About Us
This project was created based on our experiences with people who were struggling after receiving a health diagnosis and then being unable to get weight-neutral healthcare, people who were looking for resources to advocate for themselves and others, and people who were looking for resources to use in their healthcare practices. We set out to create a resource library that provided information and options for those who want, and those who give, evidence-based, weight-neutral care. Read more about us below.
Ragen Chastain, MEd, BCPA
Health Educator and Board Certified Patient Advocate
Ragen Chastain is a speaker, writer, researcher, Board Certified Patient Advocate, multi-certified health and fitness professional, and thought leader in weight science, weight stigma, health, and healthcare. Utilizing her background in research methods and statistics, Ragen has brought her signature mix of humor and hard facts to healthcare, corporate, conference, and college audiences from Kaiser Permanente and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, to Amazon and Google, to Dartmouth, Cal Tech and the Yale School of Medicine. Author of the Weight and Healthcare newsletter, the book Fat: The Owner’s Manual, co-author of HAES Health Sheets, and editor of the anthology The Politics of Size, Ragen is frequently featured as an expert in print, radio, television, podcasts, and documentary film. In her free time, Ragen is a national dance champion, triathlete, and marathoner who holds the Guinness World Record for Heaviest Woman to Complete a Marathon. Ragen lives in Oregon with her fiancée Julianne and a rotating cast of foster dogs.
Newsletter: WeightAndHealthcare.com
Asher Larmie
Physician
Asher is a transmasc non binary GP who is campaigning for an end to medical weight stigma and fat oppression. They enjoy asking the questions that others tend to avoid, and challenging the status quo.
Asher is the founder of the #noweigh campaign which aims to end the routine weighing of patients in a medical setting, and move from the current dangerous weight normative approach to an evidence based non-stigmatising approach to healthcare.
Asher knows that informed consent, a respect for autonomy and practising fairly and without discrimination are the very foundations of good medical practice, which is why they are delighted to be joining the HAES Health Sheets team.
Louise Metz
Internal Medicine Physician
Dr. Louise Metz is an Internal Medicine physician with expertise in the medical care of eating disorders. She is the owner of Mosaic Comprehensive Care, a medical practice in Chapel Hill, North Carolina offering inclusive and affirming primary care for adults and adolescents. After receiving an undergraduate degree in Biology and Women’s Studies at Duke University, she attended medical school at the University of North Carolina and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. She has previously held academic positions at NYU’s Bellevue Hospital and Duke Medical Center, and has published research on heart disease in women. Dr. Metz strives to help change the paradigm around weight and health, and is committed to increasing access to weight-inclusive medical care.
Tiana Dodson
Body Liberation Coach and Facilitator
Tiana Dodson is a fat, Body Liberation Coach and Facilitator who’s out to destroy the belief that you have to be skinny to be happy and healthy, loveable, or worthy.
Through her work with the Fat Freedom Foundation, she guides people feminine-of-center to reconnect with their bodies, destigmatize fatness, and learn about the harms of health being a measure of worth… all while finding how they can live their best fat lives.
This project is supported in part by a grant from the Association for Size Diversity and Health