Arianne Shadi Kourosh, MD, MPH

Arianne Shadi Kourosh, MD, MPH, is a board certified dermatologist and associate professor of dermatology at Harvard Medical School. She is a graduate of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, where she received the institution's awards in leadership, outstanding professionalism, and humanism as a physician.

Dr. Kourosh is committed to patient advocacy and solving public health problems for patients with skin disease. She developed the Skin Advocate iPhone app, a free iPhone application that connects patients with patient advocacy organizations for their skin conditions. She has published and been recognized in the news and many publications, and served as editor in chief of Dialogues in Dermatology, the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD)’s official podcast and internationally subscribed educational program for physicians.

Dr. Kourosh serves as the dermatology department’s director of community health, providing access to dermatologic care for underserved communities. She is the founding director of the Clinic for Pigmentary Disorders at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), and the founder and director of the Radiance Clinic, MGH’s pro-bono tattoo removal program, assisting those seeking to escape gangs and human trafficking to be safe and reintegrate into society, which has won national awards for its impact. She also advocates for patients at the national level in the AAD’s delegation to Congress to protect medical research and affordable care for patients with skin disease.

Dr. Kourosh’s research at the intersection of dermatology and public health — including her pioneering work on Zoom dysmorphia, climate justice in the impacts of pollution on skin diseases and aging (especially in vulnerable populations), and on the skin signs of human trafficking — has reached national and international impact, and has been featured on Today, The Daily Show, PBS, Fox News, and Boston Globe Media, and in Oprah magazine, Reader’s Digest, Good Housekeeping, Consumer Reports, Allure, Harvard Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Wired magazine, among numerous others, and for which she has been a featured speaker at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Dr. Kourosh has won numerous awards, including Massachusetts General Hospital's Clinician-Teacher Award, Harvard Medical School's Dean's Community Service Award, the Ernesto Gonzalez Award for outstanding service to the Latino Community, and Boston's Top Doctors. In 2020 she received the AAD's Presidential Citation for outstanding service during the COVID-19 crisis. In 2022 and 2023, she received Presidential Citations from both the American Academy of Dermatology and the American Society for Medicine and Surgery, for her leadership of a national task force and multiple initiatives in the medical community to aid those affected by human trafficking, and she has been named one of Medscape's 25 Rising Stars in Medicine.