Harvard Women’s Health Watch Editorial Board

Editor in Chief- Celeste Robb-Nicholson, MD:
Dr. Robb-Nicholson is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Associate Physician and Associate Chief of the General Internal Medicine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and founding Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Women's Health Watch. She also serves as the Medical Director of Primary Care Office InSite, a web site for general internists and their patients. In this role, she is responsible for the development of guidelines for primary care clinicians and health information for their patients. The goal of the site is to improve office practice and patient doctor communication, and to stimulate shared decision-making between doctors and patients.

Dr. Robb-Nicholson is a practicing physician with interests in women's health, as well as patient and physician education. She has served on the Women's Health Committee of the Massachusetts General Hospital Operations Improvement Taskforce — writing patient care guidelines for doctors and patient education materials for women. She has lectured on women's health for a number of organizations, including the National Council of Women, the National Women's Economic Alliance Foundation, and the American Women's Medical Association.

Cardiology- Paula Johnson, MD, MPH:
Dr. Paula A. Johnson is a cardiologist, an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, the Executive Director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Chief of the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. At Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dr. Johnson built a novel, interdisciplinary clinical, research, education, and policy program in women’s health. The mission of the organization is to improve the health of women and to transform their medical care.

Dr. Johnson is recognized as a national expert in the area of defining and understanding the quality of cardiology care for women and minorities, with a particular research focus on understanding disparities in health care for women and minorities. She founded the Center for Cardiovascular Disease in Women at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which is dedicated to developing new sex- and gender-specific strategies for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of coronary heart disease in women. Dr. Johnson also created and leads the Fish Center for Women’s Health which integrates primary care with health care specialties in a learning laboratory, bringing together clinical care, research and operations to improve the health of women and the provision of their health care. The clinical care integrates leading-edge research about women’s health and serves as a basis for research focused on the discovery of mechanisms that will explain sex differences in morbidity and mortality and disorders specific to women.

Dr. Johnson is the recipient of many awards recognizing her contributions in women’s and minority health and is featured as a national leader in medicine by the National Library of Medicine. She has been an advisor and contributor to the educational programs of the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health Office for Research on Women’s Health, the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Association, the Jacob’s Institute for Women’s Health and the Commonwealth Fund. Dr. Johnson is the author [co-author] on over twenty-five articles and book chapters. Dr Johnson serves on several not for profit boards including Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts and the Greater Boston Division of the American Heart Association. She serves as an overseer at the Museum of Science and the Women’s Union.

Dermatology- Suzanne Olbricht, MD:
Suzanne Olbricht is an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School and Chair of the Department of Dermatology at Lahey Clinic. She is on the editorial boards of Harvard Women's Health Watch and Advances in Dermatology. She has served on the boards of the New England Dermatology Society, Women's Dermatology Society, and the Association of Academic Dermatologic Surgeons and is a committee member for many national societies.

As an clinician, Dr. Olbricht's field of expertise is skin cancer and procedural dermatology, performing Mohs micrographic surgery and reconstruction for skin cancers of the head and neck. In recognition of her active participation in the teaching and training of residents and fellows in procedural deramtology and the ethical practice of dermatology, she was named the Samuel Moschella Scholar in 2004, a three year position and the most prestigious teaching award of the Harvard Medical School Department of Dermatology. She enjoys the problem solving nature of her administrative duties. Dr. Olbricht has authored more than 50 original reports and reviews. She is a popular lecturer and this year will speak in Chicago, San Diego, Atlanta, Rio de Janeiro, and Cartagena Colombia.

Endocrinology- Anne Klibanski, MD:
Anne Klibanski, M.D, is Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Chief, Neuroendocrine Unit and Director of the Neuroendocrine Clinical Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. She is Co- Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital/MIT Clinical Research Center. A leader in the field of neuroendocrinology, Dr. Klibanski’s research interests include the pathogenesis of human pituitary tumors, the pathophysiology of growth hormone disorders, and, the neuroendocrine control of bone metabolism. An elected member of ASCI and AAP, Dr. Klibanski is on the board of directors and President of The Pituitary Society. She has served on NIH study sections and was the Chairman of the NIH Osteoporosis Consensus Conference. She served on the Endocrine Society Council and currently is a member of the Subcommittee of Professors at Harvard Medical School and the Executive Committee on Research at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Klibanski has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and other Journals. The author of over 200 papers and chapters, she is the recipient of many Awards including the prestigious Endocrine Society 2002 Clinical Investigator Award, Honorary Master’s Degree, Harvard University, the British Endocrine Society Trust Medal in 2003 and the Harvard Medical School Dean’s Award for mentoring women in science.

