Speakers

Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H.
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine; The George Washington University Department of Medicine
Presentation: Mood and Anxiety Disorders in Chimpanzees

Hope Ferdowsian, M.D., M.P.H, is director of research policy for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting preventive medicine, especially better nutrition, and higher standards in research. She is also associate director for the Washington Center for Clinical Research (WCCR), a subsidiary of PCRM that conducts independent clinical research focusing on the role of diet in health promotion and disease prevention and management.

As director of research policy for PCRM, Dr. Ferdowsian leads PCRM’s scientific and policy efforts related to the inapplicability of animal experimentation to human illness, the promotion of alternatives to animal experimentation, and the alleviation of animal suffering.

Dr. Ferdowsian’s clinical research projects with the WCCR include a multicenter study examining the effect of a low-fat vegan diet on glycemic control in individuals with type 2 diabetes and a work-site study that examines the effect of a low-fat vegan diet on weight control and work-site costs.

Dr. Ferdowsian received her medical degree from the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine. She completed both residency training in community and preventive medicine and her master’s degree in public health at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Dr. Ferdowsian completed internal medicine training at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She is board certified in general internal medicine and general preventive medicine and public health. She holds medical licenses in the District of Columbia and New York state.

Dr. Ferdowsian has served medically in Malawi, South Africa, and the Federated States of Micronesia. Her work in sub-Saharan Africa has focused on HIV/AIDS, whereas her efforts in Micronesia have focused on prevention and management of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Dr. Ferdowsian has worked with the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Global Health as an invited collaborator for the preparation of a U.S. surgeon general’s global health document. She is a volunteer physician for both Physicians for Human Rights and Doctors of the World. She is also a staff physician at Unity Health Care in Washington, D.C., and serves as a voluntary clinical instructor in the Department of Medicine at the George Washington University Medical Center.