In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Meagan Grega, a family physician, lifestyle medicine pioneer, and one of the earliest diplomates certified in the field. Her journey began with a simple but powerful realization early in her career: despite following every evidence-based guideline available, her patients weren’t getting better—they were just getting worse more slowly. That moment of dissonance sparked a deep search for a better way, ultimately leading her to the emerging world of lifestyle medicine and reshaping her entire approach to care.

Dr. Grega shares how her frustration with the limits of traditional chronic disease management led her to explore the work of early lifestyle medicine leaders, transform her own family’s habits, and begin bringing these principles into her clinical practice. This exploration ignited her decades-long commitment to prevention, community health, and medical education, culminating in her role as Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of the Kellyn Foundation.

Today, Dr. Grega works on the front lines of academic medicine as faculty for family medicine, internal medicine, and medical students at St. Luke’s and Temple/St. Luke’s. She offers a rare behind-the-scenes look at how lifestyle medicine is being woven into residency training—from culinary medicine sessions and journal clubs, to behavior change practicums, to helping residents meet LMRC requirements through real patient encounters. She explains how teaching lifestyle medicine is “teaching the future,” enabling new clinicians to care not just for individuals, but for entire communities.

Throughout the conversation, Dr. Grega walks us through Kellyn’s Healthy Neighborhood Immersion strategy, an innovative, four-pillar model designed to make the healthy choice the easy choice. From school-based food detective lessons and garden education, to community culinary medicine classes, medically supportive meals, and mobile markets delivering fresh produce to food-insecure neighborhoods, she illustrates how true health transformation happens when we reshape the environments where people live, work, learn, and play.

Dr. Grega also breaks down the systemic challenges holding lifestyle medicine back—from fee-for-service barriers to time constraints—and explains why the shift toward value-based care may finally align incentives with prevention. Her examples make clear that the conversation around lifestyle medicine has evolved: it’s no longer why we should do it but how we build systems that support it.

By the end of this episode, you’ll be inspired by Dr. Grega’s unwavering commitment to changing the culture of health—one neighborhood, one residency program, and one trainee at a time. She offers actionable guidance for students and residents, including how to build a resource library, find mentors, get involved in research, and prepare to practice lifestyle medicine in any specialty. This episode is a powerful reminder that the future of medicine belongs to clinicians who can teach, inspire, and lead—and that lifestyle medicine is the foundation for a healthier generation to come.

Learn more about the Kellyn Foundation: https://www.kellyn.org/

Learn more about the work ACLM is doing for the next generation of healthcare professionals: https://lifestylemedicine.org/student/

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