Adjunct Associate Professor Richard Cleland is the 2024 recipient of the Atkinson Stern Award for Distinguished Public Service. Presented annually by The Obesity Society, the honor "recognizes an individual or organization whose work has significantly improved the lives of those affected by obesity."
Nominated by colleagues including SPH-B Adjunct Professor Paul Coates, Ph.D., Mr. Cleland is one of only 18 recipients in the award's history. Other awardees include former President Bill Clinton and Richard L. Atkinson, M.D., former editor-in-chief of the National Journal of Obesity.
At Obesity Week® 2024—the organization's annual scientific meeting—Mr. Cleland will be presented with a plaque and cash award.
Mr. Cleland joined SPH-B in 2023 after several decades in public service; from 1983 to 1991, he was director of consumer protection in the Iowa Attorney General's Office, where he aggressively pursued the prosecution of health fraud cases, especially cases involving deceptive claims about weight loss. He then held several positions in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), consistently focusing on fraudulent promotional messaging around health care products and services.
"The law says that you can't disseminate a false or deceptive advertisement, and [weight loss] claims would fall in that category," Mr. Cleland asserted during his tenure with the FTC. "But other kinds of health claims also have to have confident, reliable, scientific evidence to support the claim before they are disseminated."
In 2021, the FTC presented Mr. Cleland with the Robert Pitofsky Lifetime Achievement Award.
Learn more about faculty, staff, and student achievements at go.iu.edu/48bx.
