, MHA, MS, FACLM, FAIHM, LM, Intensivist
- Rachel Kronemann, MS, RDN, LD
- Noelle Citarella, MS, RDN, CDN, IFNCP
- Mary Margaret O’Neil, MD
Chronic inflammation and autoimmune conditions are among the most complex and growing challenges in modern healthcare, and the gut is increasingly understood to be at the center of both. This panel unpacks the science connecting gut microbiota, immune dysregulation, and inflammatory disease, translating cutting-edge research into practical, actionable strategies for clinicians.
Panelists will examine how disruptions to gut health contribute to autoimmune disease development and chronic inflammation, and what the evidence tells us about the most effective nutrition and lifestyle interventions for shifting that trajectory. From microbiome-informed dietary strategies to targeted lifestyle approaches that calm immune overactivation, the conversation will move from mechanism to practice.
Attendees will leave with a root-cause framework they can apply immediately, including tools for building personalized, anti-inflammatory care plans that address the underlying drivers of disease rather than layering on symptom management alone.
Learning Objectives:
- Analyze the role of the gut microbiota in inflammation and autoimmune disease development
- Evaluate nutrition and lifestyle interventions that modulate gut health and immune response.
- Apply root-cause approaches to develop personalized anti-inflammatory care plans.
2 – 4:30 pm
Sign-up for individual concurrent sessions is not required. Participants can choose which sessions they would like to attend.
2-2:30 pm The Role of Stress Physiology in Gut Health and Autoimmune Disease. Sarah Seweryniak.
2:30-3 pm The Metabolic Topology of Disease: A Computational Biology Approach to the Gut-Liver-Brain Axis. Vivek Nandur, PhD
3-3:15 pm Questions and Answers
3:30-3:50 pm Know Thy Medicine: A Plant-Level Perspective on FIM. Lindsay Springer, PhD, MS
3:50-4:10 pm Tops Feature Presentation: Plant-Based Living, John Persons, CEO, Tops Markets
4:10-4:30 pm Questions and Answers
5:30-7:30 pm Evening Reception: Building the Future of Food as Medicine.
Day 2 – October 16
8 – 8:30 am Light Refreshments and Peer Networking.
8:30-9:30 am Keynote: Delivery of Equitable Lifestyle Medicine to Support Whole Health in Underrepresented Communities. Dr. Alex Ford, DO, RD
Learning Objectives:
- Identify the primary systemic barriers that limit access to whole health and lifestyle medicine in underrepresented communities.
- Describe at least three clinical and/or community-based “Food as Medicine” programs operating in New York.
- Utilize New York funding and policy to prescribe lifestyle medicine interventions.
- Create a culturally tailored, practical plan that supports a patient’s whole health (nutrition, movement, stress management, etc).
9:45-10:45 am Policy, Payment, and Delivery of Equitable Lifestyle Medicine to Support Whole Health in Underrepresented Communities.
- Jessica Kruger, PhD
- Alex Ford, DO, RD
- LaVonne Ansari, PhD
- Jasmol Sardana, DO, FACLM, DipABLM
- Erie County Department of Health, Office of Health Equity
Lifestyle medicine works best when it reaches the people who need it most. Right now, it often does not.
Across the United States, underrepresented communities continue to bear a disproportionate burden of chronic disease, driven not by personal choice but by structural inequities: food environments shaped by decades of disinvestment, reimbursement models that reward volume over prevention, and care systems that were not designed with these communities in mind. Buffalo’s East Side is not an abstraction in this conversation. It is the context.
This session examines what equitable delivery of lifestyle medicine actually looks like in practice, moving past aspiration and into the structural, policy, and care delivery conditions that make it possible or prevent it. Panelists will explore how value-based care models, Medicaid waivers, and emerging reimbursement frameworks can be leveraged to support nutrition and lifestyle interventions in communities that have been historically excluded from them. Drawing on the social drivers of health as both a lens and a framework, the panel will evaluate models that have closed gaps, not just described them, and will offer concrete, policy-informed strategies that clinicians and health system leaders can take back to their organizations.
