Aaron Kelly

Biography

Aaron S. Kelly, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Dr. Kelly is an expert in pediatric obesity medicine and his research focuses on the clinical aspects of severe obesity, including strategies aimed at the prevention of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes starting in childhood. Dr. Kelly is a fellow of the American Heart Association (AHA) and serves as a member of the AHA Committee on Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, and Obesity in the Youngand the AHA Obesity Committee. He is also a fellow of The Obesity Society (TOS) and serves as a member of the TOS Membership Committee. Dr. Kelly is the chair of the Minnesota Pediatric Obesity Consortium, a collaborative network of 4 institutions in the state of Minnesota dedicated to advancing research and education in the area of clinical pediatric obesity. He has served as a regular reviewer of NIH grant applications for the last 10 years. Dr. Kelly was co-chair and lead author of a scientific statement from the AHA on severe obesity in children and adolescents published in the journal Circulation.

Research Interest

His current research includes a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study assessing the vascular status of children and adolescents with severe obesity and the evaluation of vascular outcomes following bariatric surgery in teens, and clinical trials evaluating weight loss medications in severely obese adolescents.