Endocrinology- JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH:
JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH is Professor of Medicine and the Elizabeth F. Brigham Professor of Women's Health at Harvard Medical School and Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is also Chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine and co-Director of the Connors Center for Women's Health and Gender Biology at Brigham and Women's Hospital. Dr. Manson is board certified in Internal Medicine and the subspecialty of Endocrinology and Metabolism. She also has a doctorate in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Manson's primary research interests are preventive medicine, women's health, and chronic disease epidemiology. She is actively involved in research related to risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, including biochemical and genetic markers. She is one of the lead investigators on several landmark women's health studies, including the Women's Health Initiative, the Nurses' Health Study, the Women's Antioxidant and Folic Acid Cardiovascular Study, and the Women's Health Study. She has published more than 500 journal articles, reviews, and book chapters and has authored or edited 8 books. Dr. Manson has received numerous honors and awards, including fellowship in the American College of Physicians, American College of Endocrinology, and Association of American Physicians. She was named one of ten Heroes in Women's Health by American Health for Women magazine, one of the top ten "Champions of Women's Health" by Ladies Home Journal, one of Boston's "Top Docs for Women" by Boston Magazine, and received the Henry Ingersoll Bowditch Award for Excellence in Public Health from the Massachusetts Medical Society and the "Woman in Science" Award from the American Medical Women's Association, among others.

Endocrinology- Karen K. Miller, MD:
Karen K. Miller is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Neuroendocrine Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. Her clinical practice is as a staff physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital Neuroendocrine Clinical Center, a tertiary care referral center for patients with pituitary disease. She is a clinical researcher, whose research focuses on women's health, including androgen deficiency and replacement therapy in women, growth hormone deficiency and replacement on cardiovascular risk in women, effects of undernutrition on bone and therapies for bone loss in women with anorexia nervosa.

Dr. Miller is the author of many peer-reviewed research papers and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Endocrinology and Metabolism. She is the chair of the Women in Endocrinology Mentorship Committee and serves on the Special Programs Committee of the Endocrine Society.

Epidemiology- I-Min Lee, MD, ScD:
I-Min Lee is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Heath, and Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

She teaches epidemiology and is author of over 140 journal articles and book chapters. She contributed towards the landmark Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health in 1996. In recognition of her accomplishments, Dr. Lee has been elected as a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine, and elected to the American Epidemiological Society.

Gastroenterology- Stephen E. Goldfinger, MD:
Dr. Goldfinger is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and is a member of the Gastroenterology Unit of the Massachusetts General Hospital. He served as Harvard Medical School's Faculty Dean for Continuing Education between 1973 and 2000. Until 1999, Dr. Goldfinger also served as director of the Harvard Health Publishing Group and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Health Letter. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Goldfinger majored in philosophy at Princeton University and then received his medical degree from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his residency and chief residency in medicine, as well as a fellowship in gastroenterology at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Goldfinger also spent two years at the National Institute for Arthritis and Metabolic Disease. He has served as a Director of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and was also Massachusetts Governor for the American College of Physicians.

Genetics- Susan P. Pauker, MD:
Dr. Susan Pauker is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Chief of Medical Genetics at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates (formerly Harvard Community Health Plan) since 1975. At Harvard Medical School she serves as Academy Scholar, Member of the Faculty Council, Associate Master of the Francis Weld Peabody Society, and member of the Division of Medical Ethics. At Massachusetts General Hospital, she directed the Genetics Clinic from 1981. A practicing Medical Geneticist, she consults at Brigham and Womens, Lahey, Boston Children’s and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospitals and lectures on Ethics and Medical Genetics nationally to prevent birth defects, cancer, and genetic disease.

Dr. Pauker trained in Pediatrics and in Medical Genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is Board Certified in Pediatrics and in Medical Genetics and is a Founding Fellow and Trustee of the American College of Medical Genetics, and Fellow of the American Society of Human Genetics. She received the first Jonas Salk Memorial Award and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Award from the March of Dimes, the Outstanding Physician Award from Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and the Exceptional Woman in Health Care Award from WMJX, Boston. She serves as editorial advisor in Genetics for the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide, the Harvard Women’s Health Watch, and the Harvard Health Letter.

