Meet our Team

Heidi Prather, DO is a board certified physician in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine and a Diplomat of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine. She serves as the founder and Medical Director of the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program. She has practiced non-operative musculoskeletal medicine for nearly 3 decades and enjoys clinical work, teaching, and research. Frustrated with the healthcare system’s limitations in healthcare provider collaboration and patient access to services needed to improve their musculoskeletal health, she developed the HSS Lifestyle Medicine program to enable a focus on whole-person health. Practicing lifestyle medicine has given her hope and energy to be involved in healthcare—not sick care.  

Karen Griffin, NP, DIPACLM is a nurse practitioner who has worked at HSS for over 13 years. Prior to HSS, she was a travel nurse and had the opportunity to work in several different areas of the country, primarily in cardiology and oncology.  The unifying factor of her varied work experiences has been witnessing the impact of lifestyle choices on health outcomes. Karen is excited to be part of the Lifestyle Medicine team and empower patients to make holistic lifestyle changes that can optimize their health. She is particularly interested in shifting the focus to give individuals the option to be active participants in their well care.

Jennifer Saunders is a Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Integrative Health and Lifestyle Practitioner. She began her nursing career 17 years ago as a Registered Nurse serving the adult population at Flushing Hospital Medical Center in Flushing, NY. 5 years later, she transitioned to serving the Pediatric Population at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore in the Bronx, NY.

She earned her Bachelors of Science in Nursing and Masters of Science in Nursing from Pace University. She is a member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners and a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.

Jennifer is excited to be a part of the Lifestyle Medicine team at HSS, and looks forward to caring for patients as they reach their health goals.

Her hobbies include: Spending time with family, walking, pilates, community service, traveling, watching movies, and trying new cuisines.

Cara Suter, PT, DPT, NCPT is a physical therapist and the Clinical Program Manager of the Lifestyle Medicine Program. As a PT, she evaluates and treats patients as a whole in order to get to the root cause of an issue. This mirrors the goal of Lifestyle Medicine, which is seeing a person as a whole in order to optimize their health.  

Dana Rose is a Care Navigator for the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program, where she supports patients helping them achieve their goals set forth in the lifestyle medicine program. With a professional background in physical therapy, Dana brings a strong foundation in movement science, rehabilitation, and patient-centered care. She is passionate about empowering individuals to improve their health through physical activity and behavior change. She works closely with patients and the care team to help guide them on their journey to achieve their individual goals.

Mark Pagba has served in many roles in his many years of work at HSS and now coordinates scheduling for patients across the disciplines and group programs. His work as a member of the Lifestyle Medicine team has made him realize how important it is to take care of the whole body, physically but most importantly mentally. He views the lifestyle medicine program to help patients adapt their lives and achieve wellness.

Caryn Duggan, Nutritional Chef, founder of  Center for Plant Based-Based Living, is a plant-based nutrition and culinary and lifestyle educator with a simple mission, “A Plant on Every Plate™.” Caryn adopted a plant-based diet in response to tragedy; in 2008, cancer took her father at an early age and 10 weeks later, tried to take her. In response to her diagnosis, she searched for an answer and found one in the growing body of literature supporting a whole food, plant-based diet to bolster our natural immune system. Adopting a plant-based diet herself and beating cancer, she sought to share her knowledge to help others. She has completed multiple prestigious cooking and health programs to advance her education and regularly appears in cooking and nutrition segments in the media, as well as being an avid speaker and collaborator in the community. The Center for Plant-based Living (CPBL) offers plant-based cooking classes, programs, speaker’s series, philanthropic efforts, etc.  Visit the CPBL for more information.

 

Dr. Loomis is the Medical Director at the Barnard Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and also serves as Medical Director for the Center for Plant-Based Living. He is on the clinical faculty at both the George Washington University School of Medicine (Department of Internal Medicine) and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (Department of Preventive Medicine and Biostatistics) in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Loomis earned his medical degree from the University of Arkansas and completed his internal medicine residency at Barnes Hospital/Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He later received an MBA from the Olin School of Business at Washington University. He is board certified in internal medicine, a diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, and certified in Plant-Based Nutrition through Cornell University.

Dr. Loomis has served as team physician for the St. Louis Rams football team, the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He is a frequent international speaker on the health benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet and is featured in the documentary The Game Changers.

Jane Belkin, LMSW is the Care Navigator/Health Coach for the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program. With extensive experience in interdisciplinary behavioral health, medical social work, and individual psychotherapy, Jane is committed to providing compassionate, collaborative care and support to her patients. Jane is passionate about empowering individuals to navigate their healthcare journeys, advocating for holistic approaches that address both mental and physical well-being to achieve lifestyle goals. Jane holds a Masters of Social work from Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Services.

Jennifer Cheng, PhD, is a research manager who serves in the key role to lead outcomes reporting and research in the Lifestyle Medicine Program. She received her PhD from New York Medical College and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. She is committed to researching ways to improve whole-person health via the Lifestyle Medicine Program in patients with musculoskeletal conditions and lifestyle-related chronic diseases.

Kate Cohen, MS, RD, CDN, DipACLM, is a Clinical nutritionist for the HSS Lifestyle Medicine program. Prior to HSS, she was a Dietitian at UCLA and multiple divisions of USC, where she worked with patients addressing a wide range of chronic diseases, organ failure, and cancer. She was often frustrated by the limitations of the healthcare system in helping patients understand their own role in improving their health. When she found her way to Lifestyle Medicine, she knew immediately it was the roadmap that would support patients in making real change. At HSS, she is passionate about empowering patients with the knowledge, tools, and inspiration they need to be proactive about their diet and their health.

Kelyssa Hall, ACSM-EP, CSCS, CEAS I, BoneFit, is an Exercise Physiologist with over 30 years of experience helping people to make healthier choices and to prioritize physical activity and the proper way to move. She is proud to be a part of the Lifestyle Medicine team to further validate the importance of the pillars of health that can help people navigate challenges and successes along the way to feeling good. She uses her extensive background to educate people on how to manage complex health issues with the proper approach to avoid injury and maximize goals. She has a passion for helping people do the things they love to do and strives to empower people to live their best lives by working with them to initiate physical activity habits into their daily routines while focusing on functional movement, balance, mobility, strength, posture and endurance.

Nartana Mehta, RD is a registered dietitian specializing in disease prevention, management and reversal, and weight management through whole-food, plant-based nutrition and improved gut health. She is the dietician for the Washington University Living Well Center, in St. Louis, Missouri. She serves as a consultant to the HSS lifestyle medicine program, with a specific focus on nutrition and gut health as they relate to arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions and lifestyle changes including a whole food plant-predominant lifestyle to prevent, treat and reverse lifestyle-related chronic disease and improve pain and function in people.

Ruth Greenfield, MS, RD, CDN, CDCES is a clinical nutritionist for the HSS Lifestyle Medicine Program. She has extensive acute and ambulatory care experience counseling patients using nutrition therapy for the prevention and treatment of chronic disease. She loves conversing with patients about plant forward nutrition and ways to incorporate more plants into their daily routine.

In her previous role, she worked for an insurance company providing nutrition education through a virtual and community-based diabetes self-management program which she co-designed. She is passionate about using food as medicine and making nutrition exciting! Being part of the lifestyle medicine team allows her to practice what she preaches and put nutrition at the forefront of patient care.