Harvard Health Blog Experts

Marc B. Garnick, M.D., is an internationally renowned expert in medical oncology and urologic cancer. A clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, he also maintains an active clinical practice at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He has dedicated his career to the development of new therapies for the treatment of prostate cancer.

Dr. Garnick is the Editor in Chief of HarvardProstateKnowledge.org and Harvard Medical School’s Annual Report on Prostate Diseases, both of which emerged from his keen interest in explaining issues of medical importance to patients and their families to help them make appropriate treatment choices.

Harvey Simon founded the Harvard Men’s Health Watch in August 1996 and was its editor in chief until retiring in May 2012. Dr. Simon is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Health Sciences Technology Faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A graduate of Yale College and Harvard Medical School, Dr. Simon completed his post-graduate training at the National Institutes of Health and the Massachusetts General Hospital, where he provided primary medical care to patients for more than 30 years. Dr. Simon was a founding member of the Harvard Cardiovascular Health Center. He also served on the Massachusetts Governor’s Committee on Physical Fitness and Sports and was elected to Fellowship in the American College of Physicians.

As author of more than 100 scientific articles and medical textbook chapters, including many on diet and exercise, Dr. Simon has been an active contributor to medical research. He is also committed to medical education, and he was honored to receive the London Prize for Excellence in Teaching from Harvard and MIT.

As the author of many consumer health publications, Dr. Simon is dedicated to informing people about health and medicine. He has written scores of articles for newspapers and magazines ranging from the Boston Globe and Washington Post to Scientific American and Newsweek. He has also authored six health books, including The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men’s Health, Staying Well, Conquering Heart Disease, and The No Sweat Exercise Plan. Dr. Simon has received many national awards for his consumer health writing.

Michael Craig Miller, M.D., was Editor in Chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter from August 2000 to March 2012. Published monthly, the Harvard Mental Health Letter was read widely by professionals and non-professionals alike. Dr. Miller’s writing on mental health topics has appeared in Newsweek, the Boston Globe and in syndicated articles that appear in newspapers nationwide. He has appeared as a commentator on the Today Show, The Martha Stewart Show, ABC News, CNN, and NPR and for media outlets in the Boston area. In practice for more than 30 years, Dr Miller is a member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School and on the medical staff at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Ann MacDonald was the editor of the Harvard Mental Health Letter from October 2007 to January 2012. She has also written several editions of the Harvard Medical School Annual Report on Prostate Disease. Before working at HHP, Ann ran her own medical communications business. Previously, she served as eastern regional director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness. She became interested in mental health after her brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the late 1980s. Ann earned a BA in politics and women’s studies at Brandeis University.

Peter Wehrwein was the editor of the Harvard Health Letter from 1999 to May 2012. He is currently a freelance writer and editor, and contributes to the Harvard Health blog and HarvardProstateKnowledge.org. Before editing the Health Letter, he was editor of the Harvard Public Health Review and director of development communications at the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to working at Harvard, Wehrwein was a reporter for newspapers in Albany, N.Y., Union City, N.J., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Big Lake, Minn. He has written for Newsweek, The Lancet, Managed Care, and the American Academy of Family Physicians. Wehrwein was a journalism fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health in 1993-94. He earned a B.A. in history from Yale University in 1980.

Pat Skerrett is the editor of STAT's First Opinion and host of the First Opinion podcast. He is the former editor of the Harvard Health blog and former Executive Editor of Harvard Health Publishing. Before that, he was editor of the Harvard Heart Letter for ten years. He is the co-author of Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Guide to Healthy Eating, The Fertility Diet, and several other books on health and science. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Popular Science magazine, Science magazine, the Boston Globe, and elsewhere. He earned a B.A. in biology from Northwestern University and an M.A. in biology from Washington University in St. Louis.

Julie Silver, M.D., is the Chief Editor of Books at Harvard Health Publishing and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. She is an award-winning writer who has written many books that focus on healing including After Cancer Treatment: Heal Faster, Better, Stronger and What Helped Get Me Through: Cancer Survivors Share Wisdom and Hope. Her work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The CBS Early Show, The Today Show, Parade, NPR, USA Today, The Boston Globe and Prevention Magazine. Dr. Silver is also the director of an annual 3-day Harvard course that is open to all healthcare providers and others, titled “Publishing Books, Memoirs and Other Creative Nonfiction”. To learn more about Dr. Silver’s work, visit her website at JulieSilverMD.com.

Kay Cahill was editor of Harvard Health Publishing’ Special Health Reports from 1998 to 2012. Before joining Harvard Health, she created content for a variety of media including newspapers, television, books, radio, and electronic publishing. She is author of the American Medical Association’s Complete Guide to Women’s Health and lead writer for the Children’s Hospital Guide to Your Child’s Health and Development. A former consumer reporter  for the Hartford Courant, Connecticut’s largest newspaper, and senior medical editor for Walking Magazine, her writing has also appeared in Consumer Reports on Health, Business Week, the Boston Globe, and aired on National Public Radio, WGBH, Channel 2 in Boston.

