Robert Kushner, MD, MS

A nationally recognized expert in the care of overweight and obese patients, Dr. Kushner, helps patients manage their weight with state-of-the art approaches including diet, exercise, behavioral change, pharmacotherapy and bariatric surgery. He is Clinical Director of the Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity in Chicago, Illinois. He is past President of The Obesity Society (TOS), the American Board of Physician Nutrition Specialists (ABPNS), and the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN).

Dr. Kushner serves on the editorial boards of two prominent journals, Obesity and the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. He has authored numerous articles, reviews, books and book chapters. Among his recent books are Counseling Overweight Adults: The Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Toolkit; American Medical Association's Assessment and Management of Obesity; Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet; Treatment of the Obese Patient; Fitness Unleashed: A Dog and Owner's Guide to Losing Weight and Gaining Health Together. He is the recipient of the 2011 Atkinson-Stern Award for Distinguished Public Service.

Dr. Kushner received his medical degree from the University of Illinois, completed his residency in internal medicine at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, completed a post-graduate fellowship in clinical nutrition at the University of Chicago Hospitals, and received his master's degree in clinical nutrition and nutritional biology at the University of Chicago.

James Hill, PhD

Dr. Hill has dedicated his career to weight management and is well known as one of the nation's leading experts in this field. He has spent over 25 years researching the causes of weight gain, adiposity, and obesity and how to prevent or treat these problems - and has published over 300 scientific articles on the topic.

He is Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, a key developer of the America on the Move program (an initiative to make small lifestyle changes to help improve health and manage weight), and a Co-Founder of the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), which tracks over 6,000 people who have lost weight and kept it off permanently.

Dr. Hill was a member of the Expert Panel that developed the National Institutes of Health Guidelines for Management of Overweight and Obesity. He was also chair of the first World Health Organization Consultation on Obesity. He is currently president of the American Society for Nutrition. He has served as president of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity and as Vice-President of the International Association for the Study of Obesity. He is past President of The Obesity Society (TOS)

As Director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado, Dr. Hill has spent the past few years translating the science of weight management into simple programs that work in the community. He co-developed The Colorado Weigh, a structured behavior weight management program involving weekly group meetings. He holds a B.S. degree from the University of Tennessee and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of New Hampshire in Physiological Psychology.

Holly Wyatt, MD

Dr. Wyatt has served as National Program Director for the Centers for Obesity Research and Education (CORE). Research interests include studies aimed at understanding whether energy metabolism is altered in obese individuals and in individuals who are successfully maintaining weight loss.

Additional research interests include measuring resting energy expenditure, fat oxidation, total energy expenditure and activity levels in the National Weight Control Registry's (NWCR) long-term reduced population. Dr. Wyatt studies how diet composition affects long-term success in weight loss maintenance. She has studied subjects who are losing weight with the Atkins Diet (low carbohydrate) vs. a low fat, high carbohydrate diet. She has investigated diet composition, exercise patterns and breakfast consumption in the NWCR.

She received her MD degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and completed both an internal medicine residency and an endocrinology and metabolism fellowship at The University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. She is board certified in both internal medicine and endocrinology.

Dr. Wyatt has received both a National Service Research Award and a Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23) from the National Institutes of Health. She is the medical director of a weight management program developed at The Center for Human Nutrition called The Colorado Weigh.

Dawn Jackson-Blatner RD, CSSD

Dawn is a trusted food & nutrition expert appearing regularly in national media. Dawn believes in using the power of food to prevent and manage illness and maintain optimal health. She is a registered dietitian, certified specialist in sports dietetics, and the nutrition consultant for the Chicago Cubs.

Dawn is the author of The Flexitarian Diet and co-author of Counseling Overweight Adults: the Lifestyle Patterns Approach and Toolkit. She is an expert resource for media outlets such as Dateline, Newsweek, USA Today, and Web MD. She has a private practice based in Chicago, IL providing personalized nutrition counseling, healthy cooking classes and educational workshops.

Dawn was a national media spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and has 13 years experience working with clients to improve health outcomes such as obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. Dawn received Lifetime Television 2011 "Remarkable Woman Award" for her work in the field of nutrition. She holds a BS in Human Nutrition and Food Science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Brad Saks, PsyD

Co-owner of Chicago's prestigious North Shore Center for Weight Management, Dr. Saks is a clinical psychologist specializing in cognitive-behavioral therapy, Bulimia Nervosa, Binge Eating Disorder, pre- and post- bariatric surgery care, obesity, and weight management.

