Norfolk, Va.— Dr. Ian Smith, best known for his work as a medical and diet expert on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club, will speak at 7 p.m., Tuesday, September 20 at Norfolk State University’s L. Douglas Wilder Performing Arts Center. Free and open to the public, Smith’s talk is titled “Shrinking the Gap.”

A highly sought after speaker, Smith is the creator and founder of The 50 Million Pound Challenge and is a medical contributor on the nationally syndicated television show Rachael Ray and his own nationally syndicated radio show, Health Watch, on American Urban Radio Networks. He is the former medical correspondent for NBC News network and NewsChannel 4, where he filed reports for NBC’s Nightly News and The Today Show as well as WNBC’s various news broadcasts. He has appeared on various broadcasts including Oprah, The View, The Tyra Show, Larry King Live, Anderson Cooper 360 and Showbiz Tonight.

Active in a host of charitable causes, Smith is a national advisory board member for the Maya Angelou Center for Health Equity and has served on the boards of the American Council on Exercise, the New York Mission Society, the Prevent Cancer Foundation and the New York Council for the Humanities. Most recently, President Obama appointed him to the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition.
He is the author of seven books including Extreme Fat Smash Diet and The Fat Smash Diet, both of which made the New York Times number one bestseller’s list.
Smith earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College in 1991 and a master’s degree in education from Teachers College of Columbia University. He attended Dartmouth Medical School and graduated from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine.

Smith’s visit to NSU is part of the New Lyceum Series and is sponsored by the NSU Honors College and Honors College Discipline Specific Honors Programs. For more information, call 823-8373.