Stefanos N. Kales MD, MPH, FACP, FACOEM

Harvard Medical School & Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

Dr. Stefanos N. Kales is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Professor & Director of the Occupational Medicine Residency at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). He is also Chief of Occupational Medicine/Medical Director for Employee Health at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard-affiliated hospital system. He organized and hosted the groundbreaking 2014 Mediterranean Diet and Workplace Health Conference and he was the Scientific Chair of the landmark 2017 Mediterranean Diet & Health Conference in Greece. Dr. Kales also organized the “Mediterranean Diet: Promotion and Dissemination of Healthy Eating”, a 2019 Exploratory Seminar at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Dr. Kales has participated in a wide range of medical/public health research, advisory and teaching activities on five continents resulting in over 200 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 has received top academic prizes in the field of occupational medicine, including the 2013 Kehoe  Award for Excellence in Education and Research and 2014 Harriet Hardy Award for outstanding scientific  contributions to the field. He has also received honors from the International Association of Fire Chiefs and was  inducted into the Order of Emperor Dom Pedro II by the Federal Corp of Brazilian Military Firefighters. The  team’s latest initiative is an ambitious Mediterranean Diet Intervention trial (“Feeding America’s Bravest: Survival Mediterranean Style) among Midwestern firefighters which is funded by a $1.5 million grant from  the US Department of Homeland Security, which was recently awarded the 2017 Silver Medal for Health  Research by the Oleocanthal International Society.

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, Cyprus, Spain and Italy. 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 Mediterranean nutrition are the most accessible, effective  and valuable means of chronic disease prevention and control. Dr. Kales’ ultimate goal is to use innovative  approaches to disseminate healthy Mediterranean eating in schools, workplaces and hospitals. He is working on  expanding the “Survival Mediterranean Style” initiative to law enforcement and other professions. For example,  as a scientific member of the “Healthy Company” committee at SEAT, the Spanish automobile producer, he is  collaborating on a Mediterranean diet intervention at one of SEAT’s Barcelona plants. Dr. Kales recently co authored the “Textbook of Lifestyle Medicine”, which is forthcoming from Wiley & Sons publishers.