Colleen Spees, PhD, MEd, RD, LD, FAND, FAHA

Dr. Colleen Spees is Professor of Medical Dietetics and Director of the Hope Lab at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. For more than a decade, she has advanced crop-to-clinic-to-community research through her novel Food Is Medicine interventions in high-risk cardio-oncology cohorts. Her research roots began at OSU's Garden of Hope, a living laboratory connecting food production, culinary education, and community engagement while evaluating dietary and physical activity patterns, cognition, the microbiome, and metabolomics. She currently leads the Food and Fitness WITH Medicine trial, which combines Food is Medicine plus Exercise is Medicine for postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes initiating GLP-1 therapy.

Through Dr. Spees' leadership in biobehavioral research, she continues connect crops, clinics, and communities in advancing sustainable approaches to chronic disease management during and beyond GLP-1 therapy.