Brad is a Diplomate in Cognitive Therapy and board certified by the Academy of Cognitive Therapy. He is currently an Instructor at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. His teaching interests include behavioral counseling for lifestyle medicine, and the assessment and treatment of eating disorders.

He is a member of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Association's Divisions for Health Psychology and Addictive Behaviors, the Obesity Society, and the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. He often works collaboratively with physicians, and has authored two chapters on the treatment of obesity in the American Medical Association's Roadmaps for Clinical Practice: Case Studies In Disease Prevention and Health Promotion—Assessment and Management of Adult Obesity: A Primer for Physicians.

Melissa Paolino, MS, ACSM-CES

Melissa Paolino received both her Bachelors and Masters of Science in Clinical Exercise Physiology from Indiana University, where she was on the Dean's List and was also Special Projects Chair. She interned at the Scripps Cardiac Treatment Center in San Diego, where she evaluated patients in the cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation programs, creating customized exercise prescriptions and working with patients on an ongoing basis.

After Scripps, Melissa joined Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she supervised and interpreted nuclear and cardiopulmonary stress tests. She is also currently a member of Northwestern Memorial Hospital's Center for Partnership Medicine team, assessing fitness and identifying appropriate physical activity, exercise, and behavioral interventions for a wide variety of clients. Melissa is also certified as an Exercise Specialist by the American College of Sports Medicine. She enjoys helping clients set goals for exercise, and has a particular interest in sports training, perinatal fitness, and weight management.

Jeff Hyman, Chief Executive Officer

Jeff is a serial entrepreneur with a relentless passion for creating innovative companies & brands. He is driven by the belief that every individual is capable of doing incredible things once given the opportunity and knowledge. Prior to Retrofit, he was Founder and CEO of three internet-based services companies in the talent management field. Jeff served as SVP Sales & Marketing for Ameritox, a private equity-owned healthcare services company. He was the first VP Marketing of Dyson, now a market-leading consumer products company. Jeff gives back by advising a number of startup companies. He holds a BS from The Wharton School at University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from The Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.

Doug Donohoe, Chief Technology Officer

Doug has been developing software for over 20 years. Most recently he served as VP of Engineering at Firm58. At Orba Nova, he led development of an innovative high-frequency trading platform. At Ingenix, he was senior director of an engineering team focused on reducing health care fraud. Donohoe Digital, a company he founded, developed award winning computer games including DD Poker. Doug was an early employee at Blue Martini Software where he served as Vice President of Technology and managed the company's first three major product releases. At Netscape, he was Chief Architect of Netscape's e-commerce software division. Doug started his career at Andersen Consulting. Doug graduated summa cum laude from Denison University with a BS in Computer Science.

Kim Evenson, Chief Marketing Officer

Kim is dedicated to growing an interest in healthy lifestyles and power of online services to deliver them. She served as SVP of Marketing for eDiets.com for 4 years, growing its meal delivery business and introducing innovative support programs. Prior to that, she spent much of her career at Kraft Foods rising in various marketing roles, from Assistant Brand Manager to Director of Health & Wellness for the award winning Food & Family program. Kim has additional work experience with Peapod, Starbucks Coffee, and H.E.Butt Grocery, as well as consulting engagements in fitness retail, healthy new product development and online marketing. She earned her BA at Northwestern University and her MBA at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business.

Whitney Durbin, Director of Client Services

Whitney has found her passion delighting clients and helping them live a healthier lifestyle. She started her career in the corporate finance at Merrill Lynch before taking the leap to her first start up company at Strong Suit. She honed her project management and operations management skills at Allstate and MPC Group respectively and is now bringing her incredible organizational skills to help Retrofit's clients stay on track. She received her BA in English from the University of Iowa.

Vikki Caruso, Director of Wellness Experts

Vikki has a knack for bringing the right people together. She started her career in retail at Sam's Club before heading to the recruiting industry to gain over 10 years of experience, holding positions of rising responsibility with Randstad Work Solutions, interspersed with ventures into the start up world. She holds a BBA in Marketing from the University of St. Francis.