2nd Annual Georgia Food is Medicine Summit
The Carter Center
11.12.2026
The Georgia Food Is Medicine Summit, hosted by Open Hand and in proud partnership with Emory Healthcare, will convene healthcare leaders, policymakers, corporate partners, and advocates from across the Southeast to explore the critical role of nutrition in healthcare. The event will spotlight best practices, groundbreaking research, and real-world case studies on integrating nutrition into healthcare systems.
As the largest provider of home-delivered meals and nutrition education in the Southeast and only one accredited by the national Food is Medicine Coalition, Open Hand is committed to integrating nutrition into Georgia’s healthcare. In our second annual Summit, we look forward to diving deeper and finding real pathways towards Food is Medicine implementation in the state.
We will be consistently updating this page leading up to the event, so stay tuned! If you have questions about the Georgia Food is Medicine Summit, please email Aleta McLean, Chief Programs Officer, at AMcLean@OpenHandAtlanta.org.
Introduction and Welcome
8:30-9:15am
Matthew Pieper, Open Hand
Matthew serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Open Hand, the Southeast's largest community-based provider of medically tailored meals and nutrition education, and recently celebrated his seventeenth anniversary with the organization.
In addition to his role as CEO, Matt serves as a Vice Chair of the Board of Advisors for the national Food Is Medicine Coalition, and as Immediate Past President for the Meals on Wheels of Georgia Board of Directors, and serves on the Board of Directors for Rotary Club of Buckhead where he has been a proud Rotarian since 2010. He is also an active member of the Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement and speaks frequently as a public policy advocate for the role community-based nutrition interventions play in helping to achieve better health outcomes.
Lisa Porter, Humana
Lisa Porter is the Director of Market Solutions on Humana’s Health Equity & Social Impact team. With 20 years of experience as a public health practitioner specializing is community health interventions, she champions opportunities to advance healthful behavior change. Her work supports creating solutions for improving health outcomes through addressing health equity gaps, health-related social needs, and social drivers of health.
Prior to Humana, Lisa worked with global NGO partners such as Action Aid and Amnesty International and secured grant funding for international advocacy campaigns as well as for domestic health education programming.
What is FIM?
9:15-10:15am
Debra Carlton, MD
Moderator
Dr. Debra Carlton grew up in Detroit, Michigan. She received her undergraduate degree from MIT, her medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and completed her Internal Medicine residency at the UCLA Sepulveda VA Hospital. The last 30 years of her medical practice were spent with Kaiser Permanente in Atlanta, where she served as: Associate Medical Director of Primary Care and Behavioral Health; Associate Medical Director of Quality; Associate Medical Director of Informatics; and Associate Medical Director of Care and Service Experience.
Dr. Carlton retired in 2020, and has since furthered her education by obtaining her Board Certification in Lifestyle Medicine from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Her goal is to help others optimize their health and wellbeing using the evidence‐based lifestyle therapeutic interventions of Lifestyle Medicine – including whole‐food, plant‐predominant eating pattern, regular physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, positive social connections, and avoidance of risky substances – as a primary modality to prevent, treat, and often reverse chronic disease.
She currently serves on Open Hand's Board of Directors.
Laura Samnadda (MS, RDN, LD), Open Hand
Laura Samnadda MS, RDN, LD is the Director of Nutrition Services at Open Hand. Since 2009 Laura has focused on improving nutrition and food insecurity for those living with chronic conditions in both Atlanta and Chicago by implementing medically tailored meals and grocery programs. At Open Hand, she developed the team’s telehealth and teaching kitchen initiatives and is expanding services across Georgia. Additionally, she is a Master Trainer for the Diabetes and Chronic Disease Self-Management Programs, coordinates Produce Prescription programs, leads the Wellness Committee, and collaborates with health systems and other community-based organizations. She presents at national conferences and holds committee positions including Co-Chair of the Food Is Medicine Coalition’s Clinical Committee, Steering Committee for the Atlanta Teaching Kitchen Network, Member of the Coding4Food committees writing definitions for Medically Tailored Groceries and Teaching Kitchens. Laura brings excellence in project management and innovation in nutrition service offerings.
