Furthering Lifestyle Medicine Through the Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award: Reflections From 2023 Awardees

Abstract

The Donald A. Pegg Leadership Award, established in 2016 by the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM), recognizes emerging leaders in Lifestyle Medicine by awarding key seed funding to support Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups (LMIGs) and conference support to attend the ACLM’s annual conference. Through its generous support of students and LMIGs, the Pegg Award has been instrumental in catalyzing transformations in medical education, promoting awareness and integration of key Lifestyle Medicine principles into curricula. The present narrative highlights the stories of the 5 2023 Pegg Award recipients, detailing their efforts in advancing Lifestyle Medicine within their institutions and communities. By implementing novel initiatives and forging strategic partnerships, awardees have made major strides in fostering interest in Lifestyle Medicine among students, faculty, and communities-at-large; each of the students’ reflections highlights unique applications of the Pegg award which subsequently showcase an evolving set of best practices for LMIG operations. It is our hope that these 5 exemplary stories underscore students’ commitment to expanding networks of LMIGs, fostering collaboration, and creating community around Lifestyle Medicine both locally and nationally—and the far-reaching impact of the Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award in shaping the future of Lifestyle Medicine.

Introduction

Formalized 2 decades ago, the field of Lifestyle Medicine guides patient care based on 6 foundational pillars: a whole-food, plant-based diet, routine physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, positive social connections, and avoidance of risky substances. ¹ Evidence-based, whole-person, prescriptive lifestyle change can effectively prevent and/or reduce the burden of many chronic health conditions affecting more than half the United States (US) population, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases. ² While these conditions account for nearly 90% of annual health care expenditures in the US healthcare system, training at the level of undergraduate medical education in lifestyle medicine is lacking. ³ In fact, several studies report on the absence of training in any of the 6 pillars, with a lack of nutrition education being most frequently cited. ⁴ Consequently, the paucity of training in evidence-based lifestyle interventions correlates to medical graduates’ self-reported lack of knowledge, skills, and confidence in counseling on or implementing these modalities within the context of patient care.^2,5

Established in 2004, the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) serves as the medical professional society for physicians and allied health professionals practicing lifestyle medicine, viewing its principles as fundamental to a sustainable healthcare system. ⁶ Over the last decade, ACLM has seen rapid growth in membership, especially among trainees such as medical residents and students in medical, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and other allied health professions. This surge in professional engagement mirrors the expansion of Lifestyle Medicine Interest Groups (LMIGs) across medical schools and allied health programs. LMIGs provide a platform for like-minded trainees to foster community around lifestyle medicine, addressing the increasing demand for education and activities related to lifestyle medicine at academic and healthcare institutions. These groups offer opportunities for education, networking, and professional development under the direct affiliation of ACLM. ⁷

More than 165 new LMIGs have been founded since the inaugural group was established at Harvard Medical School in 2008. ⁸ As of March 2024, 106 out of the 200 medical schools in the US have LMIGs recognized by the ACLM, with even more at non-medical schools. ⁹ In addition, through the establishment of the Lifestyle Medicine Residency Curriculum (LMRC), a growing number of residency programs have begun integrating lifestyle medicine education into their programs—thus enabling residency graduates to sit for the Lifestyle Medicine board examinations right after residency. In addition, these developments include augmented curricular resources at the undergraduate medical education level: in 2023, the ACLM established a formal undergraduate medical education (UME) certification program for medical schools to review and enhance lifestyle medicine training within their own curriculum. As of early 2024, ten programs have received scholarships for UME certification and 2 have already become certified at the platinum plus tier, meaning their students enter residency already having the scholarship component to certification in Lifestyle Medicine. ¹⁰

Further still, the ACLM has championed student engagement and professional formation through research grants, scholarships, and prestigious awards, of which the Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award is perhaps the most notable. The Pegg award was established in 2016 by Dr Beth Frates and her family, with guidance from Dr Sami Beg, then-Chair of the ACLM Awards Committee. In Dr Frates’ own words, the mission of the award is to

“…empower students and faculty members to create and sustain Lifestyle Medicine interest groups, as a way to bring in the crucial information about exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress resiliency, social connections and substance use into curriculum at any school in an easy and effective way without being part of the core curriculum. It is a great first step for any medical school or other health professional schools to work Lifestyle Medicine into the fabric of the school and into the lives of students.”

