Farm to Health
Continuing Medical Education Event
When: February 22, 2025
Where: 4Roots Farm Education Building
Address: 1101 N John Young Parkway, Orlando FL 32804
Time: 7 AM – 5:30 PM
Credit Hours: 9
Join the Culinary Health Institute for the Farm to Health CME event—an immersive experience designed to bridge the gap between farming, food and medical science. This comprehensive symposium is tailor-made for all physicians and allied health care professionals eager to secure 9 continuing education credits, while enriching their understanding of the pivotal role that nutrition plays in overall health.
Course Director, Dr. Monica Aggarwal, will be speaking about the connection between planetary health and human health. Faculty members include Drs. Kim Williams, Beth Frates, and Sharon Wasserstrom, who will explore essential topics such as the influence of soil nutrients on health, healthy eating practices, social drivers of health, nutritional security and the impact of nutrition on brain and heart health. Culinary demonstrations will be hosted by James Beard Awarded Chef, Hari Pulapaka. John Rivers, CEO and founder of 4Roots Farm, will tell the story of how the farm came to be. Get ready to be immersed in understanding the connection between our farms and our health and be prepared to cook! Course content will also include nutrition content understanding, label reading, and learning how to build nutrition into your clinical practice.
These engaging discussions, combined with hands-on culinary demonstrations and interactive farm tours, make the Farm to Health CME event a must-attend for health professionals looking to integrate nutritional knowledge into their practice. Join us for a day of learning, practical skill-building, and professional growth in a dynamic and supportive environment.
Accreditation Statement: This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the accreditation requirements and policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint providership of the University of Central Florida College of Medicine and 4 Roots Farm. The University of Central Florida College of Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Designation Statement: University of Central Florida College of Medicine designates this educational activity for a maximum of 9.0 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)tm. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
Event Speakers
Dr. Monica Aggarwal
Course Director
Dr. Aggarwal gives talks around the community, country and internationally. She was named a “Next Generation Innovator” by Cardiology Today. She is often featured in Veg News, Naked Magazine and forksoverknives.com. She conducts research on nutrition education in medical institutions and on how a plant-based diet impacts cardiovascular disease. She has published in major medical journals such as Journal of American College of Cardiology and American Journal of Medicine.
Board certified in cardiology and three specialties of cardiology: echocardiography, nuclear cardiology and advanced lipid management, she is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), where she is a member of the nutrition council working on nutrition policies for the nation. Dr. Aggarwal specializes in preventive management of heart disease with lifestyle techniques in conjunction with medications. She is the author of the book “Body on Fire: How Inflammation Triggers Chronic Illness and the Tools We Have to Fight It,” which outlines prescriptions to help guide people to better health and the recently released Body on Fire Cookbook which provides whole food, healthy recipes to help implement change. She has instituted a new plant-based menu at the University of Florida/Shands Hospital which is receiving national attention along with new discharge education that empowers patients to heal their bodies with their lifestyles. She was recently named Florida’s Cardiovascular Researcher of the year which provided her with a grant to conduct the important research needed on nutrition in 2019 and Exemplary Teacher of the Year in 2020.
She currently conducts research at University of Florida and sees patients in Orlando, Florida at AdventHealth and via telemedicine as part of Wholistic Health and details can be found on her website.
Kim Williams, MD
Speaker
Dr. Kim Williams is a renowned cardiologist and the 24th chair of the University of Louisville Department of Medicine. He is a passionate advocate for health equity and has a deep expertise in various cardiology subspecialties including cardio-nutrition and preventive cardiology. Dr. Williams also holds the prestigious position of the Legacy Foundation of Kentuckiana Endowed Chair in Health Equity. A past president of the American College of Cardiology, he continues to be a trustee of the organization, contributing significantly to the field through his leadership and research. His career is dedicated to advancing medical education and implementing health initiatives that aim to reduce disparities in cardiovascular care.
