2027 Health meets Food: the Culinary Medicine Conference Speakers
Friday June 11, 2027
Uma Naidoo, MD
Food, Mood, and Mental Health Across the Lifespan
In her role as a Clinical Scientist, Dr. Naidoo founded and directs the first hospital-based clinical service in Nutritional Psychiatry in the USA. She is the Director of Nutritional and Metabolic Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital & Director of Nutritional Psychiatry & Lifestyle Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital Academy while serving on the faculty at Harvard Medical School. She is pioneering the nascent field of Nutritional Psychiatry in the USA. Dr. Naidoo is a trained psychiatrist, professional chef and nutrition specialist.
Dr Naidoo graduated from the Harvard-Longwood Psychiatry Residency Training Program in Boston during which she received several awards, some of which included a “Junior Investigator Award” (American Psychiatric Association); “Leadership Development for Physicians and Scientists” award (Harvard), as well as being the very first psychiatrist to be awarded the coveted “Curtis Prout Scholar in Medical Education”. Dr Naidoo, has been asked by The American Psychiatric Association to author the first academic text in Nutritional Psychiatry. She has written a national bestselling non-fiction trade book published in 2020, This Is Your Brain On Food, based on her work in Nutritional Psychiatry. Based on her book she has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, Harvard Health Press, The Today Show, Live with Kelly and Ryan, Bon Appétit and others.
Barbara Rolls, PhD
How We Eat Shapes How We Think
Dr. Barbara J. Rolls is professor of nutritional sciences and the Helen A. Guthrie Chair in nutrition at Penn State University. She received a BA in biology from the University of Pennsylvania and a PhD in physiology from the University of Cambridge, England. After spending her early research career at the University of Oxford, England, Dr. Rolls joined the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine as professor of psychiatry. In 1992, she became a faculty member at Penn State.
Dr. Rolls is past president of both the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior and The Obesity Society, and has been a member of the Advisory Council of the NIH’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
Dr. Rolls is the recipient of a number of awards, including the American Society of Nutritional Sciences Award in Human Nutrition and a MERIT award from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.
She is the author of five books, including The Volumetrics Weight-Control Plan: Feel Full on Fewer Calories and The Volumetrics Eating Plan.
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Saturday June 12, 2027
Maggie Moon, MS, RD
Dietary Patterns for Brain Health Across the Lifespan
Maggie Moon, MS, RD, is a registered dietitian, best-selling author, and health communications expert with past lives as university faculty, e-grocery RD, and in-house nutrition expert for global CPG brands.
Currently, Ms. Moon is a strategic consultant to better-for-you brands and commodities, as well as a writer and speaker on nutrition for brain health. For 10+ years, she was an executive at The Wonderful Company where she was the top thought leader, subject matter expert, and spokesperson on health & nutrition for the Wonderful Company’s portfolio of healthy CPG brands.
As an educator, Ms. Moon was an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences at Brooklyn College in the City of New York, in both undergraduate and graduate programs. She also developed and implemented nutrition curricula for NYC public schools.
Maggie Moon was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from U.C. Berkeley, then went on to earn a Master of Science degree in Nutrition and Education from Columbia University Teachers College. She completed her clinical training at New York Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia and Cornell; and has community training from United Way of NYC, Columbia Head Start, and the Healthy Schools, Healthy Families program of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of New York-Presbyterian.
Rachel Herz, PhD
Flavor and the Brain
Rachel Herz, PhD, is a neuroscientist and a leading world expert on the psychological science of smell. Dr. Herz is a TEDx and TED speaker, has published over 110 original research articles to date, and received many awards and grants. She is on the faculty at Brown University, has extensive research collaborations with scientists in the US and Europe, is a professional consultant to numerous international companies, and is frequently called upon as an expert witness in legal cases involving the chemical senses.
Dr. Herz is also actively involved in outreach, advocacy, and education on scent and taste-food-flavor with the principal non-profit organizations in this sector, and she is the incoming President of the International Society of Neurogastronomy (2026-2028).
Dr Herz is the author of a number of academic and popular science books including: the leading college textbook on Sensation & Perception (Oxford University Press, 2024); The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (Harper Collins, 2008), which was selected as a finalist for the “2009 AAAS Prize for Excellence in Science Books”; That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion (W.W. Norton & Co, 2012), a New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice”; and Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship with Food (W.W. Norton & Co, 2018), which was a finalist for the “2018 Readable Feast Awards” and ranked among the “Best Food Books of 2018” by The Smithsonian and The New Yorker.
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Sunday June 14, 2026
Speakers to be announced.
