Dr. Kevin D. O'Brien is an attending physician at the University of Washington Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the University of Washington. He followed his internship and residency at the UW with a chief medical residency at the VA and senior fellowships in metabolism, endocrinology, nutrition and cardiology at the UW. Dr. Kevin D. O'Brien is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases. He is an expert in congestive heart failure, cardiac transplantation and lipid disorders, practicing in these fields for over 20 years. He has 15+ years of experience directing a morphology core for an NIH-funded program project on macrovascular disease in diabetes, as well as 5+ years co-directing the Nephrology, Macrophascular and Microvascular Core of the Seattle Mouse Metabolic Phenotyping Center. Among his many honors, he has received the Robert L. Van Citters Medical Thesis Award, the Sheard-Sanford Award from the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, and Outstanding Investigator from the Western Society for Clinical Investigation.
Dr. Peter J. Havel received a Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) and a Ph.D. in Endocrinology from the University of California at Davis. He is a currently a Professor with joint appointments in the Departments of Molecular Biosciences and Nutrition. Dr. Havel is investigating the regulation of energy homeostasis and carbohydrate/lipid metabolism, and the involvement of endocrine systems in the pathophysiology of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He holds professional memberships from the American Diabetes Association, American Physiological Society, American Society for Clinical Nutrition, American Society for Nutritional Sciences, American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, The Endocrine Society, The Obesity Society, etc. Dr. Havel received the Outstanding Investigator Award, American Federation for Medical Research (1999), Shih-Chun Wang Award for excellence in physiology research - American Physiological Society (2000), Academic Federation Award for Excellence in Research, University of California, Davis (2003), Professional Award for original research in Human Nutrition from Grupo Bimbo Panamericano (Mexico City, 2007) and was named the Pfizer Visiting Professor in Obesity (2009).
Dr. Elaine R. Peskind is a Co-Director of the VA VISN 20 (Northwest Network) Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC). Dr. Elaine R. Peskind is also the Friends of Alzheimer’s Research Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine, and an Associate Director of the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Dr. Elaine R. Peskind received a B.S. with HIgh Honors, Biology, CA State College San Bernardino 1975; M.S., Zoology, Washington State University, 1978; and M.D. with Honors, University of Washington School of Medicine, 1986. Dr. Elaine R. Peskind's research over the past 30 years has addressed cognitive and behavioral problems and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in neurodegenerative dementing disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
Dr. James E. Blevins is a Principal Investigator at the VA Puget Sound Health Care System and is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University of Washington. He received a Ph.D. in Physiology from Creighton University in 1997. He completed a postdoctoral position in the Department of Nutrition at University of California, Davis in 2000 before undertaking a second postdoctoral position in the Department of Medicine, Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University of Washington. His area of expertise lies in studying short-term satiety signals in the control of food intake and in understanding the mechanisms that contribute to the anti-obesity effects of the neurohypophyseal hormone oxytocin in diet-induced obese rodent and nonhuman primate models. Dr. James E. Blevins has been independently funded through the Department of Veterans Affairs and National Institutes of Health since 2004 and 2018, respectively. He has authored and co-authored over 50 peer review articles and abstracts published in the areas of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition. Dr. James E. Blevins has also served as an editorial board member for the American Journal of Physiology Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Endocrinology, Frontiers in Endocrinology and Frontiers in Physiology.
