Webinar Description

Many people subconsciously and consciously equate obesity with a lack of will power and self-care, poor self-control, and limited intelligence. Individuals with larger bodies often experience weight discrimination through verbal assaults, physical attacks, lower pay, bias in healthcare settings, and much more. In addition, this discrimination often becomes internalized with individuals believing these negative perspectives about themselves. In this session, you will hear about ways to recognize the role we play in worsening obesity stigma, and strategies to create safe spaces to appreciate the humanity of individuals with larger bodies and reframe our focus on health over cosmetic thinness.

Learning Objectives

1. Learn the importance of understanding obesity through a more complex framework.
2. Understand discriminatory acts that happen to people with obesity.
3. Learn public health strategies to centralize the role of humanity/health in supporting individuals with obesity.

Webinar Speaker

Kofi D. Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, is a board-certified community pediatrician at Children’s National Hospital (CNH) in Washington, D.C. He serves as Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, the Director of the George Washington University(GWU) School of Medicine and Health Sciences Culinary Medicine Program, the Director of the GWU Community/Urban Health Scholarly Concentration, and the Director of the GWU Clinical Public Health Summit on Obesity.

Dr. Essel has dedicated his career to advocacy/research around healthcare training, health disparities, and community engagement, with expertise and national recognition in the areas of addressing obesity stigma, and food insecurity in families. He sits on the National Academy of Sciences Roundtable on Obesity Solutions Lived Experience Innovation Collaborative and was nationally recognized by the Alliance for a Healthier Generation for helping to create an innovative curriculum to enhance pediatric resident trainee skills on nutrition related disease management. He also sits on the Board of Directors for the Food Research & Action Center(FRAC) and Physician Advisor for the Partnership for A Healthier America’s “Veggies Early & Often” Campaign. Dr. Essel co-authored a national toolkit for pediatric providers to address food insecurity in their clinical settings with the AAP and FRAC. He is the Principal Investigator of a large multidisciplinary population health initiative that aims to strengthen community-clinical ties to address diet related chronic diseases in historically marginalized settings in Washington, D.C. He has received numerous local/national awards for his professional practice, in addition to being selected for the Top 40 Under 40 Leaders in Health Award by the National Minority Quality Forum.

Dr. Essel earned a BS from Emory University with a focus on Human Biology and Anthropology, and earned his Medical Degree and Masters in Public Health in Epidemiology from GWU. He completed pediatric residency and General Academic Pediatric fellowship training at Children’s National Hospital.

Free Registration

This event was pre-recorded at the 2023 Champions for Youth Summit. 

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