In identifying and empowering outstanding student leaders, the Pegg award catalyzes the creation of new LMIGs and advancement of established ones through tangible support: the award is comprised of $500 in LMIG seed funding for their respective institutions, complimentary registration to the national American College of Lifestyle Medicine conference, and a $500 stipend for conference travel. The funding provided by the Donald A. Pegg Award allows such leaders and their LMIGs to expand their reach to their greater student bodies, helping to spread the principles, pillars, and practice of lifestyle medicine.

As part of the selection process, applicants submit a personal statement, a plan of 4 confirmed speaker events, a budget proposal, and a letter of recommendation from a lifestyle medicine faculty advisor. The Pegg Award committee reviews all applications carefully using a standardized grading rubric, with a focus on demonstrated commitment to lifestyle medicine through several means—educational, research, community engagement—as well as their faculty’s support, awardees are notified in early summer. In 2023, five student leaders across United States medical schools—Yoav Jacob, Amanda Orme, Sheeva Shahinfar, Roshini Srinivasan, and Emily Ubbens—were recognized as recipients of the Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award for their commitment to and vision for their LMIG. ¹¹ Their leadership experiences range from establishing brand-new LMIGs to bolstering the success of existing organizations; coming from unique backgrounds and foundational “why,” each student led their LMIG in distinct ways within the context of their individual institutions. Now, 1 year following receipt of this prestigious award, these students reflect on best practices, challenges, wins, and plans for the future of their LMIGs.

Where previous Pegg awardees have shared their reflections in previous editions of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, the present narrative highlights the examples of the 2023 Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award recipients.^12-16 In doing so, these 5 student leaders detail the indelible impact of the Pegg Award on their medical schools, larger communities, and their own journeys to meaningful careers in lifestyle medicine.

Yoav Jacob—Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York

Yoav is a third-year medical student at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine (AECOM) in the Bronx, New York City. His path to medical school and ACLM ran a circuitous course: during his undergraduate years, his exposure to the food and healthcare systems fostered a deep interest in understanding and exploring the intersection of the fields. Following college, however, Yoav left with many unanswered questions about the food system—and he subsequently enrolled in a professional culinary program at the Institute of Culinary Education where he earned a diploma in Health-Supportive Culinary Arts. Lectures and practical exams on international cuisines during culinary school revealed to Yoav an ever-expansive diverse array of culinary traditions, which then translated to many questions about individual and population health. A classmate in the culinary program approached him and informally introduced him to lifestyle medicine; she herself was an ACLM diplomate and nurse practitioner. After completing the diploma and working in the food nonprofit space, Yoav decided to apply to medical school and continue to investigate the intersection of the healthcare and food systems.

At AECOM, Yoav quickly found community within LIME (Lifestyle Medicine Initiative of Montefiore Einstein), the campus LMIG. Under the direction of Jessica Rieder, M.D., M.S. Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, LIME had been founded in 2021 with just a few students, just as campus life was beginning to reemerge from a quiet period (during the peak of COVID-19). Encouragingly, ever since Yoav joined the student group’s board in early 2023, there has been significant engagement and recognition among the general student body. Key to its popularity has been strategic partnerships with other active student groups such as the Einstein Runners and the student-led chapter of Health at Every Size. Hosting events with niche organizations and illustrating how their individual missions were supported by the pillars of lifestyle medicine has been instrumental in widening medical students’ perception of medicine and ultimately increasing interest and demand for lifestyle medicine programming.

