Advisory Board Bios

James O. Hill, Ph.D. is Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, Colorado.  Dr. Hill also serves as the Director of the Center for Human Nutrition, a nutrition center funded by the National Institutes of Health.

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.  He is an honorary member of the American Dietetic Association.  He has served on numerous government panels, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Taskforce on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity.  He is a past chair of the NIH Nutrition Study Section.  He served as Chair of the World Health Organization Consultation on Obesity in 1997.  He is a Past President of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity (NASSO) and past regional vice-president of the International Association for the Study of Obesity (IASO).  He was also a member of the Expert Panel on Obesity of the National Institutes of Health that developed U.S guidelines for the treatment and prevention of obesity.  He serves as chair of the America on the Move Foundation, a public-private partnership to improve nutrition and physical activity patterns of the population. 

Dr. Hill has published more than 250 scientific articles and book chapters in the area of obesity.  He has presented many keynote addresses nationally and internationally on the topic of obesity.  His research in the obesity field involves the study of lifestyle factors that affect body weight regulation.  In particular, he is interested in how diet and physical activity influence body weight and how high fat diet and inactivity may contribute to the current global epidemic of obesity.  Dr. Hill is a cofounder of the National Weight Control Registry, a registry of individuals who have been successful in maintenance of a reduced body weight.  He is the recipient of a prestigious MERIT award from NIH.  He was the recipient of the 2004 Centrum Center Award from the American Society of Nutritional Sciences. Dr. Hill is a member of the editorial boards of Obesity Research, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and The International Journal of Obesity.  He is Editor-in-Chief of Obesity Management. 

Dr. Hill is co-founder of America on the Move, a national weight gain prevention initiative that aims to inspire Americans to make small changes in how much they eat and how much they move to prevent weight gain.  Dr. Hill established The Colorado Weigh, a behavioral weight management program that is offered to the public.  He is the author of the Step Diet Book, published in June 2004.