Esther M Sternberg

Biography

Internationally recognized design and health and mind-body science pioneer, Dr. Esther Sternberg’s research takes mind-body science from molecules to the built and natural environment. It informs clinical applications of integrative medicine and practical ways to reduce stress and optimize wellbeing through lifestyle actions and design. Dr. Sternberg is Research Director, Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine and Founding Director of the University of Arizona Institute on Place, Wellbeing & Performance, which links the AWCIM, and UArizona’s Colleges of Medicine; Architecture Planning & Landscape Architecture; Engineering; Science; and others. She holds the Inaugural Andrew Weil Chair for Research in Integrative Medicine and is Professor of Medicine with joint appointments in Psychology, Architecture, and Planning & Landscape Architecture, and College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Nutritional Sciences and Wellness.  Formerly Senior Scientist and Section Chief in the National Institutes of Health Intramural Research Program (1986-2012) and founding member of the American Institute of Architects’ Design and Health Leadership Group and Research Consortium, Dr. Sternberg has advised NIH leadership, the U.S. Surgeon General, the U.S. General Services Administration, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Green Building Council, Australian Green Building Council, National Science Foundation’s International Network of Networks for Well-being In the Built Environment, and the Vatican on design and health. Previously a member of the International WELL Building Institute’s Task Force on COVID-19, and Co-Chair of IWBI’s Health Equity Standard Advisory, she is currently a member of the IWBI Research Advisory. Her Wellbuilt for Wellbeing research with the U.S. General Services Administration, using wearable devices to track health and wellbeing in the built environment, is informing healthy design standards and COVID re-entry design across the federal government. Her expertise in research on designing for wellbeing extends across many building types, including office spaces, university buildings and campuses, nature/green spaces, healthcare facilities, and older adult living communities. Dr. Sternberg has testified before Congress and has received the Federal Government’s highest awards, including the Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service Superior Service Award and the FDA Commissioner’s Special Citation, for her role in leading the NIH-CDC-FDA team that elucidated the cause of the 1989 L-Tryptophan Eosinophilia Myalgia Syndrome Epidemic. She was recognized by the National Library of Medicine as one of the women who “Changed the Face of Medicine” and served as member and Chair of NLM’s Board of Regents. Among other honors, she was presented to Pope Benedict XVI, moderated a panel with the Dalai Lama, and received an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine from Trinity College, Dublin on its 300^th Anniversary. She received her M.D. from McGill University and trained in internal medicine and rheumatology at the Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Canada. She has authored over 240 scholarly articles, including guidelines for an “Integrative Health Framework for Wellbeing in the Built Environment” in Building & Environment, and has edited 10 technical books. She co-created and hosted a PBS Television Special, The Science of Healing with Dr. Esther Sternberg, and is frequently interviewed in the lay media, including a recent appearance on CBS 60 Minutes Overtime. Sternberg’s third science-for-the-lay public book, WELL at WORK: Creating wellbeing in any workspace (Little Brown, due Sept. 2023) is based on scientific research and her own personal experiences. The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions, (Holt, 2000) and Healing Spaces: The Science of Place and Well-being (HUP, 2009), have been translated into numerous languages and reveal how people can find finding healing through mind body science, integrative lifestyle, and healing environments. Healing Spaces helped ignite the design and health movement’s re-birth, 21^st century style. Her new book, WELL at WORK: Creating wellbeing in any workspace (Little Brown, Spark), (Sept. 2023), takes the research to the post-COVID era and is listed as Publishers Weekly Top Ten Lifestyle books for Fall 2023.

Degrees

• M.D.C.M.
• McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• B.S. with Great Distinction
• McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada