Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Dr. A. Enrique Caballero is an endocrinologist, clinical investigator, and educator. He works in the Office for External Education at Harvard Medical School, directing the development of programs in the field of diabetes and related disorders that benefit health care professionals and patients around the world. Dr. Caballero has had a strong and long commitment to help underserved populations. He founded the Latino Diabetes Initiative at the Joslin Diabetes Center, and the diabetes program within the Spanish Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both affiliated with Harvard Medical School. Through multiple activities in the areas of patient care, patient education, community outreach, clinical research, and professional education, his work has favorably impacted the lives of thousands of people and families with diabetes or at risk for the disease. His research interests include type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease prevention, as well as management of diabetes in racial/ethnic minorities. He has been a co-investigator of the National Diabetes Prevention Program, the LookAhead Program, and the Diabetes Education Study, all sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Caballero has written numerous publications on how diabetes affects the Latino/Hispanic community, diabetes prevention, obesity, and the link between diabetes and cardiovascular disease. He is also a reviewer for multiple prestigious medical journals. Dr. Caballero frequently lectures nationally and internationally in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes in minorities. He has been the chair for the Latino Diabetes Education Program for the American Diabetes Association, vice chair of the Health Care Disparities Committee of the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, and has worked closely with other national and international organizations. He has also been a tutor of the Culturally Competent Care Curriculum at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Caballero graduated from the National University of Mexico Medical School, where he was awarded with the Gabino Barreda Medal for being the top student and achieving the highest academic level his class. He then completed his residency in internal medicine and fellowship in endocrinology at the National Institute of Nutrition in Mexico, and went on to complete a master’s degree in clinical epidemiology in Mexico. In addition, he completed a fellowship program in endocrinology and metabolism at the Lahey Clinic/Deaconess Hospital/Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and the Program on Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard School of Public Health. He has received local, regional, national, and international recognitions and awards. Dr. Caballero is the recipient of the 2009 Alberto Houssay Award by the National Minority Quality Forum, the 2011 award by the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists for his work on health care disparities and with underserved populations, the 2012 Distinguished Community Service and Leadership Award by ALPFA Health Care, and a special recognition from the Latin American Diabetes Association. He has been recognized for several years as one of the 100 most influential people in the Latino community according to El Planeta newspaper. Recently, Dr. Caballero received a special recognition from the city of Boston and the government of Mexico for his continuous effort and commitment to help underserved populations.

Alice Cai is a clinical sleep fellow at Clinical Sleep Fellow in the combined Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital program. She is a recent graduate from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania’s Neurology residency, and has previously contributed to publications on intracerebral hemorrhage, toxic causes of delirium, impact of anesthesia on preoperative memory, and parasomnias. She previously helped investigate targets for non-opioid pain medicines in the area of pharmacology. Currently, her primary academic interests lie in overlap areas between Neurological conditions and sleep, including long term impacts of sleep deprivation on development of dementia. She earned her medical degree at Washington University in St. Louis, and a bachelor of science in Biochemistry as well as Molecular Biology at the University of Arizona.

Johanna Calderon, PhD, is an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and a research associate at Boston Children’s Hospital. She works on the neurodevelopmental and psychiatric outcomes of pediatric populations, primarily youth with congenital heart disease. She earned her PhD in neuropsychology from Paris Descartes Sorbonne University, and completed her postdoctoral research training at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research in France and at the Cardiac Neurodevelopmental Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Steve Calechman is a contributing editor for Men’s Health, a writer for MIT’s Industrial Liaison Program, and his work has appeared in The Boston Globe Magazine, Greentech Media, Fatherly, and BabyCenter. For over 25 years as a journalist, he’s written about everything from handling stress like an Alaska bush pilot to computational neuroscience to how to change your mind mid-sentence with your child. If you’d like to visit his website at stevecalechman.com, he won’t try to stop you.

Dr. Marcelo Campos works as a primary care doctor at Atrius Health. He is a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and a clinical assistant professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Campos completed medical school in Brazil and a family medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. He is the chief of internal medicine and family medicine at the downtown Boston location of Harvard Vanguard. His interests are immigrant health, LGBTQ health, opioid use disorders, and lifestyle medicine.

Dr. Christopher P. Cannon is editor in chief of the Harvard Heart Letter. He is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and senior physician in the Preventive Cardiology section of the Cardiovascular Division at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. Dr. Cannon earned his MD from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York, and did his internal medicine residency at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and a cardiovascular fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has published more than 1,000 original articles, reviews, or book chapters in the field of acute coronary syndromes and prevention, and has authored or edited 20 books. He has received numerous awards, including leadership awards from the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the National Lipid Association.

Dr. Cartreine is a clinical psychologist, interactive media producer, and researcher. He is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and teaches CBT to psychiatry residents. Dr. Cartreine is affiliated with Brigham and Women’s Hospital, the Boston VA Medical Center, and is a co-founder of The EverMind Group, LLC.

Valeria Chambers is the founder and coordinator of Black Voices: Pathways 4 Recovery (formerly Blacks United in Recovery), where she provides leadership in all aspects of the development of program, and policy initiatives. She is a senior community researcher for the Health, Equity and Research Lab at Cambridge Health Alliance, and is active on the Massachusetts Mental Health Planning Council, having completed a five-year term as co-chair of the Department of Mental Health Multicultural Advisory Committee. Chambers holds a master’s degree and certificate of advanced studies in counseling and consulting psychology. She received the National Alliance on Mental Illness–Massachusetts 2007 Heroes in the Fight Award for the Peer Specialist Certification Training Team.

Andrew T. Chan, MD, MPH is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School (HMS), Chief of the Clinical and Translational Epidemiology Unit, and the Program Director for gastroenterology training at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). As a clinical gastroenterologist, Dr. Chan specializes in familial gastrointestinal cancer syndromes and cancer prevention. Dr. Chan is a leading investigator in the epidemiology of colorectal cancer and other digestive diseases, with a focus on chemoprevention with aspirin and the interaction of diet with the gut microbiome. An elected fellow of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, he currently supported by NCI, NIDDK, and the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation for his research. He has published over 400 papers in the field of colorectal cancer and other chronic digestive diseases in leading journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, Science Translational Medicine, Gastroenterology and Gut. Dr Chan is a section editor for Gastroenterology, serves on the editorial board of Cancer Prevention Research and Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention, and is vice-chair of the Gastrointestinal Oncology Section of the AGA.

Dr. Michelle Chan is an infectious disease physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She completed her undergraduate education at Tufts University, and medical school education at Case Western Reserve University. She did her residency training at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and fellowship training in infectious disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Chan's interests include general infectious diseases and infection control.

Elena H. Chartoff, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and director of the Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior Laboratory at McLean Hospital. She is interested in the neurobiological mechanisms that connect depression and anxiety with drug addiction. The work in her laboratory has broad implications for understanding basic brain mechanisms that control mood and motivated behavior. Within her wider interest, Dr. Chartoff’s laboratory focuses on sex differences in molecular and genetic contributions to addictive behaviors, the role of glutamatergic transmission in affective states and the role of kappa opioid receptors in drug withdrawal-induced depressive-like states. Elena earned her B.S. in biology from Carnegie Mellon University in 1992 and her Ph.D. in Neurobiology & Behavior from the University of Washington in 2001.

Dr. Isabelle Chase is a board-certified pediatric dentist, and an assistant professor at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. She completed her dental degree at Dalhousie School of Dentistry in 2000, and pediatric dental specialty at the University of Rochester and Eastman Dental Center in 2002. Dr. Chase joined the faculty of Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 2006, and the majority of her time has been spent providing direct clinical supervision and didactic teaching of pediatric dental residents as director of the residency program. In the past 15 years she has taught over 70 pediatric dental residents and over 450 dental students. Dr. Chase also provides direct patient care, either in the clinical setting or the operating room, with a focus on the management of early childhood tooth decay; the treatment of young, anxious patients; and patients with special health care needs, with a particular focus on children with autism. Outside of work she enjoys spending time with her husband and their two children.

