Paula Branson
Paula Branson comes to PlantPure Communities as a passionate advocate for public education regarding the extraordinary health benefits of a whole plant based diet, organics, and environmental responsibility. Paula is a lawyer licensed in three states and practiced as Senior Counsel for two large hotel companies. She also served as Vice President/Legal Counsel for the banking services company that created the idea of putting banks into grocery stores and was an adjunct law professor.
In the height of Paula’s legal career, she became very ill. Although she consulted with many medical doctors and was prescribed handfuls of medications, her condition deteriorated to the point of rendering her disabled for many years. After many years of no success from mainstream medicine, Paula visited a holistic health center where she was put on a raw, organic plant based diet. Her condition drastically improved. Based upon this seemingly miraculous event, Paula immersed herself into studying the health problems caused by food and how those health challenges can be reversed by eliminating toxins in the diet. It is Paula’s goal to bring to public awareness the information that she discovered in her studies that can be so powerful in eliminating needless suffering caused by toxic food.
In addition to her Juris Doctorate, Paula has obtained numerous certifications in Plant Based Nutrition and is certified as a Science of Plant-Based Raw Food Instructor, Health Minister, Certified Holistic Health Coach, and Gourmet Raw Chef and Instructor. Paula is also the organizer of a 700+ member plant based meetup group in Atlanta, is a licensed facilitator of the Stanford Medical School Chronic Disease Self Management Program, has served on the Executive Committee of the Institute for Responsible Technology, and has been the guest speaker for various community groups and civic organizations on the topic of Food Politics and corruption in the American Food Supply. She has also organized many public education events regarding toxins in the American food supply and how to avoid them at venues including medical schools, fire departments, high schools, and educational festivals.
Dr. T. Colin Campbell
Dr. T. Colin Campbell is the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell University and is best known for authoring the bestselling book The China Study with his son Thomas Campbell, M.D. He is the founder of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the online, internationally recognized PlantBased Nutrition Certificate offered by the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies in partnership with eCornell.
Dr. Campbell’s expertise and scientific interests encompass relationships between diet and diseases, particularly the causation of cancer. Dr. Campbell has conducted original research both in laboratory experiments and in largescale human studies and has authored over 300 research papers. He was trained at Cornell University (M.S., Ph.D.) and MIT (research associate) in nutrition, biochemistry, and toxicology. Dr. Campbell spent 10 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech’s Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition before returning to Cornell in 1975. His legacy, the China Project, is the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition ever conducted. —bio courtesy of nutritionstudies.org
Jim Courage
A founding member of the Board of Plant Pure Communities, Jim has 39 years experience in sales, management, consulting and K-12 education project leadership in IBM and Cisco Systems. He earned several sales and community awards, recognition events, and media citations in the NY Times, Crain’s NY Business and Educational Leadership magazine.
Jim graduated with a business management degree from St. Francis College and received a master’s degree in educational leadership from Bank Street College. He was on loan from IBM to the NYC Schools Chancellor for 3 years overseeing a $2.7M community programs project to improve student learning results in the poorest congressional district in NY State. He hired education experts to train 2,100 teachers in performance based instructional methodology, engaged 59 community based organizations for a variety of student services, and implemented over $1M of IBM computers. Supporting 29,000 students across 35 schools, the South Bronx district rose from the lowest in NYC in reading and math, to moving up 10 spots of the 32 NYC school districts in just 3 years.
Jim‘s wife Laurie began eating whole foods, plant based the day after she read The China Study, and influenced Jim to do the same soon after.
Since Jim‘s Dad and grandfather died of heart attacks in their 40’s, Jim is determined to break the cycle, passionate about this healthy lifestyle and delighted to support PlantPure Communities to help save lives through healthy living and eating.
Karla Dumas, RDN, LDN
Karla Dumas is a registered and licensed dietitian nutritionist. She is currently a Senior Manager with Forward Food, a program of The Humane Society of the United States. Dumas works daily to support school districts, early childcare programs, and other large dining operations across the country implement various plant-based initiatives. With over ten years of experience working in the field of child nutrition and school food service management, she has partnered with foodservice programs throughout the country, like Miami-Dade Public Schools and Hillsborough County Public Schools and KinderCare Education to implement plant-strong initiatives.
By developing resources like menu cycles and kid-tested, school-approved plant-based recipes that meet federal guidelines along with offering culinary workshops for school food service professionals, she continues to support school districts and other institutions with more plant-based meal options. Karla has presented on the topic of plant-strong initiatives at the School Nutrition Association’s Annual National Conference, the National Child & Adult Food Care Program Conference, along with state School Nutrition Association conferences in California, Florida and Texas. Her mission is to influence and help provide a more nutritious, sustainable, and humane food system for this country’s future: our children.
