Annie Fenn, MD, Physician, Chef, and Author of The Brain Health Kitchen: Preventing Alzheimer's through Food

Dr. Annie Fenn is the founder of the Brain Health Kitchen, the only cooking school of its kind focused exclusively on brain health and helping people prevent cognitive decline through food and lifestyle. After twenty years as a board-certified ob-gyn, she traded in her stethoscope for an apron to pursue her passion for the culinary arts. But it was her mother's diagnosis with dementia that helped Fenn find her path and her new calling, one that enabled her to not only help her mother but also create significant and meaningful impact for others. Fenn lives in Jackson, Wyoming. She shares recipes and brain health content twice-weekly on the popular newsletter BrainHealthKitchen.substack.com and on Instagram at @brainhealthkitchen.

Rhonna Shatz, DO, Division Director for Behavioral Neurology; Bob and Sandy Heimann Endowed Chair in Research and Education in Alzheimer's Disease

Rhonna Shatz is a UCNS-certified (United Council for Neurologic Subspecialties) behavioral neurologist who came to Cincinnati after 25 years at Henry Ford Health Systems in Detroit, where she was the Clayton Alandt Chair of Behavioral Neurology. She has received numerous Alzheimer’s Association awards for service and innovation, Best Teacher awards from residents and medical students, and was designated a “Best Doctor” and a “Top Doc” in Hour Detroit and Cincy Magazine cumulatively over 22 years. As a 23-year volunteer and member of the Greater Michigan Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, she served as Chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee, Chair of the Executive Board, lectured to both professional and patient/caregiver support groups, and currently co-chairs the Alzheimer’s Association Health Systems Initiative in Ohio. Through grants and philanthropic support, Dr. Shatz is dedicated to transforming health care to focus on brain health and flourishing throughout the lifespan, dementia prevention, and enabling primary care to diagnose cognitive change early and treat it effectively.  Along with Dr. Stefan Fiol in ethnomusicology, she teaches a multi-disciplinary service-learning course that partners graduate music students, medical students, Alzheimer’s patients and their care partners in weekly musical experiences.  As a partner in an international collaborative on music and the brain, she and Dr. Fiol research the role of musical awe and promotion of cognitive reserve.

Pamela Sharpe, FNP-BC, Nurse Practitioner and Trained Chef for the Osher Center for Integrative Health

Pamela Sharpe, FNP-BC, specializes in integrative and lifestyle medicine. She believes every person can obtain notable benefits with the implementation of Lifestyle Medicine which utilizes a whole food plant-based eating pattern, physical activity, sleep for restoration, management of stress, positive social connections, and avoidance of toxic substances as an evidence-based therapeutic modality. Her journey started with food, trained as a chef. She wanted to create higher-quality nutritional meals for her family and friends, some of whom were affected adversely by chronic health and lifestyle-related conditions. Seeking to gain an even greater understanding, she went on to receive her Bachelor’s in Food and Nutrition with Pre-Med and Chemistry. This helped to provide a greater understanding of advanced nutrition, biochemistry, and human metabolism as related to wellness, diseases, and chronic conditions. Armed with this knowledge, she went on to gain graduate-level training and experience as an ANCC Board-Certified Family Nurse Practitioner.