Learning Objectives
- Analyze current policy and reimbursement structures, including value-based care models and Medicaid waiver programs, that influence the adoption and sustainability of lifestyle medicine interventions in underrepresented and historically underserved communities.
- Evaluate evidence-informed care delivery models that address social drivers of health to reduce chronic disease disparities, identifying design features applicable to Federally Qualified Health Center and urban health system contexts.
- Apply policy-informed and equity-centered strategies to develop or strengthen sustainable, reimbursable nutrition and lifestyle medicine programs within their own clinical or organizational settings.
10:45 am- 12 pm Panel Discussion: Healing the Healers: Medical Education, Burnout Prevention, and Building a Resilient Workforce
- Rashmi S. Bismarck, MD, MPH
- Cristine Adams, MD, FACEP, CPCC, PCC
- Robyn Tiger, MD, DipABLM, FACLM
- Adjoa Smalls-Mantey, MD, DPhil, DipABLM, FAPA
- Helen Cappuccino, MS, FACS
Healthcare cannot achieve a unified approach to lifestyle medicine while its workforce is running on empty. Clinician burnout has reached crisis-level prevalence across medicine, nursing, and allied health, and the evidence is unambiguous: a depleted provider is less able to deliver the whole-person, relationship-centered care that lifestyle medicine demands. This panel confronts that paradox directly.
Panelists will examine the structural and behavioral drivers of clinician burnout, explore how lifestyle medicine principles apply not just to patients but to the professionals delivering care, and discuss what it looks like in practice to build sustainable, resilient healthcare teams. The conversation will draw on the same evidence-based pillars – nutrition, sleep, physical activity, stress management, and social connectedness – that anchor the broader symposium, now turned inward toward the healers themselves.
Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of the research on clinician well-being, practical frameworks for integrating lifestyle medicine principles into their own lives and workplaces, and strategies for creating institutional cultures where sustainable practice is the norm rather than the exception.
Learning Objectives
- Analyze the evidence-based relationship between clinician burnout and patient care quality, identifying structural and behavioral risk factors that contribute to workforce depletion in healthcare settings.
- Apply lifestyle medicine principles, including nutrition, restorative sleep, physical activity, stress management, and social connectedness, to personal and professional well-being strategies as a healthcare provider.
- Evaluate institutional and team-based models that integrate clinician well-being into organizational culture, and identify at least two approaches applicable to their own practice or health system.
12-1 pm LUNCH and NETWORKING
1-1:45 pm Vendor Fair and Poster Presentations.
Concurrent Sessions
1:45-2:45 pm Panel Discussion: Lifestyle Strategies for Women’s Health.
Speakers:
- Moderator: Michelle Gimbar, PhD, RDN, CDN
- Melissa Groves-Azzaro, RDN, LD
- Shikra Joshi, MD, Dipl ABLM
- Basma Faris, MD, FACOG, CCMS
Women’s health is shaped by a distinct and complex interplay of hormonal, metabolic, gut, and thyroid factors, yet lifestyle and nutrition guidance has too often remained generic, under-researched, or siloed from the conditions it most needs to address. This panel brings specificity and clinical depth to a conversation that is long overdue.
Moderated by Michelle Gimbar, PhD, RDN, CDN, and featuring expert practitioners in lifestyle and functional medicine, the session focuses on one condition and one life stage that affect a significant and often underserved portion of patients: Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (previously PCOS) and perimenopause. Panelists will examine the underlying hormonal and metabolic drivers that shape these, explore how gut and thyroid function intersect with women’s health outcomes, and evaluate the nutrition and lifestyle interventions with the strongest evidence for meaningful clinical impact.
Attendees will leave with practical, evidence-based strategies they can apply immediately to support reproductive and metabolic health across the lifespan, moving beyond one-size-fits-all guidance toward care that reflects the full complexity of women’s physiology.
Learning Objectives
- Evaluate lifestyle and nutrition interventions across one key women’s health condition, Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome, and one key women’s life stage: Perimenopause.
