Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

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.

Julie Corliss is the 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.

Jennifer Crystal is the Senior Writer and Patient Experience Representative for the Lyme Wellness Initiative. She holds a BA from Middlebury College and an MFA from Emerson College, and has completed a summer of study at the Bread Loaf School of English and a workshop in narrative medicine at Columbia University.

Dr. Gregory Curfman is Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of Harvard Health Publishing. He is also on the affiliated faculty of Harvard Law School. Before joining Harvard Health Publishing, Dr. Curfman was the Executive Editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, which has the highest impact factor of any medical journal. Dr. Curfman is board certified in internal medicine and cardiology. He earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and trained in internal medicine and cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He directed the Coronary Care Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Cardiovascular Health Center, a heart disease prevention program at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Shinjita Das, MD is a board-certified dermatologist and Instructor in Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. She completed her undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a BS in Biology. Dr. Das returned to her home state of Texas for medical school at the University of Southwestern Medical Center, where she was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. After internship in Dallas, she ventured back to Boston for residency at the Harvard Combined Dermatology Residency Training Program, where she served in leadership positions on the Quality Improvement and Program Education committees. She is currently pursuing her Master in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.   In addition to practicing general dermatology, Dr. Das serves as the MGH Department of Dermatology’s inaugural Technology Director. In this capacity, she spear-headed the expansion of the department’s electronic consult (eConsult) service to provide timely outpatient dermatology consultations. She also developed the dermatology eVisit program to allow established patients to have formal check-ins with their dermatologist in-between office visits. As Technology Director, Dr. Das leads and implements operational projects and patient education initiatives using technology-based solutions. Her current research is focused on evaluating ways technology can improve access to high-quality dermatologic care in an efficient manner.

Emma Davies, MD, has a broad-base of clinical interests to effectively manage patients with corneal and lenticular pathology. She is specialized in complex cataract surgery, partial thickness corneal transplantation including Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK) and Descemet Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK), and refractive surgery. As a full-time member of the Cornea and Refractive Surgery Service at Mass. Eye and Ear, she offers exceptional, personalized, and detailed care both in the clinical and surgical settings. She has practices at the Mass. Eye and Ear Main Campus, Mass. Eye and Ear Longwood Campus, and Mass. Eye and Ear Waltham sites.    Dr. Davies earned her bachelor of science in biology with a concentration in marine biology at Duke University. She fulfilled an honors thesis with research in the chemical and visual orientation of estuarine crustaceans. She completed her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Davies was granted a Clinical Neuroscience Research Grant to complete research in ganglion cell loss after optic neuritis in multiple sclerosis patients. She was awarded the University of Pennsylvania Ophthalmology Excellence Award at medical school graduation for her work. She completed her medical internship at the Pennsylvania Hospital in the University of Pennsylvania Health Care System. Dr. Davies went on to join the Harvard Ophthalmology residency program at Mass. Eye and Ear. She was awarded the Best Resident Research Award in Cornea and Refractive Surgery at Mass. Eye and Ear for her work in changing trends in herpes zoster ophthalmicus (HZO) presentation. She continued at Mass. Eye and Ear for her fellowship in Cornea, Refractive Surgery, and External Diseases. She completed work in surgical outcomes for a variety of complex cataract surgery procedures, including scleral-fixated lens placement and cataract surgery in retinitis pigmentosa patients, and investigated predictive factors for corneal clearance after Descemet’s membrane stripping only for patients with Fuchs Endothelial Dystrophy. Dr. Davies brings cutting-edge diagnostic procedures and surgical techniques to her practice at Mass Eye and Ear. She trained with Dr. Pineda for complex cataract surgery techniques (including intra-scleral fixation of a lens after trauma or vitreoretinal surgery) and Dr. Veldman for DMEK techniques (including pre-loaded DMEK grafts) and is eager to continue to expand our advances in corneal and refractive surgery.     As a clinician scientist, Dr. Davies has published a number of studies regarding complex cataract surgery outcomes and techniques as well as the management of complicated corneal infections, including corneal ulcers, infections after keratoprosthesis, and herpes zoster ophthalmicus. She is the author of the corneal ulcer algorithm that has standardized care of corneal ulcers in the Mass. Eye and Ear Emergency Room. She has also published multiple studies regarding state-of-the-art treatments for Fuchs corneal dystrophy patients, particularly Descemet’s membrane stripping without endothelial keratoplasty (DWEK). She currently is studying rho kinase inhibitor impact on corneal clearance after DWEK. 

Paul F. Dellaripa is a rheumatologist and internist at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. At BWH, he specializes in lung disorders associated with autoimmune diseases. He participates in clinical trials and clinical investigation to better understand and treat these disorders.

Anne Densmore, Ed.D., is a certified speech pathologist as well as a speech and play therapist. She as also the author of Your Successful Preschooler, a Harvard Health Publishing book published by Jossey-Bass (2011).

Dr. Neelam Desai is a breast medical oncologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She is also a member of the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center, and is an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. Her research interests are in cancer genetics and HER2-positive breast cancer.

Dr. Nisa Desai is a practicing hospitalist physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School. She completed undergraduate education at Northwestern University, followed by medical school at the University of Illinois at Chicago and internal medicine residency at the University of Virginia. She enjoys working with patients with complex medical histories, and is interested in gastrointestinal disorders. For fun, she enjoys traveling, fitness classes, and trying new recipes.