Gynecology- Martha K. Richardson, MD:
Marcie Richardson, MD, is an OB/GYN at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates and holds numerous positions including: CoDirector of the Menopause Consultation Service and Assistant Medical Director in Ob-Gyn for Clinical Quality at Harvard Vanguard and Clinical Instructor in Obstetrics and Gynecology, Harvard Medical School. She did her undergraduate work at Harvard and went to Medical School at UCSD in California graduating in 1974. She then trained at Beth Israel in Boston where she still practices general Ob-gyn. She is also on the Board of Trustees of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS) where she has been on the executive committee and past Chair of the NAMS Education Committee. She is on the medical advisory board of For the past 15 years she has served on the Advisory Board of Harvard Women’s Health Watch, a widely distributed publication for women on health issues. She has worked on multiple editions of the groundbreaking consumer publication Our Bodies Ourselves as well as many other educational pieces for women of all ages. She enjoys lecturing to both healthcare professionals and women about many areas of women’s health.

Gynecology- Isaac Schiff, MD:
Dr. Isaac Schiff is Joe Vincent Meigs Professor of Gynecology at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Vincent OB/GYN Service at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

He is on the Editorial Board of Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Prior to coming to Massachusetts General Hospital, he was Chief of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He is Editor-in-Chief of Menopause, the journal of the North American Menopause Society and was President of that society. In addition, he is Chair of the Medical Advisory Board of Managing Menopause, a publication of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. This past year he served as Chair of the Task Force on Hormone Therapy for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Internal Medicine- Karen Carlson, MD:
Dr. Carlson is Director of Women’s Health Associates at Massachusetts General Hospital and Deputy Director of the Harvard Medical School Center of Excellence in Women's Health, as designated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she is active in post-graduate medical education. She is co-editor of a medical textbook, Primary Care of Women, and a comprehensive book on women’s health, The Harvard Guide to Women’s Health. Dr. Carlson is also a practicing primary care physician.

Internal Medicine- Nancy Rigotti, MD:
Nancy Rigotti is a graduate of Stanford University, Harvard Medical School, and the internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. Following residency, she completed a General Internal Medicine Fellowship at Harvard and joined the faculty of the General Internal Medicine Unit at MGH. She is currently an She practices primary care at the MGH-Women's Health Associates and is Course Director for Harvard Medical School's required course on Preventive Medicine and Nutrition.

Dr. Rigotti's research interests reflect long-standing interest in preventive medicine,with a focus on reducing the health burden of tobacco use by developing and evaluating interventions at the individual and public policy levels. From 1985 to 1990, she was Associate Director of the Institute for the Study of Smoking Behavior and Policy at Harvard University. During that time she conducted some of the first evaluations of no-smoking laws and policies and served as an editor of the 1989 Surgeon General's Report on Smoking, Reducing the Health Consequences of Smoking: 25 Years of Progress. In 1992 she founded the MGH Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, which conducts tobacco control research and provides state-of-the-art clinical service to patients, employees, and the community. The Center now includes 6 faculty members and 10 staff and is externally funded by NIH, private foundations, and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Current and recent research projects include clinical trials of new drugs for smoking cessation, interventions for hospitalized smokers, preganant smokers and parents, and an assessment of the value of public policies to reduce youth access to tobacco products. Dr. Rigotti is currently President of the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research, the international organization of researchers in the field of tobacco research. Her work has been recognized by a MidCareer Investigator Award in Patient Oriented Research (K24) from NHLBI, a Distinguished Professor Award from the Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute, and an Award for Innovation in Medical Education from the Society of General Internal Medicine. technologies. Dr. Gazelle has authored more than 125 scientific articles, published two textbooks and presented numerous papers, lectures, and workshops nationally and internationally.

Internal Medicine- Beverly Woo, MD:
Dr. Woo is a clinician-educator, with a busy Primary Care Internal Medicine practice at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and many teaching activities at BWH and Harvard Medical School. At Harvard Medical School, Dr. Woo is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Senior Associate Master of the Francis Weld Peabody Society and Director of the Patient-Doctor I course which introduces medical students to the profession and practice of medicine. At BWH, Dr. Woo teaches residents and students in the ambulatory practice and the inpatient General Medical Service and serves as the Associate Director for Education in the Division of General Medicine. Dr. Woo has also served as a faculty member for courses sponsored by Harvard Medical International in China, Brazil, Greece, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

Dr. Woo serves on the Editorial Board of the Harvard Women’s Health Watch. She has been a member and officer of the Society of General Internal Medicine. She was a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine Board from 1998 to 2004 and since 2004, she has been a member of the American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation Board of Trustees. Dr. Woo is the author or co-author of a number of original journal articles, book chapters and monographs, and reviews. Her major interests include teaching about the medical interview and the patient-doctor relationship, as well as preventive medicine and the appropriate use of screening examinations and tests in clinical practice.