- Analyze the role of hormonal, metabolic, gut, and thyroid factors in women’s health outcomes.
- Apply evidence-based lifestyle strategies to improve reproductive and metabolic health. .
3-4:30 pm Panel Discussion: From Soil to System: Agriculture, Soil Sustainability, and the Future of Human Health.
- Kacey Stewart, PhD
- Mary Purdy, MS, RDN
- Elizabeth Costello, PhD, MPH
- Aubrey Streit Krug
What happens to the soil ultimately happens to the patient. This closing panel of Day 2 takes a wide-angle view of the food system, tracing the journey from the ground beneath our feet to the chronic disease patterns showing up in our clinics, and asking what role clinicians can and should play along the way.
Panelists will explore how soil degradation and the decline of regenerative agricultural practices are quietly eroding the nutrient density of our food supply, with direct consequences for chronic disease risk and patient outcomes. The conversation will also take on the rise of ultra-processed foods (UPFs), examining the science behind how they drive inflammation and metabolic dysfunction, and giving clinicians practical, patient-centered tools for navigating these realities across diverse populations.
Zooming further out, the panel will address the intersection of climate change, food system sustainability, and long-term population health, making the case that the future of human health cannot be separated from the future of how we grow, process, and distribute food.
Attendees will leave with a clearer picture of the full system driving diet-related illness, a sharper ability to distinguish nutrient-dense from ultra-processed foods using established frameworks like NOVA, and at least three concrete strategies to bring back to practice.
Learning Objectives
- Explain how soil health and regenerative agricultural practices influence the nutrient density of food and the clinical implications of nutrient-depleted diets on chronic disease risk and patient health outcomes.
- Distinguish between whole, minimally processed foods and ultra-processed foods (UPFs) using established classification frameworks (such as NOVA), and describe the mechanisms by which UPF consumption is associated with inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, and poor health outcomes.
- Identify at least three evidence-based, patient-centered strategies for reducing ultra-processed food intake and increasing dietary nutrient density that clinicians can apply in practice across diverse patient populations.
- Discuss the relationship between climate change, soil degradation, and food system sustainability as determinants of long-term population health, and recognize the role of clinicians in supporting food-as-medicine approaches at the individual and systems level.
2-4:15 pm
2-3 pm Supporting Our Community: Home-Delivered Meals as Food as Medicine
- Tara Felser, MS, RD, CDN
- Katelyn Collins, MS, RD, CDN
Home-delivered meals provide an invaluable source of nutrition and social connection for older adults in our community. In this session, we will explore the impact home-delivered meal programming has on the health and well-being of older adults and how FeedMore WNY is working in our community and region.
Food insecurity and chronic disease are interconnected challenges that require solutions beyond traditional health care settings. We will take a look at how home-delivered meals and medically tailored meals can help manage chronic conditions and improve health outcomes of our most vulnerable populations. Using Meals on Wheels, community partnerships, and other nutrition initiatives as examples, we will discuss the barriers and opportunities involved in implementing effective Food is Medicine approaches.
Participants will learn how home-delivered meals can support improved health outcomes, prevent malnutrition, and help other adults maintain independence while safely remaining in their homes. We will discuss the importance of identifying nutrition risk through screening and assessments, providing individualized nutrition education, and connecting clients with additional resources that address social determinants of health.
This session will also highlight the importance of providing a range of nutrition programs and services that meet the diverse needs of the community. Through collaboration with healthcare providers, community organizations, and local partners, organizations can create coordinated approaches that improve access to nutrition services, support chronic disease management, and address barriers to care.
Sign-up for individual concurrent sessions is not required. Participants can choose which sessions they would like to attend.
3 – 3:30 pm Dining with Dinosaurs. Jared Byer
3:30-4 pm Beyond the Cycle: Periods, Problems, and Preconceived Notions, Reframing Menstrual Health as Preventive Care. Shara Armpreater, MS
4-4:15 pm Questions and Answers
4:30-5 pm Closing Session: From Insight to Action, What’s Next for Lifestyle Medicine.