Beth Frates, MD FACLM DipABLM
Speaker
Dr. Beth Frates is a pioneering figure in lifestyle medicine, dedicated to transforming patient care through the integration of nutrition, exercise, and stress management strategies into standard medical treatments. Board-certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation, Dr. Frates also holds a coaching certification from Wellcoaches School of Coaching. She serves as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and as the director of wellness programming at the Stroke Institute for Research and Recovery at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital. Dr. Frates is an active member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, where she contributes to advancing the field through education and advocacy. An esteemed author and passionate educator, she is committed to empowering both patients and healthcare providers with the tools necessary for promoting sustainable health and wellness changes.
Sharon Wasserstrom, MD
Speaker
Dr. Sharon Wasserstrom is board certified in Internal Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine. She is uniquely skilled in providing tailored lifestyle management that helps prevent, improve and reverse already established disease.Dr. Wasserstrom received a B.A. in psychology from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. She then went on to earn a master’s degree in interdisciplinary studies in biological and physical sciences at Touro College in Dix Hill, New York. S
he received her M.D. at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel and the completed her residency in internal medicine at North Shore University Hospital of Manhasset. Dr. Wasserstrom worked as an internist for Montefiore Medical Group in Bronx, New York for 15 years before joining UCF Health. She has achieved a certification of professional achievement in medical nutrition and has completed nine courses in nutrition biochemistry, growth development and aging, medical nutrition therapy, clinical nutrition and counseling techniques.
She was also in the first class to ever receive board certification in the field of lifestyle medicine from The American Board of Lifestyle Medicine (ABLM). She is a highly talented and experienced physician with a passion for improving patients’ lives in a way that works for them. With 15 years of experience working in outpatient care, she is highly familiar with diagnosis and treatment of multiple disease states and health concerns.
Josh Taylor
Head Farmer
Josh Taylor serves as the Head Farmer for 4Roots, overseeing the design, install and operations of the farming components for the campus. Josh is the founder of Do Good Farm, a non-profit that exists to end hunger and malnutrition around the world, through sustainable farming. The goal is to teach and empower people to grow their own food, instead of just shipping rice and beans over and over again. Do Good Farm has worked on projects around the world, like the Discovery School in Burundi, Africa and an orphanage in Honduras, and locally a farm-to-table school cafeteria concept at Hope Charter School that exists to impact malnutrition in the school system of the food deserts in our own back yard.
Josh also founded and runs House Blend Cafe. House Blend exists to change the world by giving away 100% of the net profit from the operation into hard situations around the world, like helping to end human trafficking, bringing clean water to people in need, etc. Do Good Farm is the expression that seeks to end hunger and malnutrition.
Josh has been in the restaurant business for over 30 years and is passionate about the culinary side of farming. Part of his passion is designing farms that will produce food every single day of the year and farms that will sustainably continue to produce food indefinitely. That means growing edible perennial vegetables that people may not be used to eating, like cactus, tree spinach, moringa and many others. The culinary piece of that puzzle is crucial in order to teach people how to cook these unique foods so that they will love to eat them.
Josh graduated from Georgia Tech with a degree in Business Management, New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with a Masters of Divinity, Full Sail University with a degree in Audio Engineering and is currently pursuing a doctorate from Southern Evangelical Seminary in Apologetics.
Heather Borders
Speaker
Heather Borders is a culinary dietitian and founder of Kailo Nutrition, a lifestyle medicine private practice. After a personal experience with addressing high cholesterol through diet, Heather was inspired to help others devise sustainable strategies to overcome the common challenges associated with nutrition-related lifestyle changes. Her clinical interests include weight management, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, and autoimmune disorders.
Over the past decade, Heather has offered personalized nutrition counseling, grocery store tours, group and private cooking classes, and personal chef services. She co-piloted a transformative 90-day “Meals that Heal” community initiative with a local restaurateur, which combined nutrition counseling, interactive group cooking sessions, and provided one daily plant-based meal. Additionally, Heather collaborated with a local chef to create the “Dinner with a Doc” interview series, featuring monthly interviews with lifestyle medicine physicians and doctorate-level clinicians.