Dr. Adam Cheifetz is director of the center for inflammatory bowel disease and medical director of infusion services at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is a well-recognized leader in the treatment of Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and other inflammatory bowel diseases. He is involved in multiple research projects relating to IBD, and has published over 200 articles and chapters on the subject. His research currently focuses on therapeutic drug monitoring and optimizing the use of biologics through the proactive use of drug concentrations and antibodies, and he has published extensively in this area. Dr. Cheifetz was the first to demonstrate that proactive monitoring of infliximab and adalimumab concentrations and dosing to a therapeutic window improves outcomes when compared to standard of care.

Justin A. Chen, MD, MPH, is medical director of the outpatient psychiatry division and co-director of primary care psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Clinically, he specializes in the treatment of adult mood and anxiety disorders. He is also dedicated to teaching and mentorship, serving as co-director of medical student education in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS); co-director and core faculty in the mind, brain, and behavior preclinical neurosciences course at HMS; and co-director of the longitudinal sociocultural psychiatry curriculum for MGH/McLean psychiatry residents. An assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, his research focuses primarily on cross-cultural psychiatry, stigma, racial/ethnic disparities in mental health service utilization, and medical education. He is a co-editor of Sociocultural Issues in Psychiatry: A Casebook and Curriculum, published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. As executive director and cofounder of the nonprofit volunteer-operated MGH Center for Cross-Cultural Student Emotional Wellness (www.mghstudentwellness.org), he delivers talks and trainings for families, clinicians, and educators throughout the United States on promoting the mental health of diverse students. He is a 2020–23 fellow of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program for a project entitled, “Breaking Silences in the Model Minority: A National Intervention to Increase Mental Health Awareness and Decrease Stigma in Asian Immigrant Families.” Dr. Chen received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Yale University. He completed his psychiatry residency and chief residency at MGH/McLean, followed by a master of public health degree at the Harvard-T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and a Dupont-Warren Research Fellowship focused on improving engagement of depressed Chinese immigrants into mental health care at South Cove Community Health Center in Boston's Chinatown.

Dr. Steven Chen is a board-certified internist and dermatologist. He is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chen earned his MD and an MPH from Johns Hopkins University. He then pursued residency training at Harvard, where he completed an internal medicine residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and a dermatology residency in the Harvard dermatology program. Dr. Chen attends on both the dermatology and internal medicine services with a clinical and research interest in oncodermatology. He co-directs the comprehensive cutaneous lymphoma program at Massachusetts General Hospital, and serves as an associate program director for the Harvard dermatology residency program.

Hsinlin Thomas Cheng, MD, PhD, is the Director of the Headache and Neuropathic Pain Unit in the Department of Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital. He specializes in both adult Neurology and Pain Medicine. Dr. Cheng treats patients suffering from headache and other neuropathic pain syndromes.

Andrea Chisholm, MD is an OB/GYN at the Cambridge Health Alliance and a Clinical Instructor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Harvard Medical School. In addition to writing for Harvard Health Publishing, Dr. Chisholm writes about Menstrual Disorders for Verywell.com.

Andrea S. Christopher, MD, MPH is an internist at the Cambridge Health Alliance and fellow in general internal medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. She received her MD from the University of Washington School of Medicine, completed post-graduate training in internal medicine at the University of Washington and completed her MPH from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Christopher’s research focuses on disparities in access to health care for vulnerable populations, specifically the financial burden of out-of-pocket healthcare expenses and the impact of health insurance on chronic disease management.

Raymond Chung, MD is the Director of Hepatology and Liver Center at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Chung completed his B.A. at Harvard College and his MD from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital.  Dr. Chung’s focus has been fundamental and translational research in HCV infection.  Major focus of his research has been elucidating the basis for the observed accelerated liver disease pathogenesis in HCV-HIV coinfection.  In this regard his research has made important contributions to the current understanding of hepatic pathogenesis of coinfection.