Michael Kraft, Emory Healthcare
Brenda Atkinson, Open Hand Client
Innovations in the Field
10:30-11:30am
Vonetta Daniels, MHA, MBA, PMP
Moderator
Elise Lockamy-Kassim, Wellstar
Elise Lockamy-Kassim, MSPH, serves as Director of Community Benefit at Wellstar Health System. In her role, Elise helps translate community health needs into programs and partnerships that expand access to care and improve health outcomes across Wellstar’s service area. Her work spans priority areas including access to care, food access and healthy living, behavioral health, healthy aging, and maternal and child health. A former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Health Scientist, her experience includes caregiver health, lead poisoning prevention, asthma prevention and control, childhood injury prevention, and health equity.
Elise earned her undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and a Master of Science of Public Health degree from the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since 2019, she has served on the Board of Directors of Empowerment Resource Center, a nonprofit community clinic headquartered in Fulton County, Georgia. In 2024, she was named the inaugural Community Outreach Champion by the Atlanta Business Chronicle Healthcare Heroes Award series and is a member of the Atlanta Regional Commission’s 2023 Regional Leadership Institute cohort.
Ashley Van Cise (RDN, LD), Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Ashley Van Cise, RDN, LD, is a registered dietitian nutritionist and professionally trained chef with 20 years of experience connecting nutrition science with practical culinary education. As Teaching Kitchen Coordinator at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, she leads the operations, development, and growth of the Kauffman Family Teaching Kitchen. Her work integrates hands-on cooking and nutrition education into pediatric care, including group medical nutrition therapy appointments, helping families build the skills and confidence to put nutrition recommendations into practice.
Ashley founded the Atlanta Teaching Kitchen Network, bringing together healthcare, academic, and community professionals to advance teaching kitchen programming across the region. She also co-leads the national Teaching Kitchen Collaborative’s Youth in Teaching Kitchens Interest Group.
Jeff Smythe, ARCHI
Jeffrey M. Smythe serves as the Executive Director of the Atlanta Regional Collaborative for Health Improvement (ARCHI). Under Jeff’s leadership, ARCHI brings together cross-sector partners to drive sustainable, systemic change and eliminate health inequities across metro Atlanta. During his nearly 30 years of nonprofit leadership, his work has ranged from housing, homeless and hunger alleviation to aging services, from HIV services to international development, from refugee and foster family support to youth development and mental health. Jeff led the creation of and founding of the Meals On Wheels Association of Georgia in 2014 to strengthen statewide advocacy and collaboration.
From Evidence to Policy: Advancing Food is Medicine
1:00-2:00pm
This panel will explore how research and evidence have helped move Food Is Medicine from promising intervention to an emerging component of health care delivery and public policy. Panelists will examine the research that has demonstrated the impact of Food Is Medicine interventions, including medically tailored meals, and how this evidence has contributed to states incorporating Food Is Medicine approaches into health plans and health care payors recognizing the value of covering medically tailored meals.
The panel will also highlight the work underway in Georgia, with local officials sharing perspectives on current Food Is Medicine initiatives, opportunities, and challenges within the state.
Aleta McLean, Open Hand
Aleta McLean is the Chief Programs Officer for Open Hand. As a key employee for the last 20 years, Aleta has been a driving force in Open Hand becoming a preferred provider of partner-agencies and has overseen several successful service delivery expansion and client satisfaction projects. Daily, she directs Client Services team members to ensure services are coordinated with community partners and providers, so clients are not just provided for, but satisfied. Additionally, she manages the large Programmatic Team, covering programs, policy, processes, evaluation of outcomes, government grants, and the community Registered Dietitian Nutritionists.
Katie Garfield (JD), Center for Health Law and Policy Innovation (CHLPI)
Katie is a Clinical Instructor at CHLPI of Harvard Law School. Katie joined CHLPI in 2014 and currently focuses her work on their whole-person care initiatives, including CHLPI's Food is Medicine project. In her work on these initiatives, she has had the opportunity to work with community-based organizations, state agencies, health care providers, and coalitions to develop strategies to increase access to innovative services such as Food is Medicine interventions. Prior to joining CHLPI, Katie was an associate at Ropes & Gray LLP. She is a licensed member of the Massachusetts Bar.