Dr. Jorg Dietrich (MD, PhD, MMSc, FANA, FAAN) is the director of the Cancer & Neurotoxicity Clinic and Brain Repair Research Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center, associate professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, and attending physician at MGH. His clinical interests are management of patients with benign and malignant brain tumors, and neurologic complications of cancer therapy, including toxicity from radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapies. His research activities include clinical, translational, and basic research in the fields of brain tumor biology, biomarkers of cancer, neurotoxicity from cancer therapies, and brain repair mechanisms. Dr. Dietrich is the author of over 150 publications, including original research articles, review papers, book chapters, and other scientific contributions. His work has been supported by the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the American Academy of Neurology, and other foundations.

Amy Desrochers DiVasta MD, MMSc, is chief of the division of adolescent medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is the co-director of the adolescent long-acting reversible contraception program, and co-director of the reproductive endocrinology and PCOS program. Dr. DiVasta's research interests include the bone health of young women with low-estrogen states, such as girls with eating disorders, as well as reproductive health issues including long-acting contraception, PCOS, and endometriosis. Dr. DiVasta is also the co-scientific director for the Boston Center for Endometriosis, a joint project between Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Dr. Jake Dockterman is from Carlisle, MA and earned his bachelor’s degree in molecular and cellular biology from Harvard College. He completed his MD and PhD in immunology at Duke University, studying host-microbe interactions and mucosal immunology. He is now an internal medicine resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and plans on pursuing a career as an academic gastroenterologist specializing in inflammatory bowel disease.

Dr. Sara W. Dong is a combined adult and pediatric infectious diseases fellow at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital. She earned her MD from the Medical University of South Carolina. She completed her internal medicine and pediatrics residency and chief residency at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Her academic interests include transplant and global health.

Darshan Doshi, MD, is an interventional cardiologist who specializes in complex and high-risk coronary interventions. Dr. Doshi received his BA from Columbia University’s Columbia College and his MD from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. He completed his internal medicine residency, and his cardiovascular medicine and interventional cardiology fellowships at the Columbia University Medical Center. Dr. Doshi also underwent additional dedicated training at Columbia in complex and high-risk interventional procedures. He was then recruited to the faculty in the Division of Cardiology at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 2018. Dr. Doshi also holds a MS in patient-oriented research from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health with a research interest focused on clinical trials evaluating novel cardiovascular devices and therapeutics in interventional cardiology. He has authored several original manuscripts in translational and clinical cardiovascular medicine, and has published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, and Circulation, among many others.

Michelle Dossett, MD, PhD, MPH is an assistant physician and clinical researcher at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She board-certified in both internal medicine and integrative medicine. She received her MD and PhD in immunology from the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. She completed her internship and residency in internal medicine and research fellowship in complementary and integrative medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. During her fellowship she received a MPH degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Dossett is also a certified Ananda Yoga (RYT 200), restorative yoga, and meditation teacher. Dr. Dossett’s research interests include mind body medicine, the patient-clinician relationship, and clinician well-being. 

Dr. Caleb Dresser is an emergency physician and assistant director of the Climate and Human Health Fellowship, cohosted by Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, the Harvard FXB Center, and Harvard C-CHANGE. His research focuses on understanding the health implications of climate-related disasters, and he is actively involved in efforts to educate health care workers, policymakers, and the general public about the value of action to protect human health in the context of the climate crisis.

Valeria Duque graduated with her doctor of audiology degree from Northeastern University in 2016. She has been a part of the Beth Israel otolaryngology team since February 2019, working with patients diagnosing hearing loss, fitting hearing aids, and conducting vestibular evaluations.

is a maternal-fetal medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital where he leads his department’s efforts in quality and safety and is a professor at Harvard Medical School. He is the current chair of the Committee on Obstetric Practice for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

Dr. Edwards is a licensed clinical psychologist in the Pain Management Center at Brigham & Women’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School. He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham, completing a Ph.D. in Medical Psychology and a Master’s in Public Health. He then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pain Psychology at Johns Hopkins, before joining the faculty in Psychiatry there. He moved to Brigham & Women’s Hospital in 2008. Dr. Edwards functions in a clinical capacity as a psychologist at the BWH Pain Management Center, where his responsibilities include assessment and treatment of chronic pain patients referred to the Pain Center. He screens for candidacy for opioid therapy and implantable devices and offers behavioral medicine services such as biofeedback for pain management. He mentors junior faculty members in several Departments and institutions, he has published numerous scientific articles, reviews, and book chapters on pain, and he serves on the editorial boards of several pain and psychology journals. Dr. Edwards’ research focuses on biobehavioral aspects of acute and chronic pain. Specifically, he studies individual differences in pain responses, and the neurobiological mechanisms by which psychosocial processes shape those individual differences. Some of his current NIH-funded work focuses on the impact of pain-related catastrophizing on neuroendocrine and inflammatory responses to pain, as well as individual differences in central nervous system pain processing, and their implications for long-term pain-related outcomes. He is involved in several studies that use functional neuroimaging techniques to assess the neurobiology of pain-related thoughts and emotions. In addition, his research group is working in the area of predicting and preventing misuse of opioids by patients with persistent pain.

Dr. Andrew Eidelberg is a third-year internal medicine resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. After graduating from the University of Miami and Weill Cornell Medical College, he decided to pursue a career in gastroenterology, specifically inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). He is passionate about the intersection of LGBTQ+ sexual health and how it relates to gastrointestinal conditions to provide holistic and affirming care to all patients.