Dr. Ryan is the President Elect of the Obesity Society, an organization of >2000 American scientists.  She is the Co-Chair of the panel that is currently revising the NIH-sponsored Guidelines for the Evaluation and Management of Overweight and Obesity, so-called
“Obesity II.”  

Dr. Ryan’s research interests include many aspects of obesity management and prevention including the following:

• obesity pharmacotherapy,
• evaluation of  diets of different macronutrient composition for weight loss,
• practical or pragmatic clinical trials to evaluate primary care approaches to obesity management, and
• translational research engaging third party payors in obesity intervention.

Dr. Ryan has been funded by the DoD to oversee a Military Nutrition Research project in which she collaborates with the US Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine’s Military Nutrition Division. She is Co-PI for the NIH-funded Clinical Nutrition Research Center at Pennington and Co-PI for the NIDDK-sponsored Look AHEAD study that addresses weight loss in persons with type 2 diabetes.  Her most recent project is the submission, as PI, of a state-wide Clinical Translational Science Award which will encompass 9 Louisiana research institutions.