Dr. Ali helps patients address barriers to healthy living by connecting them to community-based resources that fill gaps in care for individuals who are historically medically underserved.
ST. LOUIS, Dec. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) has awarded Qadira Ali, MD, MPH, DipABLM, FACLM, pediatrician at Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C., the medical professional association's Dr. Dexter Shurney HEAL Award, at ACLM's recent annual conference in Grapevine, Texas.
The award, known previously as the HEAL Award, was established to honor an individual whose tireless dedication has significantly advanced health equity by leveraging the principles of lifestyle medicine—in particular, to address lifestyle-related chronic disease health disparities. Dr. Ali has led trailblazing projects, including Children's National Hospital's Family Lifestyle Program (FLiP), a multi-layered food is medicine intervention anchored in clinical and community initiatives that help families access fresh food, build healthy habits, and lower their risk of diet-related diseases like type 2 diabetes and obesity.
During a workshop at ACLM's conference, Dr. Ali presented FLiP initiative outcomes showing improved dietary quality through higher intake and greater variety of fruits and vegetables, increased confidence in preparing them, improved perceived health, and promising reductions in BMI among child participants.
ACLM's HEAL Initiative was established to address lifestyle-related chronic disease health disparities through lifestyle medicine solutions. Priorities include training and education for underrepresented-in-medicine (UIM) clinicians among other strategies that are rooted in the Community Engaged Lifestyle Medicine (CELM) framework. Dr. Ali served as co-chair of the HEAL Initiative in 2023 and 2024. During her tenure, she launched the first-ever Community Conversations: HEALers HEALing Webinar Series, highlighting best practices from community-based organizations working in partnership with healthcare systems to make lifestyle medicine accessible in under-and low-resourced communities.
The award was renamed in 2025 to honor former ACLM President Dexter Shurney, MD, MBA, MPH, DipABLM, FACLM, who in 2019 cast a vision to diversify the medical workforce, support UIM clinicians with lifestyle medicine training, and make the specialty accessible to all patients.
"With the recent passing of Dr. Shurney, the lifestyle medicine specialty lost a pioneer," said ACLM CEO Susan Benigas. "However, through the Dr. Dexter Shurney HEAL Award, ACLM will honor his life and legacy by awarding champions, like Dr. Ali, who are committed to addressing disparities by promoting lifestyle medicine education and equitable access to lifestyle medicine clinical and community intervention."
"Health equity work is not any one person's responsibility," Dr. Ali said. "It takes a team. It takes a community. When we work together, we all win. People change and health outcomes improve. This award is not just for me—it's for everyone on the lifestyle medicine journey working collectively to make sure all patients have equitable access."
About ACLM®
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation's medical professional society advancing the field of lifestyle medicine as the foundation of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare delivery system, essential to achieving the Quintuple Aim and whole-person health. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to identify and eradicate the root cause of chronic disease by optimizing modifiable risk factors. ACLM is filling the gaping void of lifestyle medicine in medical education, providing more than 1.2 million hours of lifestyle medicine education to physicians and other health professionals since 2004, while also advancing research, clinical practice and reimbursement strategies.
Media Contact
Alex Branch, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, 8173072399, [email protected], American College of Lifestyle Medicine
SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine
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