Stefanos N. Kales | Harvard Medical School & Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

Dr. Kales is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Associate Professor & Director of the Occupational Medicine Residency at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). He is co-director and co-founder of the Initiative for Productivity and Health Management, which organized and hosted the groundbreaking 2014 Mediterranean Diet and Workplace Health Conference. Dr. Kales is also the Chief of Occupational & Environmental Medicine /Medical Director for Employee Health at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard-affiliated hospital system.

Dr. Kales has participated in a wide range of medical/public health research, advisory and teaching activities on five continents resulting in over 125 publications and wide recognition nationally and internationally. He serves on the editorial boards of several biomedical journals and is a faculty member in Harvard’s Cardiovascular Epidemiology Program, a multidisciplinary heart disease prevention collaboration, and Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine.
Dr. Kales was the 2013 recipient of the Kehoe Award for Excellence in Education and Research from the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM), and the 2014 winner of the distinguished Harriet Hardy award from the New England College of Occupational & Environmental Medicine. Both awards are presented annually to an individual who has made outstanding scientific contributions to the field. These two lifetime achievement awards recognize Dr. Kales’ many significant contributions, in particular, his large body of work dedicated to better understanding and preventing heart disease in public safety personnel like firefighters. The team’s latest initiative is an ambitious Mediterranean Diet Intervention trial among firefighters funded by the US Department of Homeland Security.
Dr. Kales grew up around traditional Greek foods prepared by his beloved grandmother in the family kitchen and expanded these formative experiences through extensive travels in Greece and Cyprus. As a health educator, he seeks to lead by example; following a Mediterranean diet, practicing regular physical fitness and good sleep hygiene. Based on his combined medical and public health training, his research and clinical practice, he is convinced that lifestyle measures like diet are the most accessible, effective and valuable means of chronic disease prevention and control.