Dumas received her plant-based culinary certification through Rouxbe cooking school. She currently serves as the secretary for the Vegetarian Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group with the Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics. Karla’s work in nutrition has been featured in numerous media outlets, such as Tampa Tribune, Today’s Dietitian, and the Miami Herald. Karla lives in Florida with her husband, stepdaughter, eight dogs and two chickens. In her free time, she enjoys camping, gardening and running Ragnar Relay races.
Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr.
Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn Jr. received his B.A. from Yale University and his M.D. from Western Reserve University. He was trained as a surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic and at St. George’s Hospital in London. Dr. Esselstyn has been associated with the Cleveland Clinic since 1968. During that time, he has served as President of the Staff and as a member of the Board of Governors. He chaired the Clinic’s Breast Cancer Task Force and headed its Section of Thyroid and Parathyroid Surgery. Dr. Esselstyn presently directs the cardiovascular prevention and reversal program at The Cleveland Clinic Wellness Institute.
His scientific publications number over 150; “The Best Doctors in America” 1994–1995, published by Woodward and White, cites Dr. Esselstyn’s surgical expertise in the categories of endocrine and breast disease. In 1995 he published his benchmark long-term nutritional research on arresting and reversing coronary artery disease in severely ill patients. That same study was updated at 12 years and reviewed beyond 20 years in his book, Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease, making it one of the longest longitudinal studies of its type. —bio courtesy of www.dresselstyn.com
Dr. Alan Goldhamer
Since 1984, Dr. Alan Goldhamer has been the director of the True North Health Center and the TrueNorth Health Foundation in Santa Rosa CA.
TrueNorth Health is an integrative medical facility who staff includes a dozen clinicians representing medicine, osteopathy, naturopathy, chiropractic and psychology. Their 58-bed facility admits over 1000 inpatients per year and specializes in medically supervised water-only fasting.
The non-profit TrueNorth Health Foundation provides internship and residency training to over 30 doctors per year and their clinical research team continues to conduct and publish clinical research on the application of fasting to the treatment of high blood pressure, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and lymphoma.
Dr. Goldhamer is the author of the Health Promoting Cookbook and co-author of The Pleasure Trap. He was the principal investigator in a number of studies that have appeared in the peer reviewed literature.
Dr. Michael Greger
A founding member and Fellow of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Michael Greger, MD, is a physician, New York Times bestselling author, and internationally recognized speaker on nutrition, food safety, and public health issues. He has lectured at the Conference on World Affairs, testified before Congress, and was invited as an expert witness in the defense of Oprah Winfrey in the infamous “meat defamation” trial. In 2017, Dr. Greger was honored with the ACLM Lifestyle Medicine Trailblazer Award. He is a graduate of Cornell University School of Agriculture and Tufts University School of Medicine. His latest book How Not to Die became an instant New York Times Best Seller. He has videos on more than 2,000 health topics freely available at NutritionFacts.org, with new videos and articles uploaded every day. All proceeds he receives from his books, DVDs, and speaking engagements is all donated to charity. —bio courtesy of www.drgreger.org
Dr. Michael A. Klaper
Michael A. Klaper, M.D. is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine in Chicago. He received postgraduate training in internal medicine, surgery, anesthesiology, and orthopedics at University of British Columbia teaching hospitals in Vancouver and obstetrics at the University of California at San Francisco. He has practiced acute care medicine in Hawaii, Canada, California, Florida and New Zealand.
Far more fulfilling to him is his current practice, focusing on health-promoting food and lifestyle choices to help people prevent the need for hospitalization and surgery. He has authored numerous articles on plant-based nutrition and is authoring a book on using plant-based medicine to arrest and reverse disease.
A long-time radio host and a pilot, Dr. Klaper has served as nutrition advisor to NASA’s programs for space colonists on the Moon and Mars and on the Nutrition Task Force of the American Medical Students Association.
To improve his own health, and to minimize suffering of sentient beings, Dr. Klaper adopted a plant-based diet in 1981. He makes the latest information on health and nutrition available through his website, DoctorKlaper.com, where visitors can find the numerous videos and DVDs he has produced, as well subscribe to his free newsletter, “Medicine Capsule.”
Dr. James Marcum
Dr. James Marcum is a plant-based cardiologist practicing with the Chattanooga Heart Institute. He received his undergraduate and medical training at the University of Texas. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Medical Center of Delaware and a fellowship in cardiovascular disease at the University of Kentucky.
