Esther Sternberg

Overview:

Dr. Sternberg helps people structure their personal environment to enhance health and well-being and prevent disease. 

She is currently Professor of Medicine and Founding Research Director for the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona at Tucson. She is the Founding Director of the UA Institute on Place and Wellbeing, and holds joint appointments at UA as Professor in Medicine and Psychology.

• Served for 26 years in the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program as Senior Scientist and Section Chief of Neuroendocrine Immunology and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health;
• Was Director of the Integrative Neural Immune Program, NIMH/NIH; Co-Chair of the NIH Intramural Program on Research on Women's Health;
• Chaired the Behavioral Investigators' Review Panel Sub-Committee of the NIH Central Tenure Committee

Author:

• Her best-selling popular books Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-Being and The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions are highly readable, informative, and scientifically based inspirations for lay persons and professionals alike who seek answers to the complexities and 21st century frontiers of stress, place, healing, and wellness.
• Her book Healing Spaces was recognized by the President of the American Institute of Architects as an inspiration for launching the AIA's Design and Health Initiative.
• Her numerous original scientific and review articles and textbook chapters are published in leading scientific journals including Science, Nature Reviews Immunology, Nature Medicine, The New England Journal of Medicine, Scientific American and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Television and Radio Shows:

• In 2009, with Emmy Award winning Resolution Pictures, Dr. Sternberg created and hosted a PBS Television special based on her books: The Science of Healing.
• Dr. Sternberg has been featured on numerous radio and television shows, including PBS's The New Medicine; Life Part II; NPR and Krista Tippett's "Speaking of Faith" and "On Being."

Expertise:

• Dr. Esther M. Sternberg lectures nationally and internationally to lay and scientific audiences and is frequently interviewed on radio, television, film, Web, and print media on the mind-body connection; place and wellbeing; 'stress and illness'; spirituality, love, and health.

National Institutes of Health:

• While at the National Institute of Health (NIH), Dr. Sternberg served as Chief of the Section on Neuroendocrine Immunology & Behavior, National Institute of Mental Health; Director, Integrative Neural Immune Program, NIMH/NIH; Co-Chair NIH Intramural Program on Research on Women's Health; and established and directed the NIH-Quebec Fonds de Recherche International Research Career Transition Award Program.

Lectures and Keynotes:

• Dr. Sternberg has lectured and keynoted at the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, D.C.); Nobel Forum (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm); Royal Society of Medicine (London, UK); Woman's Heart Day (Madison Square Garden NYC & Verizon Center Washington, DC), TEDx Tucson.
• She has chaired many national and international scientific conferences; is past-President of the International Society for Neuroimmunomodulation; moderated a panel with the Dalai Lama (2005); was a panelist at the United Nations (Sept. 11, 2008); co-directed a concurrent NLM Exhibition and video on "Emotions and Disease"; invited delegate Fortune Magazine's Most Powerful Women Summit.

International Recognition - from NIH to the Vatican: 

For her accomplishments, which galvanized establishment of the field of brain immune interactions, Dr. Sternberg is recognized and the National Library of Medicine as one of 300 women physicians who changed the Face of Medicine, and by NIH with the Anita B. Roberts "Distinguished Women Scientists at NIH" Lectureship (2012).

In recognition of her contributions to medicine & leadership in Neuroimmunology, Trinity College Dublin (Ireland) awarded Dr. Sternberg an Honorary Degree of Doctor in Medicine (Doctorate Honoris Causa) on the 300th anniversary of Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine.

For her leadership at the interface of the fields of design and health she is advising the US Green Building Council, the American Institute of Architects, the US General Services Administration, the Institute of Medicine and the US Department of Defense on the impact of the built and natural environment on human health outcomes.

In 2012 she was invited to keynote the Vatican's 27th Pontifical Council for Healthcare Workers and met with Pope Benedict XVI on the subject of the impact of Place on Wellbeing and Spirituality.

(Photo of Dr. Sternberg courtesy of Kris Hanning, Tucson Lifestyle magazine)