David S.H. Bell, MD, FACP - Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Birmingham School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama

David S. H. Bell, MB, is Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, School of Medicine, and a leading authority on the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes. During his  distinguished career, he  has contributed more than 230 articles to the medical literature. He is an active researcher and has served as Director of the Endocrine Clinical Research Program at the University of Alabama Birmingham. Dr. Bell speaks nationally and internationally on the treatment of type 2 diabetes and its complications, and he is currently a member of the editorial boards of Endocrine Practice, Treatments in Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Obesity and Metabolism. He is a recipient of the Distinguished Clinician Award from the American College of Endocrinology for outstanding contribution as a master educator and clinician and the Seale Harris Award from the Southern Medical Association for outstanding contributions to diabetes research.   

James H. O'Keefe Jr., MD - Professor of Medicine, University of Missouri at Kansas City, Mid-America Heart Institute, St. Lukes Hospital

James H. O'Keefe, Jr., M.D., is Director of Preventive Cardiology at the Mid America Heart Institute and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. His postgraduate training included a cardiology fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He has written 135 articles and 6 books on cardiovascular medicine, and he lectures extensively on the role of therapeutic lifestyle changes and drug therapy in cardiovascular risk reduction. He is actively involved in patient care. 

George L. Bakris, MD, FACP, FCP (SA) - Professor and Vice Chairman, Department of Preventive Medicine, Director, Hypertension/Clinical Research Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois

George L. Bakris, MD, is Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Preventive Medicine and Director of the Hypertension/Clinical Research Center at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois. His postgraduate work included fellowships in nephrology and clinical pharmacology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Bakris is a world-leading authority on hypertension and kidney disease and has contributed more than 300 scholarly articles and  several major textbooks on kidney disease, diabetes, and the role of hypertension. He  is the past-president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology and has served as the co-principal investigator of an NIH Clinical Research training grant (K30) to train clinical researchers. Dr. Bakris has chaired the National Kidney Foundation consensus report on blood pressure and impact on renal disease progression and has served on many national committees, including the JNC 7 Executive and Writing Committee, the American Diabetes Association Clinical Practice Guideline Committee, and the National Kidney Foundation (K-DOQI) Blood Pressure and Diabetes Guideline Committees. He has also served as an expert-consultant to the Cardio-Renal Advisory Board of the FDA. Dr. Bakris is the current editor of American Journal of Nephrology, associate editor of Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and Journal of Laboratory Clinical Medicine, and a member of the editorial board of numerous leading medical journals, including Journal of Clinical Hypertension, Kidney International, and Nephrology.