Michael Klaper, MD, a distinguished educator in applied plant-based nutrition and integrative medicine, began an extraordinarily long and diverse career as a practicing physician via his 1972 MD degree from University of Illinois College of Medicine, Chicago Medical Center, with Honors in Anatomy Studies.  He completed an internship at Vancouver General Hospital in British Columbia and pursued additional training in surgery, anesthesiology and orthopedics at University of British Columbia Hospitals, Vancouver, and in obstetrics at University of California Hospitals, San Francisco.  He has practiced medicine in Canada, New Zealand, Hawaii, Florida, California and the Hoopa Native American nation (Humboldt Medical Center), and is now additionally board certified as a Lifestyle Medicine Physician.

As part of his long-standing and profoundly committed efforts toward integrating nutrition into medical practice, medical training and disease prevention awareness, Dr. Klaper was the Founding Director of the nonprofit Institute of Nutrition Education and Research, and is also a member of the Boards of Advisors for EarthSave International and for the American Medical Students Association Nutrition and Preventive Medicine Task Force.  He has lectured widely on the causality of chronic disease and the preventive attributes of whole food plant-based diets, with particular attention to subject matter such as allergenic and autoimmune processes, postprandial effects of dietary fats, and the health and disruptions of the gut environment and microbiome.

Dr. Klaper has advised the National Aeronautics and Space Administration about meeting nutritional needs during long-term space travel and about Closed Ecological Life Support Systems.  He served for nine years as Staff Physician in General Practice at the True North Health Center in Santa Rosa, CA. and has authored two books and several videos about health promotion and disease prevention.  For over ten years, he hosted the popular medical information radio program Sounds of Healing on WPFW in Washington DC and KAOI in Maui, Hawaii, and was a contributor to two PBS “Food for Thought” programs and the award-winning “Diet for a New America” film.

The P-POD Conference was pleased to invite Dr. Klaper to speak in 2017 at the 25th anniversary of his induction into the Vegetarian Hall of Fame by the nonprofit North American Vegetarian Society, with which he has long held the position of Medical Advisor.  The P-POD nonprofit is delighted once again to be honoring him with its Lifetime Achievement Award at his fourth speaking appearance in 2024.  He continues a very active schedule of lecturing worldwide to practitioners, medical students and the public alike.