Over the last year, the Donald A. Pegg award provided key seed funding and recognition for LIME at AECOM. Specifically, the award helped in the production of events oriented toward newly matriculated students by expanding the reach of exercise and other social events early in campus life, including during student orientation. In addition, through the speaker series and timeline development process as part of the initial Pegg application, having mapped plans for the year contributed greatly to the success of LIME’s speaker events—fortuitously, these were often timed to complement the progressing medical school curriculum at AECOM. As such, the funding, structure, and general recognition of the Pegg Award ward provided critical opportunities for connections to be made between “standard” medical education and lifestyle medicine.

Alongside these successes, perhaps the most important lesson for leading an impactful LMIG has been investing in strategic leadership. As an unanticipated benefit of early engagement with newly matriculated students, potential LMIG leaders emerged early on during the academic year; these students thus had significant time to engage with the active student LMIG board. Moreover, this “extra” time with potential successors helped identify students with a complementary mixture of interests within the field, who might wish to engage others across the student community. Strategic leadership change in the AECOM LMIG has already begun to show its benefits, as exemplified by new leaders hosting multiple diverse, new events to further lifestyle medicine and engage their peers.

The combination of strategic event partnering, planning, and leadership change resulted in an over 300% increase in applications for AECOM’s LMIG executive board in this last cycle. This unexpected growth, very much potentiated by the momentum of the 2023 Donald A. Pegg award, has translated into increased student interest and advocacy for lifestyle medicine education in the medical school curriculum. In addition, students are working to develop more partnerships within the local health system to engage and educate providers and community members to ultimately serve their patients through lifestyle medicine.

Yoav served as Co-President of AECOM’s LMIG in 2023 and continues to work collaboratively on projects to introduce lifestyle medicine education and address health inequity in the local Bronx community. Since transitioning LMIG leadership in early 2024, he has accepted a role of Trainee Vice President of Education on the 2024 ACLM Trainee Executive Board, affording him a one-of-a-kind opportunity to work with brilliant, forward-thinking early career trainees on endeavors to expand and advocate for lifestyle medicine locally and nationally.

Amanda Orme—Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine, Stratford, New Jersey

Amanda is a second-year medical student at Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine (Rowan-Virtua SOM) in Stratford, New Jersey. While Amanda has always had an interest in healthy lifestyle practices, her interest in lifestyle medicine did not truly begin until starting medical school. Having seen the sequelae of heart disease affect almost every member of her family, Amanda knew she wanted to cultivate her future medical practice in a way that focused on preventing and reversing these complications. When she learned about lifestyle medicine from Dr Altamash Raja, who now serves as RVSOM’s LMIG advisor, she could not believe she had never heard of the specialty. Immediately, and enthusiastically, Amanda and Dr Raja began laying the foundation for an LMIG at their institution. Less than 1 year after its establishment in March 2023, the LMIG at Rowan-Virtua SOM is thriving with over fifty members, including several dedicated faculty members and a plethora of lifestyle- and wellness-related programs for both students and faculty members to enjoy.

The LMIG has engaged in 2 community health fairs, during which members provided a variety of resources from the ACLM Connect platform to educate attendees alongside baskets of fresh fruit to share. On campus, the LMIG has hosted numerous speaker events led by faculty from the greater Rowan community, including a talk from Dr Robin Tiger on stress management, with guided meditation and breathwork; Dr Michael Clapper on the mechanisms of chronic disease reversal; and many others. These events have helped grow the lifestyle medicine community at Rowan-Virtua SOM and have been notably enhanced through strategic use of Pegg Award funding as well as Taste of Lifestyle Medicine Grant Funding to serve nutritious, plant-based foods. These events have constituted a tangible means of connection with new faculty in the context of Lifestyle Medicine.

Perhaps most saliently, from these faculty connections has borne a unique initiative: a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) certification course, taught by ACLM diplomate Dr Donna Muller. Such a certification course is being offered for the first time across all existing LMIGs, and is presently ongoing, spanning a full year, with 12 students actively pursuing certification. Weekly meetings as part of the certification have served as check in times for students interested in lifestyle medicine. Though the RYT-200 course sessions often naturally move towards discussion of the latest scientific literature in the field of lifestyle medicine, the LMIG has also established an official journal club. This club commenced programming with lively discussion on the works of Dr Caldwell Esselstyn led by another passionate faculty member at Rowan-Virtua SOM, Dr Jeffery Powers. The LMIG’s offerings have also expanded to include a running group meeting twice monthly.