Neurology- Anne B. Young, MD, PhD:
Anne B. Young, M.D., Ph.D., Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and the Chief, Neurology Service at Massachusetts General Hospital is a researcher and clinician whose work at the bench and bedside have concentrated on neurotransmitter systems in the basal ganglia and their role in Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Dr. Young holds membership in both the Institute of Medicine and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Dr. Young is a Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude graduate of Vassar College who completed her medical studies at Johns Hopkins in 1973. She received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from Johns Hopkins in 1974, and then completed residency training in neurology at the University of California, San Francisco. After residency, she joined the neurology faculty at the University of Michigan where she advanced to Professor in 1985. In 1991, she was recruited to the Massachusetts General Hospital as Chief of the Neurology Service and Julieanne Dorn Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Young provided some of the first evidence that glutamic acid is a neurotransmitter. Subsequently, she and her colleagues identified glutamate as a transmitter of corticostriatal and corticospinal tracts. Her laboratory first described techniques to measure subtypes of glutamate receptors autoradiographically and went on to demonstrate receptor alterations in Huntington’s and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr. Young’s current research work includes elucidating cellular and systems mechanisms underlying the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. In an effort to help develop therapeutic targets for human disorders of movement, she is conducting studies on the vulnerability of neurons to excitotoxic injury and the selective expression of glutamate receptors in these neurons.

Recently, she has discovered that transgenic animals expressing exon 1 of the huntingtin protein (Huntington’s disease is caused by a mutation of the gene encoding this protein) have markedly altered receptors that may play a central role in the neuronal degeneration of Huntington’s disease. Her studies suggest that mutant huntingtin may alter receptor expression selectively when it accumulates in the nucleus. Altered receptor expression occurs early and may contribute to selective cell death.

Dr. Young serves on the editorial board of numerous biomedical journals and she has been the recipient of many awards and honors for her work. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Boards of several voluntary organizations. She is the past President of the American Neurological Association and the Society for Neuroscience. She will be inducted into the Royal Academy of Physicians in London in June.

Nutrition- Bruce Bistrian, MD, PhD:
Dr. Bistrian is Chief, Clinical Nutrition, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is board certified in Internal Medicine with subspecialty qualifications in Critical Care Medicine. He received his medical degree from Cornell University, his M.P.H. degree from Johns Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in Nutritional Biochemistry and Metabolism from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests are in protein calorie malnutrition, its pathophysiology and assessment, cytokine biology, and the nutritional support of critically ill patients. He is a former President of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition. Dr. Bistrian previously served on the Council of the American Society of Nutritional Sciences and was both Secretary and President of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition. He has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Federation of American Society for Experimental Biology (FASEB) from 2001-2005 and will be President of FASEB for 2005-2006.

Dr. Bistrian serves on the editorial boards of Critical Care Medicine, Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, Harvard Health Letter, and the Women's Health Watch. He formerly served on the editorial boards of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Nutrition Reviews, Journal of Nutrition, and Journal of the American College of Nutrition, and Obesity and Behavior. He is the author or co-author of more than 400 original publications in the scientific literature. He received the AMA Goldberger Award in Clinical Nutrition for 2004.

Nutrition- Helen K. Delichatsios, MD, SM:
Helen Delichatsios is an Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Primary Care Physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Delichatsios co-directs the Preventive Medicine and Nutrition Course at Harvard Medical School. As a practicing physician, Dr. Delichatsios teaches patients, physicians in training, and students about the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and good eating habits. She has published articles on the topic of how physicians can help their patients change their eating behaviors.

Oncology- Judy E. Garber, MD, MPH:
Dr. Garber received her MD and MPH in 1981 from Yale University School of Medicine. She served her internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, followed by fellowships in hematology at BWH, medical oncology at DFCI, and biostatistics at the National Cancer Institute. She joined DFCI as a fellow in 1985, and now works as a medical oncologist and clinical cancer geneticist.

Psychiatry- Ellen Blumenthal, MD:
Dr. Blumenthal is a Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Psychiatry- Malkah T. Notman, MD:
Dr. Notman is a Clinical professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Faculty Development at Cambridge Hospital.

Psychiatry- Margaret S. Ross, MD:
Dr. Margaret S. Ross is an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and is the Associate Director of Outpatient Pychiatry for the Cambridge Health Alliance.

Radiology- Barbara Weissman, MD:
Dr. Weissman is a Professor of Radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Surgery- Barbara Smith, MD, PhD:
Dr. Smith received her BS from MIT and PhD from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, her MD from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. She was an intern and resident in general surgery at Brigham and Women¹s Hospital. She has held surgical oncology positions at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, West Roxbury Medical Center, and Dana Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Smith joined the staff of the Massachusetts General Hospital as director of the Comprehensive Breast Center in 1992. She is also the co-director of the Women's Cancer Program and chair of the Joint Venture Breast Steering Committee at Dana-Farber/Partners CancerCare.