He is speaker/director of HeartWise Ministries. Dr. Marcum produces the syndicated radio program Heartwise, heard on 300 affiliates, and is host of the television programs Ultimate Prescription and Heart of Health Live. This ministry is dedicated to promoting a balanced and evidence-based approach to healthcare.
Dr. Marcum has been named by USA Today as one of the most influential physicians. His latest books, Medicines that Kill and Ultimate Prescription, are giving new perspectives on medicine and healing. He gives seminars nationwide and serves as medical advisor to several organizations.
Dr. Robert Ostfeld
Robert Ostfeld, MD, MSc., a cardiologist, is the Director of Preventive Cardiology, the founder and Director of the Cardiac Wellness Program at Montefiore, and a Professor of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Ostfeld earned his BA from the University of Pennsylvania, graduating Summa Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa; his MD from Yale University School of Medicine; and his Masters of Science in Epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Dr. Ostfeld completed his medical internship and residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital and his cardiology fellowship and research fellowship in Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital – both teaching hospitals of Harvard Medical School. His professional interests include cardiovascular disease prevention, medical education, and clinical research. He earned the Outstanding Full Time Attending of the Year award at Montefiore for excellence in teaching medical residents; the Program Director’s Award for dedicated service on behalf of the Montefiore Einstein Cardiology Fellowship; and was elected to the Leo M. Davidoff Society at Einstein for outstanding achievement in the teaching of medical students.
Leslie Reuter
Ms. Reuter graduated with an MBA from Pepperdine University and earned her BS from Yale University, graduating Magna Cum Laude with Honors in Biology. She also attained the Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate, completed February 2018, from eCornell and T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.
Leslie Reuter is a banking executive with over 35 years of diversified experience in commercial lending, most recently as a regional Senior Credit Administrator with Community Bank (in Pasadena, CA) where she had responsibility for loan approval and commercial loan portfolio quality for the bank’s largest region. Her previous senior commercial lending positions were at California Bank & Trust, City National Bank, Fleet Capital Corporation, and Bank of America.
Leslie lives a life focused on green and sustainable practices, which includes her whole foods, plant-based diet. Leslie loves to cook and most every Wednesday is cooking up a week’s worth of delicious meals from her CSA box (Community Supported Agriculture). During harvest season, Leslie also visits local farms and picks a year’s worth of blueberries, apples, tomatoes, etc. Last year, Leslie and her partner picked 176 lbs. of Roma tomatoes over Labor Day weekend and spent the rest of the weekend canning! Leslie shares her knowledge by inviting folks to join her (often as part of a fundraiser) in cooking, canning and picking. Leslie also teaches informal classes on Shopping for Food without Plastic, Sustainable Living in an Urban Environment, Live Green and Save for your Dream, and will be now teaching about the whole foods, plant-based diet using resources from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies.
An active member of the community who recently served as a board member and Treasurer of her church as well as previously serving on the boards of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley and the Commercial Finance Conference of California where she was the Treasurer, Leslie is an enthusiastic advocate of green initiatives.
Dr. Tedd Weisman
Dr. Tedd Weisman is a board certified orthopedic surgeon. He is a physician-partner at Connecticut Orthopaedic Specialists, one of the largest and most prestigious physician-run orthopedic surgery groups in the Northeast. He is Chairman of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Milford Hospital, in Milford, CT, and has held that position since 2005. He also served a two-year term as President of the Milford Hospital Medical Staff (2008-2010). Prior to moving to CT, Dr. Weisman resided in New York, where he served as Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at New York Medical College. Dr. Weisman also served as Chief of Hand Surgery at St. Agnes Hospital in White Plains, NY. He was founder and managing director of OrthopedicHealth, LLC from 2003 through its successful merger with Connecticut Orthopaedic Specialists in 2013.
Dr. Weisman is an advocate of whole-food plant-based nutrition. His goal is to impart information about the important connection between scientifically-based whole food plant-based nutrition and bone (and overall) health. “More than ever in my career, I see this as calling, to become an educator about health – and was honored when given this unique opportunity to join the Board of Advisors of PlantPure Communities (PPC). I believe that the most important way to improve societal health, and decrease reliance on drugs, and yes, surgery, is through grassroots nutritional education. The PPC organization, through the founding and foresight of T. Colin Campbell and Nelson Campbell, is educating average citizens about the importance of plant-based nutrition via community Pods, educational seminars, the PlantPure Nation film, and the 2018 Healing America nationwide tour. I look forward to working with PPC in an effort to improve the health of our nation.”