David Katz, MD, MPH

It was the closing keynote and my first official act as Past President of the NWI, and an honor to introduce Dr. David Katz, Yale Prevention Research Center.  I’d met him once before, but last Thursday we’d walked over from the hotel, ate lunch together, and shared stories about our families, career paths, and passion for wellness.  I’d often wondered why he’d chosen to weave poetry into his keynotes, and had been acclaimed the “poet laureate of health promotion”.  Over lunch he told me his mother had been a poet and taught poetry, and now I understood the almost rhythmic nature of his writing and keynotes that ignite the hope, and imagination of audiences and readers around the world.  His newest book is Disease Proof: The Remarkable Truth About What Makes Us Well.