Bruce M. Cohen, MD, PhD, is the Robertson-Steele Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of the Program for Neuropsychiatric Research at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA. He leads a group of investigators and clinicians seeking evidence from clinical, laboratory, and brain imaging studies to define mechanisms underlying mental health and illness and develop new treatments for psychiatric disorders. Dr. Cohen is the author of over 300 manuscripts of original research, and co-author of Living with Someone Who Has Bipolar Disorder: A Practical Guide for Family, Friends, and Co-Workers, which was written for a general audience. He has five granted patents and multiple awards for research, teaching, and clinical care.

Dr. Stephanie Collier is the director of education in the division of geriatric psychiatry at McLean Hospital; consulting psychiatrist for the population health management team at Newton-Wellesley Hospital; and instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her professional interests include the interface of medicine and psychiatry, the treatment of mental illnesses in the primary care setting, and the optimization of training and supervision of nonspecialist clinicians to deliver mental health interventions in resource-limited settings.

Francesca Coltrera is editor of the Harvard Health Blog, and associate editor of multimedia content for Harvard Health Publishing. She is an award-winning medical writer and co-author of Living Through Breast Cancer and The Breast Cancer Survivor’s Fitness Plan. Her work has appeared in Newsweek, O Magazine, Good Housekeeping, SELF, and the Boston Herald, among other venues. She is interested in many health topics, including coronavirus and COVID-19, emotional and physical wellness, parenting and children’s health, women’s health, exercise, longevity, cancer, caregiving, and end-of-life issues.

Amy S. Colwell, MD, FACS, is a board-certified plastic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School. She is nationally recognized for her work with direct-to-implant breast reconstruction, and reconstruction after nipple-sparing mastectomy. Dr. Colwell also has specific interests in restoration of the face and body after aging, weight changes, and pregnancy. Dr. Colwell is the co-editor of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. She is chair for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons spring meeting, and has been co-chair for the Reconstruction Symposium of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons for the past three years. Dr. Colwell has co-authored over 100 publications and 18 book chapters. She was awarded the prestigious Leonard R. Rubin award for the best paper presented at the American Association of Plastic Surgeons Meeting in 2011 and again in 2023.

Dr. Amy Comander is a breast oncologist at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. Dr. Comander is director of breast oncology and cancer survivorship at the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham, MA and at Newton Wellesley Hospital, and medical director of the Mass General Cancer Center in Waltham. She is director of lifestyle medicine at the Mass General Cancer Center, which is the first cancer center to have a dedicated lifestyle medicine program. Given her strong interest in cancer survivorship and lifestyle medicine, Dr. Comander is dedicated to improving the quality of life, well-being, and outcome of individuals with cancer through important lifestyle interventions, including exercise, diet, and mind/body interventions. She promotes healthy lifestyles for both her active treatment patients as well as those in the survivorship phase of care. In collaboration with Dr Beth Frates, she has launched “PAVING the Path to Wellness,” a 12-week lifestyle medicine-based survivorship program for women with breast cancer. Along with Dr. Frates and Dr. Michelle Tollefson, she has published the “PAVING the Path to Wellness” workbook.

Hilary Connery, MD, PhD, is an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and serves as the clinical director for McLean Hospital’s division of alcohol, drugs, and addiction. Dr. Connery’s expertise includes treatment of opioid use disorders and integrated treatments for co-occurring substance use disorders and other mental illnesses. Her current research efforts are directed toward public health prevention strategies for addressing self-injury mortality, and patient-focused investigation regarding suicidal motivations contributing to drug overdose. Dr. Connery is a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and has served within the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry as New England area director, co-chair of the policy committee, and as a national mentor within the national mentoring program through Providers Clinical Support System. In these roles, she actively advocates for more effective responses to the drug overdose and suicide epidemics, and also nationally mentors clinicians in evidence-based treatment of substance use disorders.