American College of Lifestyle Medicine CEO Susan Benigas transitions to emeritus function after guiding greater than a decade of extraordinary progress

After guiding greater than 12 years of transformative progress and influence for the medical skilled society and the sphere of way of life drugs, Susan Benigas will proceed supporting ACLM’s mission as CEO emeritus and senior advisor. ACLM will announce its new CEO June 4.

ST. LOUIS, June 3, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) as we speak introduced that Susan Benigas will transition from her function as chief govt officer to CEO emeritus and senior advisor after greater than 12 years of transformative management for the medical skilled society.

Since Benigas assumed management in March 2014, ACLM has grown from a small medical skilled society with 380 members and one worker into a world power for change. Today, the group represents greater than 16,000 members, is supported by 48 employees members throughout 23 states, and, throughout her tenure, has achieved greater than 4,000% progress in each dimension and income. Her management has helped place ACLM because the main voice for way of life drugs, influencing clinicians, well being techniques and policymakers nationwide.

“Susan Benigas didn’t just lead ACLM; she built it,” mentioned ACLM President Padmaja Patel, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, FACP, CPE. “When I take into consideration what this group has turn out to be: the breadth of our membership, the depth of our neighborhood, the way in which way of life drugs has moved from the margins to the mainstream of healthcare conversations over the past 12 years, Susan’s fingerprints are on all of it.

“She poured herself into this work with a rare combination of vision and tenacity, and the people she brought together — clinicians, researchers, advocates — are her most enduring legacy. On behalf of the entire ACLM board and membership, I am deeply grateful.”

Under Benigas’ management, ACLM achieved quite a few milestone accomplishments that accelerated the sphere of way of life drugs, each domestically and globally. Benigas co-founded the Lifestyle Medicine Global Alliance and supported the launch of the American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, paving the way in which for the International Board of Lifestyle Medicine. Today, greater than 10,000 physicians and well being professionals worldwide have earned board certification in way of life drugs. In 2024, ACLM was inducted into the American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates, an historic milestone {of professional} recognition for way of life drugs.

Other milestones embrace the White House showcasing ACLM for its $24 million dedication in assist of the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, which in the end supplied way of life drugs and meals as drugs schooling to just about 80,000 clinicians nationwide. Under Benigas’ management, addressing the gaping void of way of life drugs in medical schooling—notably in vitamin—has been a prime precedence, with greater than 1.2 million hours of CME and CE delivered to this point.

“Susan Benigas’ understanding of the lifestyle medicine community runs so very deep, and her heart and wisdom have led us to reach greater heights each and every year,” mentioned ACLM Immediate Past President and Harvard Medical School Associate Professor, Part-Time Beth Frates, MD, DipABLM, FACLM. “We are so fortunate to have had her as our chief executive during such a critical time in the history of our field. We are extremely grateful for all of her selfless and tireless work over the years.”

The recipient of ACLM’s inaugural President’s Award in 2019, Benigas obtained the 2025 AMA Medical Executive Meritorious Achievement Award for her distinctive management and repair in advancing way of life drugs to attain healthcare’s Quintuple Aim.

“Leading ACLM, in partnership with our Board of Directors, has been a remarkable journey—a journey that breathed full life into the vision that was first cast by trailblazing physicians back in 2004,” Benigas mentioned. “Alongside our distinctive employees and passion-driven members, we now have guided ACLM’s evolution from a small medical skilled society into a world power for change, establishing way of life drugs as a board‑licensed medical specialty to firmly entrench the imaginative and prescient of care that leads with addressing the basis explanation for illness.

“As ACLM enters its next chapter, I look forward to continuing to support the College’s mission and leadership, helping to build upon the strong foundation that, together, we’ve created, solidifying lifestyle medicine as our nation’s—and the world’s—standard of care.”

ACLM will announce its subsequent chief govt officer on June 4.

About ACLM^®
The American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) is the nation’s medical skilled society advancing the sphere of way of life drugs as the inspiration of a redesigned, value-based and equitable healthcare supply system, important to reaching the Quintuple Aim and whole-person well being. ACLM represents, advocates for, trains, certifies, and equips its members to establish and eradicate the basis explanation for continual illness by optimizing modifiable danger elements. ACLM is filling the gaping void of way of life drugs in medical schooling, offering greater than 1.2 million hours of way of life drugs schooling to physicians and different well being professionals since 2004, whereas additionally advancing analysis, scientific follow and reimbursement methods.

SOURCE American College of Lifestyle Medicine