Amanda credits the ability to have built such a strong, diverse LM network at her school to the opportunities and recognition conferred by the 2023 Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award. Reflecting on the year since being named a recipient, Amanda notes that the greatest impact of the Pegg Award has been the recognition as an awardee itself: that is, being an institution acknowledged for championing Lifestyle Medicine. Even with spending minimal seed funding, in planning for the future, the powerful, possible association with ACLM has rendered scores of faculty and students alike interested in lifestyle medicine and wanting to get involved with the LMIG. The recognition, in combination with the Taste of Lifestyle Grant, has allowed their LMIG to be judicious with award funding, producing no- or low-cost events and yet attract a large audience. As the LMIG enters its second year, Amanda plans to continue expanding the LMIG-associated RYT-200 training in collaboration with Dr Donna Mueller and providing this invaluable tool to even more aspiring lifestyle medicine physicians. Thanks to the recognition and resources provided by the Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award, the future is bright for the Rowan-Virtua SOM LMIG as they aspire to continue spreading the message of lifestyle medicine across Southern New Jersey and beyond.

Sheeva Shahinfar—Texas A&M University School of Medicine, Bryan, Texas

Sheeva Shahinfar is a third-year medical student at Texas A&M University School of Medicine. Her start in lifestyle medicine took place in college, when her father was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. As the eldest daughter, she felt the pressure of having to find the best treatment for her father’s disease. Weeks of research led her to documentaries and articles about a “plant-based diet,” which she initially felt at odds with to other research she had read about the best dietary practices for diabetic patients. However, her father, inspired by success stories he read online, started a whole-foods, low-fat plant-based diet. Within months, his glycemic control improved dramatically, and he was able to discontinue medication. To this day, he continues his new lifestyle and enjoys living pain-free, pill-free, and without fear of health complications related to diabetes.

Thus, lifestyle medicine became a central part of Sheeva’s approach to medicine. However, after matriculation into medical school at Texas A&M, she found there was not much nutrition or lifestyle medicine education within her curriculum. Fortunately, she connected with Dr Mark Faries, who provided a groundbreaking lecture on lifestyle medicine to students within her program. And the ball kept rolling from here: enthusiastic to provide more opportunities for lifestyle medicine exposure to her medical school, Sheeva and several other medical students established the first-ever LMIG at her university. Owing to students’ palpable enthusiasm for the field, the LMIG found it feasible to host events, start nutrition electives, and lead exercise sessions—even in their nascent months.

Three electives were started at Texas A&M School of Medicine, including the Lifestyle Medicine & Behavior elective and Culinary Medicine elective. Innovations extend even to the particularly notable end-of-semester final project of the former elective, where students are tasked with writing a systematic review on lifestyle medicine modalities in the management of various health conditions. As the LMIG strives to support future leaders in lifestyle medicine, such a course offers students the opportunity to build their skills as clinician-researchers while becoming well-versed in evidence-based lifestyle medicine.

Another initiative of the LMIG at Texas A&M is LEDx: Lifestyle Education in Medicine. Each month, the university hosts physicians across specialties who speak on their experiences using lifestyle medicine in the service of patients across diverse conditions and presentations. These presentations follow the organ block schedules of the medical school curriculum (e.g., a neurologist presented during the neurology block, a cardiologist spoke during the cardiology block, etc.). Encouragingly, the LEDx program has been very well-received by the student community: students interested in a diverse array of specialties are inspired and encouraged to know that lifestyle medicine modalities are applicable in every field, and in addition, that there is a place for every type of physician in lifestyle medicine.

