Dr. Stanford is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics who practices and teaches at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)/ Harvard Medical School (HMS) as one of the first fellowship-trained obesity medicine physicians worldwide. She is among the most highly cited obesity medicine physician-scientists, with over 200 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as an MLK Scholar, her MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, her MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government as a Zuckerman Fellow in the Harvard Center for Public Leadership and her executive MBA as a merit-based scholarship recipient from the Quantic School of Business and Technology. She completed her Obesity Medicine & Nutrition Fellowship at MGH/HMS after completing her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina. She has served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completing her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor Congress bestows upon America's youth.
Dr. Stanford has completed a medicine and media internship at the Discovery Channel. An American Medical Association (AMA) Foundation Leadership Award recipient in 2005 and an AMA Paul Ambrose Award for national leadership among resident physicians in 2009, she was selected for the AMA Inspirational Physician Award in 2015. The American College of Physicians (ACP) selected her as the 2013 Joseph E. Johnson Leadership Award recipient, and the Massachusetts ACP selected her for the Young Leadership Award in 2015. She is the 2017 recipient of the HMS Amos Diversity Award and the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) Award for Women's Health. In 2019, she was selected as the Suffolk District Community Clinician of the Year for the Reducing Health Disparities Award for MMS. She was chosen for The Obesity Society Clinician of the Year in 2020. In 2021, she was awarded the MMS Grant Rodkey Award for her dedication to medical students and the AMA Dr. Edmond and Rima Cabbabe Dedication to the Profession Award, which recognizes a physician who demonstrates active and productive improvement to the profession of medicine through community service, advocacy, leadership, teaching, or philanthropy. She is the 2021 Recipient of the Emory Rollins School of Public Health Distinguished Alumni Award. In 2022, the National Academy of Medicine selected her as a Scholar in Diagnostic Excellence. She was named to the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Agriculture (USDA). The National Medical Association selected her for the Meritorious Award, which recognizes a physician with national and international achievement and prominence for exceptional work in medical service, medical research, and academic medicine.
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Mass General Digestive Healthcare Center: Weight Center
50 Staniford St.
4th Floor
Boston, MA 02114
Phone: 617-726-4400
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Dr. Stanford has research interests in obesity, health policy, and health disparities. Her research has focused on the long term benefits of physical activity in a large cohort, the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study. In addition, she studied whether medical students and physicians meet the US Department of Health & Human Services Guidelines in physical activity and what implications this has on guiding patients to be physically active.
In a manuscript published on individuals’ weight perception and its influence on consideration for bariatric surgery, she found that adult patients with weight discordance were less likely to consider weight loss surgery as a treatment option. Concurrently, she investigated whether race influenced the likelihood of undergoing bariatric surgery in patients referred for this intervention, and she found that while persons of low socioeconomic status were less likely to proceed with weight loss surgery, race did not appear to play a role.
Subsequently, she conducted a study on the role of obesity training on the knowledge of bariatric surgery in primary care physicians, and found that physicians who were young, had obesity, or received obesity education in medical school or postgraduate training were more likely to answer bariatric surgery knowledge questions correctly. However, there were still significant deficits in primary care physicians’ knowledge of bariatric surgery for adult patients.
Her current work focuses on the use of pharmacotherapy for patients who have undergone weight loss surgery, policy surrounding obesity coverage in the US and abroad, shared decision making in obesity therapy, weight bias and stigma, and treatment of children, adolescents, and adults with obesity.