Urmila Parlikar is a Associate Director, Digital Health Products at Harvard Health Publishing. She first joined Harvard as a staff writer in 1998. She wrote articles for the Harvard Health newsletters, revised and updated Special Health Reports including Stroke and The Aging Eye, and served as the editor of the Harvard Medical School Family Health Guide Online. More recently, Urmila has worked closely with Dr. Anthony Komaroff on the Ask Doctor K newspaper column. She also develops patient education materials for other HHP projects. She was also Managing Editor at HealthGate Data Corporation where she supervised the creation and updating of online patient education resources. Urmila began her career in the Office of Public Affairs at The Rockefeller University in New York City after earning a master’s degree in science journalism at Boston University.

Julie Corliss is executive editor of the Harvard Heart Letter. Before working at Harvard, she was a medical writer and editor at HealthNews, a consumer newsletter affiliated with The New England Journal of Medicine. She is co-author of Break Through Your Set Point: How to Finally Lose the Weight You Want and Keep it Off. Julie earned a BA in biology from Oberlin College and a master’s certificate in science communication from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Annmarie Dadoly was an editor of Harvard Health Publishing’ Special Health Reports from 2000 to 2012. Before working at HHP, she was the editor of several employee and subscriber publications at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and the news editor of a weekly newspaper in Massachusetts. She has received six journalism awards. Annmarie earned her B.A. in English from the College of the Holy Cross.

Carolyn R. Schatz was the editor of the Harvard Women’s Health Watch from 1999 to May 2012. Before joining HHP, Carolyn developed and produced science and medical stories for NBC News in New York. She received two Television New and Documentary Emmys from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for stories on the brain that aired on NBC. She was a 1990-91 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Carolyn has a B.A. in English from Skidmore College, an M.S. in Broadcast Journalism from Boston University School of Public Communication, and an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Suzanne Rose was the editor of Harvard Health Publishing’ Annual Report on Prostate Disease and its predecessor, Perspectives on Prostate Disease, from 2007 to 2011. She also oversaw the related Web site, www.HarvardProstateKnowledge.org. Before working at Harvard, Suzanne was the communications manager in the Development Office at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, writing articles on science and medicine and editing the hospital’s magazine. She earned a B.A. in English from Carleton College and an M.S. in journalism from Boston University.

Howard LeWine, M.D., is a practicing internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Chief Medical Editor at Harvard Health Publishing, and editor in chief of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.

Lloyd Resnick was editor of the Harvard Heart Letter from August 2011 to May 2012. Before coming to HHP, LLoyd worked for the Massachusetts Medical Society in various capacities, notably as managing editor of HealthNews. A devoted dog aficionado, Lloyd was once the editor of Whole Dog Journal, a still-going-strong newsletter for dog owners.

Mary Pickett, M.D., is is a Lecturer for Harvard Medical School and a Senior Medical Editor for Harvard Health Publishing. She is also an associate professor at Oregon Health & Science University where she is a primary care doctor for adults. She supervises and educates residents in the field of Internal Medicine, for outpatient and hospital care.

Robert H. Shmerling, MD, is the former clinical chief of the division of rheumatology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He served for more than two decades as the Robinson Firm Chief in the teaching program of the BIDMC internal medicine residency. As a practicing rheumatologist for over 30 years, Dr. Shmerling engaged in a mix of patient care, teaching, and research. His practice included challenging patients, both in the clinic and the inpatient consultation service. His research interests center on diagnostic studies in patients with musculoskeletal symptoms, rheumatic, and autoimmune diseases. He has published research regarding infectious arthritis and how well diagnostic tests perform in patients with suspected rheumatic disease. Having retired from patient care in 2019, Dr. Shmerling now works as a senior faculty editor for Harvard Health Publishing.

Nancy Ferrari is Managing Director and Executive Editor at Harvard Health Publishing and a former editor of the Harvard Heart Letter. Before joining Harvard Health, Nancy was Manager of the Clinical Publications Program at Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. She began her work at HPHC as a women’s health writer creating patient education materials for ob/gyn and primary care practices. Nancy’s writing and editing experience includes work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she worked at the Journal of Science, Technology, and Human Values, the MIT Communications Office, and where she edited a conference proceeding on energy and the environment.

Jeff Szymanski, PhD, is the executive director of the International OCD Foundation in Boston, a clinical instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School, and author of The Perfectionist’s Handbook (Wiley, 2011).

Joseph Nowinski, PhD, is a nationally known clinical psychologist with more than 30 years of experience working with individuals and families. With psychologist Barbara Okun, he wrote Saying Goodbye: How Families Can Find Renewal Through Loss; and Almost Alcoholic, written with Robert Doyle, MD.

Martha Herbert, M.D., is an assistant professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School and a pediatric neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she directs the TRANSCEND Research program. She also sits on the advisory committee for Autism Speaks.