Reflecting on the past year, Sheeva notes that receiving the 2023 Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award enabled and inspired Texas A&M’s LMIG to expand their community outreach. Though occasional runs, walks, and yoga sessions were hosted by students previously, intentional outreach allowed students to recognize the need for education on healthy habits for members of their community located within a college town in rural Texas. This inspired “One Step at a Time,” the first annual free 3 K/5K walk in Bryan/College Station, Texas. With the help of funds from the award, ACLM, and Texas A&M, students were able to host over 100 community members on campus for a free walk/run. Students had the profound opportunity to walk alongside community members and talk to them about their habits during the event. Engaging games and committed sponsors, as well as whole-food, plant-based snacks, were available for walkers/runners to enjoy afterward. The event was so successful that multiple attendees asked for it to be a monthly event.

Looking forward, Texas A&M University School of Medicine hopes to be on the forefront of lifestyle medicine engagement at the medical school level. Doubtlessly, the Pegg Award was integral towards the success of their LMIG this year. With the success of the LMIG’s endeavors so far, Sheeva hopes that Texas A&M University School of Medicine can model how to create and foster successful conversations with patients on lifestyle medicine, equipping them with tools and resources that are easy to use, across communities.

Roshini Srinivasan—Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina

For Roshini, Lifestyle Medicine is personal.

Growing up in an Indian family where Ayurvedic wisdom permeated a culture of home-cooked, plant-predominant meals, but also where diabetes constituted a feared, yet imminent, reality for many in her community, she has long believed in the power of our day-to-day habits to directly influence our health—from how we eat, to how we move and rest and relate to one another. Aiming to understand the role of nutrition in empowering individuals to manage cardiometabolic disease, she pursued a degree in Human Nutrition at The Ohio State University. In parallel, she completed her 500-hour Registered Yoga Teacher certification and began teaching yoga on campus, while conducting research exploring mindfulness and resilience in healthcare providers, as well as the therapeutic applications of yoga. A profound commitment to developing her skills as a clinician-researcher in the fields of integrative and lifestyle medicine led her to medical school at Duke University School of Medicine. Seeking a unifying path for her varied, yet fundamentally interrelated interests, she found that it was Lifestyle Medicine that operationalized these interests into a whole-person, prevention-focused, and empowerment-centered approach to medicine.

At Duke, Roshini found herself deeply inspired by how her colleagues pursued their interests in well-being and food in medicine: she found herself entrenched in vibrant community engaged in diverse endeavors all related to lifestyle in medicine, which spanned addressing food (in)security and nutrition (Root Causes), nurturing healthcare provider well-being through joyful movement (Medicine in Motion), a multifaceted student wellness committee, as well as numerous groups focused upon primary care and preventative medicine. A yet unfilled niche, however, was space for students passionate about value-based, accessible, personalized lifestyle care to come together and build the foundation of their future careers in Lifestyle Medicine. It is in this space that the Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group was born: garnering over 40 signatures of support in under 2 hours as they prepared their proposal to the student council for official recognition, the LMIG soon became a well-loved member of the Duke Med student organization landscape.

Following their founding, and the gracious awarding of the 2023 Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award, the DukeMed LMIG has only moved from strength to strength as a student organization. The generous grant funding from the ACLM was utilized to purchase yoga and exercise mats, as well as storage units, for students to join into movement classes unencumbered by the need to procure their own materials. In terms of events, Duke LMIG successfully held plant-based dinner events for students to engage in candid discussion about Lifestyle Medicine with Dr Johnson (who is a Diplomate of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine), multiple yoga and fitness classes open to the whole interprofessional health student community, topic lectures from experts in Pediatric Obesity Medicine and the role of multidisciplinary collaboration in lifestyle medicine implementation, and even a yoga asana inversions workshop led by Roshini herself!

