Dr. Rena R. Wing is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and Director of the Weight Control & Diabetes Research Center at The Miriam Hospital. 

Dr. Wing is well known for her programmatic research investigating the most effective strategies for long-term weight loss and weight gain prevention in overweight children and adults. She was responsible for designing and implementing the lifestyle intervention in the Diabetes Prevention Program, an NIH multi-center trial that provides the strongest proof to date of health benefits of weight loss. Currently she is Chairman of Look AHEAD, a 12-year NIH clinical trial of weight loss in 5,000 adults with type 2 diabetes.

In addition, she has served on NIDDK Council, the Obesity Clinical Research Panel, NIH Study Sections, and as President of the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Dr. Wing has published over 250 peer-reviewed articles and mentored many junior faculty members studying behavioral weight control.

Dr. Wing received her Ph.D. degree in Social Relations from Harvard University in 1971 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Massachusetts Mental Health Center. She spent 25 years at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (University of Pittsburgh), where she was a Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Epidemiology and the Director of the NIDDK funded Obesity/Nutrition Research Center before moving to Brown Medical School.