William T. Cefalu

Dr. William T. Cefalu is the Executive Director of the Pennington Biomedical Research Center and also holds the George A. Bray, Jr. Endowed Super Chair in Nutrition. He concurrently serves as Section Chief of the Joint Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Metabolism Program of the Louisiana State University School of Medicine/Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Prior to his appointment at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, he served as Director of the Clinical Trials Unit at the University of Vermont College of Medicine.

Dr. Cefalu received his medical degree from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana. He completed his residency and was Chief Resident at the University of California-Irvine Long Beach VA Medical Center. He completed a fellowship in Metabolism and Endocrinology at the UCLA Center for Health Sciences. He has served on the faculty at Tulane University School of Medicine and Wake Forest University School of Medicine, where he was Director of the Diabetes Comprehensive Care Programs.

Dr. Cefalu’s research is active at both the clinical and basic levels. On a clinical level, he is interested in clinical interventions to improve the metabolic state of individuals with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. On a basic level, he is interested in cellular mechanisms for insulin resistance. In addition, Dr. Cefalu also serves as Director for an NIH-funded Center for the Study of Botanicals and Metabolic Syndrome at Pennington Biomedical Research Center and as Director of the NIH funded Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science Center (LACaTS).

Dr. Cefalu is published widely in journals, books, and book chapters and has edited several textbooks on the management of diabetes. He was an Associate Editor for both the clinical research journal, i.e. Diabetes Care, and basic research journal, i.e. Diabetes, of the American Diabetes Association. He now serves as the Editor-in-Chief of Diabetes Care. He lectures both nationally and internationally.