Before her career change in nutrition, Heather spent nearly seven years as a medical device Product Manager for Medtronic Ear Nose Throat and five years at Johnson Space Center training astronauts on the Electrical Power Systems and exercise hardware onboard the International Space Station.
Heather has her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of North Florida, an MBA and Master of Mechanical Engineering from Rice University, and a Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering from Auburn University. She also has a certificate in Type 2 Diabetes Remission from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, has been a Food For Life Instructor with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine since 2012, and completed Rouxbe’s Plant-Based Professional Culinary certification in 2014.
Hari Pulapaka, PhD, WCMC, CEC
Speaker
Originally from Mumbai, Hari has been residing in the United States since 1987. He earned his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Florida in 1995. A professional midlife crisis prompted him to pursue culinary arts, resulting in his graduation from classical culinary school in 2004 with top-of-the-class honors. A four-time James Beard Best Chef semifinalist, Hari has been invited to cook at the historic James Beard House in New York City seven times. He was also a featured chef at the 2018 James Beard Awards in Chicago. In 2008, Hari co-founded the award-winning restaurant, Cress, located in DeLand, FL with his wife Jenneffer Pulapaka, which, during his co-ownership and leadership from 2008-2019, garnered numerous accolades, including being rated as ZAGAT’s #1. In 2017, Hari established his company, Global Cooking School, encompassing his culinary pursuits, which include teaching, philanthropy, and crafting world-class, globally inspired, and sustainably minded tasting menus. Hari is no longer affiliated with Cress Restaurant. Through the Global Cooking School, Hari channels all of his creative endeavors as a classically trained globally-inspired chef with a keen and focused eye on sustainable practices and mindfulness. Recognized as a GRIST 50 fixer in 2016 for his innovative efforts in food waste reduction, Hari holds the title of Certified Executive Chef (CEC) with the American Culinary Federation and is an inductee into the American Academy of Chefs. Additionally, he is a Worldchefs Certified Master Chef (WCMC). Hari actively contributes to sustainability initiatives as a strategic advisor for Postelsia, a member of the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) Group and the Academic Working Group of Food Tank, and a participant in the Zero Food Waste Coalition. He serves as Chef/Partner for Enroot Organics, PBC. Hari is a prolific author, with multiple published books to his credit. His latest endeavor, coauthored with his wife, Dr. Jenneffer Pulapaka, is titled “The Heart Healthy Plant-Based Cookbook: 101 Recipes for Lowering Blood Pressure, Reversing Heart Disease & Cardiac Recovery,” scheduled for release in Summer 2024. The book is published by Hatherleigh Press and distributed by Penguin Random House. Hari Pulapaka is a dedicated and tenured Associate Professor of Mathematics at Stetson University since the year 2000.
John Rivers
Speaker
Following a 20-year career in healthcare, John Rivers retired as President of a billion dollar company to pursue a dream of owning a restaurant. Opening in 2009, 4 Rivers Smokehouse quickly grew to a portfolio that includes 23 locations and a national retail and wholesale presence. 4 Rivers went on to be named “The South’s Best BBQ” by Southern Living and ranked the “#1 BBQ Restaurant Chain” by MSN.
Born out of John’s garage, the “Barbeque Ministry” remains at the heart of the company’s mission to lift up those in need and help build better communities. The culmination of the 4R Foundation’s work, the Orlando based 4Roots Farm serves as an icon to inspire revolutionary change in the food system through education in sustainable farming practices, advancements in agriculture technology, and research in culinary health.
John has been named one of the Restaurant Industry’s Power 20 Leaders by Restaurant Business & News, Restauranter of the Year by Florida Restaurant and Lodging Association, and Orlando Magazine’s “50 Most Powerful, 15 to Watch.” John had the honor of cooking at the prestigious James Beard House and was twice named a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.
John serves on the Boards of Florida State University and the Rosen School of Hospitality at UCF and is a member the Florida Governor’s Council of 100. A recipient of the FSU College of Business and the Rosen College Hall of Fame Awards, John lives in Winter Park with his wife and two children and is involved in numerous school and and local charity organizations.