Undoubtedly, receiving the 2023 Donald A. Pegg award bolstered the success of Duke LMIG’s programming, even in its very first year. However, the support of the ACLM underscored the next step in Duke LMIG’s development: the need for a long-term plan. Inspired by the stories of past and this year’s Pegg awardees, Roshini and the Duke LMIG leadership team turned their focus to sustainability of leadership, appreciating the rich landscape of students interested in many of the Pillars of Lifestyle Medicine. With an existing, major student organization—Medicine in Motion—already collaborating to present stress management, wellness, and physical activity programming to students, the leadership team realized that Duke LMIG needn’t create a new niche for students (in fact, redundancy would only serve to divide students, counter to the very principles of building community around healthy lifestyles). Rather, the best way to synergize respective strengths would be to create key, strong partnerships with organizations to serve and be served in return.

In due course, Duke LMIG engaged in conversations with the School of Medicine’s administration, assisting in student wellness promotion from all levels of leadership. They engaged in conversations with LMIGs outside of Duke, and other student organizations within Duke, to best understand what students wanted from their LMIG. And finally, Duke LMIG and Duke Medicine and Motion officially decided to merge leadership energies, electing to cross-pollinate student leadership, resources, and reach to the greater Duke Health Professionals community to offer robust movement, nutrition, wellness, and Lifestyle Medicine programming—and most importantly, community—to students and faculty.

They can’t wait to see what the future holds.

Emily Ubbens—Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, East Lansing, Michigan

Emily is a second-year student at the Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine (MSUCOM). After attending the Air Force Academy for her undergraduate education, she spent 8 years in the military traveling the world and learning about other cultures and ways of life. While living in Okinawa, Japan, she discovered the Blue Zones and started down a path of practicing lifestyle medicine before really knowing what it meant. Armed with a new plant-based diet, a master’s in public health degree, and certifications in yoga and meditation, she transitioned from the military to pursue a career in healthcare with a newfound appreciation for the intricacies of life and health. During this transition, she came across the documentary Code Blue that mentioned a student, Saul Bautista—one of the early Pegg Award recipients—who had started a Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group (LMIG) at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey. From that moment, she knew that lifestyle medicine would become part of her story.

Upon discovering the absence of a LMIG at MSUCOM, Emily and her peers started the process to establish the organization, leveraging their collective enthusiasm to promote health-conscious living and community engagement. Through a dynamic social media presence and a robust event calendar featuring workshops, yoga classes, and volunteer opportunities, the LMIG swiftly became a beacon of wellness advocacy on campus. Their impactful initiatives, supported by the prestigious Pegg Award, ranged from meditation workshops to community service projects benefiting patients with neurologic diseases, underscoring their commitment to holistic care and sustainability.

The LMIG’s collaborative spirit extended beyond campus borders, forging partnerships with diverse community organizations to amplify their reach and impact. By spearheading educational events and advocating for lifestyle-focused curriculum enhancements, the executive board catalyzed a paradigm shift towards lifestyle-oriented healthcare at MSUCOM. Their dedication to promoting Lifestyle Medicine not only enriched the student experience but received further bolstering from national recognition afforded by the Pegg Award. In turn, this positive momentum grew the group’s numbers from the original 4 founding members on the executive board to over 40 official members less than a year later.

As the torch passes to the next generation of leaders, the LMIG at MSUCOM remains steadfast in their mission to advance lifestyle medicine education and community outreach. Through continued collaboration with stakeholders and advocacy for training focused on the 6 pillars and prevention-minded, they aspire to cultivate a culture of wellness that transcends boundaries and empowers individuals to lead healthier, more fulfilling lives.

Discussion

Investment in the future leaders of lifestyle medicine, exemplified by initiatives such as the prestigious Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award given by the ACLM, is central to the sustainability and advancement of the field. In recognizing exemplary trainees who have consistently demonstrated a dedication to promoting and expanding the principles of lifestyle medicine, Pegg Award recipients are not only honored for their past achievements but are also tasked with the profound responsibility of developing meals of furthering lifestyle medicine across their campuses and communities.

