Health and Human Development

David Katz slated to give 2012 Mayers Lecture

David Katz, president and founder of Turn the Tide Foundation Inc., will give the 15th annual Stanley P. Mayers Endowed Lecture on April 3. The lecture will be hosted by the Penn State Department of Health Policy and Administration, in conjunction with the Mount Nittany Medical Center.

Katz’s lecture, “Food as Medicine: The Case for a Figurative Spoon Full of Sugar,” will be held at 7:30 p.m. at The Nittany Lion Inn on the University Park campus.
Katz also is the founding director of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center and the founding director of the Integrative Medicine Center at Griffin Hospital in Derby, Conn.

A board-certified specialist in both internal medicine and preventive medicine/public health, Katz is active in patient care, research, teaching and public health practice. His research focuses on nutrition, weight management and chronic disease prevention, as well as integrative care and patient-centered care models. He established, and formerly directed, one of the nation’s first combined residency programs in internal medicine and preventive medicine, and he served as director of medical studies in public health at the Yale School of Medicine for eight years.

Katz is a frequent consultant to ABC News; a health editor for the Huffington Post; an on-line writer for Prevention Magazine; a health columnist for the New Haven Register; and a frequent source for leading newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek. He has appeared numerous times on most major news programs, including The Today Show, CNN, Good Morning America and 20/20, and he is a regular guest on the Dr. Oz Show.

Katz was nominated for the position of U.S. Surgeon General in 2009 by the American College of Physicians, the American College of Preventive Medicine and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, among others. He was the 2011 recipient of the Katharine Boucot Sturgis award from the American College of Preventive Medicine, the most prestigious award the college confers.

Stanley P. Mayers Jr., co-founder of Penn State’s undergraduate program in the Department of Health Policy and Administration (HPA), retired after a distinguished 26-year career with Penn State. During that time, he served as HPA department head, associate dean for undergraduate studies and associate dean for academic studies in the College of Health and Human Development. He brought extensive experience in public health and critical perspectives on the role of medicine in society to his students and colleagues.

The Stanley P. Mayers Jr. Health Policy and Administration Excellence Endowment is aimed at enhancing students’ education and increasing faculty expertise in areas that will continue to honor Mayers’ contributions as a professor, administrator and philanthropist. The endowment was initiated by Mayers and has been enlarged by contributions from alumni, faculty and staff.

The lecture is free and open to the public; however, registration is required. For more information, contact Deb Barger at duc15@psu.edu or 814-863-2900.

Last Updated January 9, 2015

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