As is made evident from these 5 student narratives, the fruits of the Pegg Award extend beyond individual recognition: between seed funding, conference scholarships, and travel support, the Pegg Award constitutes a foundational source of momentum for LMIGs at awardee institutions, catalyzing student engagement by facilitating invaluable connections with mentors, access to research opportunities, and broader community support within the esteemed ACLM network. The 2023 Pegg Awardees reflect that their LMIG journeys were marked by both challenges and triumphs, which tasked them with developing innovative initiatives to engage their students and communities—from exercise clubs to journal clubs, guest faculty lectures, and even community-facing events.

Hailing from diverse backgrounds and in various stages of training meant that the 2023 Pegg Awardee cohort availed of the strengths of each person’s unique perspectives through enriching discourse. Through collaborative problem-solving and shared inspiration, they forged bonds that transcended geographical boundaries and institutional barriers that benefited their LMIG community and individual paths—lessons learned from 1 institution’s LMIG translated to tangible forward steps in another’s, while inspiration was taken and received synergistically. In this incubator of mutual growth, it became clear to ACLM leadership that Pegg Awardees represent the vanguard of the field of lifestyle medicine, who have committed to the immense responsibility of stewarding its future growth and impact. Their reflections included the identification of key best practices. Employing strategic alliances with allied student groups focused on physical activity, embracing virtual or hybrid formats with their events for enhanced accessibility, and proactive marketing to amplify the impact of their initiatives have been central to each LMIG’s success in the past year. Moreover, the early adoption of a team-based approach within their student boards proved instrumental in navigating institutional challenges and streamlining event execution, maximizing operational efficiency and outcomes.

In summary, the Pegg Award has equipped these 5 emerging leaders with a myriad of tools to both navigate and direct the evolving landscape of modern medical education with an emphasis upon evidence-based lifestyle modalities. As key advocates for lifestyle medicine on their campuses, each student has honed their skills in leadership, teamwork, and communication, in the service of advancing lifestyle medicine education and raising awareness and community around the immense, positive movement towards the holistic, prevention-focused, and patient-centered approach that lifestyle medicine represents. Through financial and professional support, the 2023 Donald A. Pegg Award has left an indelible impact not only upon its recipients, but their campuses, and the very future of lifestyle medicine.

Future Directions

The shared vision and years’ worth of hard work on the part of the recipients of the 2023 Donald A. Pegg Student Leadership Award underscores not only collective ambition—but, perhaps more compellingly, a pressing need for undergraduate medical education to (1) include education on targeted, lifestyle-based therapeutic modalities within standard curricula and (2) provide comprehensive, prevention-minded training on the management of chronic disease. In short, Pegg Awardees envision a future wherein lifestyle medicine takes center stage in medical education and healthcare practice. To this end, these students have ignited discussions around scholarly engagement and professional collaboration among LMIGs on the national and international scale.

Beyond their local spheres, the awardees appreciated the potential of cross-institutional (and even cross-country) partnerships by extending invitations to students at other schools to participate in their programs, leveraging virtual platforms for enhanced accessibility. Looking ahead, there is a collective resolve among Pegg Award recipients to invest in the expansion of a centralized and open access dashboard with the latest on LMIG events and initiatives to collaborate and cross-pollinate ideas. With seamless connectivity, there is even more potential to create a truly national LMIG community coming together on events, such as Lifestyle Medicine field days or section meetings, with the ultimate hope of cultivating a culture of support and networking across trainee hubs.

And, of course, in-person connections serve as an incubator of innovation. One of the ideas that emerged from conversations at the ACLM Annual Conference’s Trainee Reception, held in Denver, Colorado, was the creation of an ACLM Previous Pegg Award (PPA) gathering and community space. Such a space would allow past recipients to stay up-to-date on current LMIG innovations, while allowing newer leaders to learn from trainees further along in their careers. In addition, the inclusion of ACLM faculty leadership promises to enrich these exchanges with invaluable perspectives and experiences, creating a one-of-a-kind atmosphere for mentorship and educational transformation. By cultivating a culture of support and camaraderie among leaders past and present, LMIGs at every medical school are better-equipped to advance the practice and principles of lifestyle medicine—ultimately, on a global scale!