Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

Gayle Lang, OTR/L, CHT, MS

Contributor

Gayle Lang is an occupational therapist with a specialty certification in hand therapy. She graduated with a master's degree in occupational therapy from Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehab Sciences. She has been working primarily at Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH) since 1996, in both the inpatient acute care and outpatient hand therapy settings. She became a Certified Hand Therapist in 2007, and currently works at BWH's hand therapy clinic in Foxborough, MA.

Helene Langevin, MD

Contributor

Dr. Langevin received an MD degree from McGill University, completed a post doctoral research fellowship in Neurochemistry at the MRC Neurochemical Pharmacology Unit in Cambridge, England, residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She is a Professor in Residence of Medicine and Director of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She is also a Visiting Professor of Neurological Sciences at the University of Vermont College of Medicine. Dr. Langevin has been the Principal Investigator of several NIH-funded studies investigating the role of connective tissue in low back pain and the mechanisms of acupuncture, manual and movement-based therapies. Her previous studies in humans and animal models have shown that mechanical tissue stimulation during both tissue stretch and acupuncture causes dynamic cellular responses in connective tissue. Her current work focuses on the effects of stretching on inflammation resolution mechanisms within connective tissue, and their relevance to chronic musculoskeletal pain and cancer.

Debi LaPlante, PhD

Contributor

Dr. Debi LaPlante is director of the division on addiction at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. She joined the division in 2001 and is involved with its diverse research, education, training, and outreach activities. With her colleagues, she developed the syndrome model of addiction, and co-edited the two volume APA Addiction Syndrome Handbook. She has authored dozens of book chapters, journal articles, and reports. Dr. LaPlante authored the Harvard Health Publishing ebook Responsible Drinking for Women. Dr. LaPlante’s current research involves assessments of public health treatment and intervention systems, studies of actual gambling and daily fantasy sports behavior, and tribal participatory research to develop a culturally grounded, mental health first-response training program, xaʔtu̓s (Salish for First Face) for Mental Health. In addition to these activities, Dr. LaPlante is a member of the editorial team for the division’s The Brief Addiction Science Information Source. She also has been a course director for online and live continuing education courses for addiction, and for gambling-related problems specifically. Dr. LaPlante is a regular reviewer for research grants and academic journal submissions. She spearheaded the division’s Cambridge Health Alliance Readiness for Gambling Expansion initiative, which features Gambling Disorder Screening Day on the second Tuesday of March annually.

Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA

Contributor

Nicole J. LeBlanc is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Harvard University, where she conducts research on the association between social factors and the development and maintenance of emotional disorders. She is also a clinical fellow in the department of psychology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she is completing clinical and research training with the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Program and the Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders. Her clinical interests include empirically-supported treatments for anxiety and traumatic stress disorders. She is a member of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT) and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA).

Erica H. Lee, PhD

Contributor

Erica H. Lee, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and associate training director of the psychology internship program at Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as an instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School. She specializes in evidence-based and culturally responsive care for youth with depression, anxiety, disruptive behavior, and traumatic stress. Dr. Lee also teaches on these topics nationally and internationally, and engages in research on increasing access to mental health care.

Dara K. Lee Lewis, MD

Contributor; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Dara Lee Lewis is a full-time cardiologist, director of imaging, and co-director of the women’s program at the Lown Cardiovascular Center. Her clinical interests include cardiac physiology, echocardiography, and heart disease in women. She is an associate physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also co-directs, teaches, and develops curriculum for the first-year Harvard Medical School cardiology, physiology, and pathophysiology course. Dr. Lee Lewis earned her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, and completed her residency in internal medicine and fellowship in cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Anthony Lembo, MD

Contributor

Anthony Lembo, MD, is Director of the GI Motility and Functional Bowel Disorders Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston, MA. Dr. Lembo earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston and completed his residency in medicine, as well as fellowships in gastroenterology and gastrointestinal motility and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), at the University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) Medical Center. Dr. Lembo’s research interests focus on the burden of and treatment options for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and chronic constipation, and he also studies the placebo response. He has published widely on these topics, He is also an Associate Editor of the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology and Digestive Diseases and Science. He also been appointed numerous national and international leadership positions throughout his tenure.

Inga Lennes, MD, MPH, MBA

Contributor

Inga T. Lennes MD, MPH, MBA grew up in the midwest and came to the east coast for college. She attended Mount Holyoke College for her undergraduate degree and went on to attend the University of Massachusetts Medical School for her medical degree. Dr. Lennes completed her internal medicine residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and also was a Chief Medical Resident at BIDMC. She trained as a Hematology and Oncology Fellow in the Dana Farber/Mass General Brigham Cancer Care Fellowship. Dr. Lennes is a medical oncologist in the Center for Thoracic Cancers and specializes in seeing all lung cancers and esophageal cancer. She is the founder and director of the Pulmonary Nodule Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital and works closely with colleagues to study and implement lung cancer screening and improve nodule management. Dr. Lennes is the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization Senior Vice President for Service Excellence and Practice Improvement.

Maureen Leonard, MD, MMSc

Contributor

Dr. Maureen Leonard is the clinical director of the Center For Celiac Research And Treatment at Massachusetts General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) and an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School (HMS). She sees adult and pediatric patients with celiac disease, non-celiac gluten sensitivity, and other gluten-related disorders. Dr. Leonard obtained her medical degree from New York Medical College, completed her residency in general pediatrics at Tufts Medical Center and her fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at MGHfC. Dr. Leonard received a master’s degree in clinical and translational investigation from HMS. Dr. Leonard’s research is focused on predicting and preventing celiac disease through the NIH-funded Celiac Disease; Genomic, Environment, Microbiome and Metabolomic Study. Dr. Leonard’s other work includes identifying biomarkers that can predict intestinal healing in pediatric patients with celiac disease; building translational models capable of predicting autoimmune disease in high risk individuals; and working with industry collaborators to create and perform clinical trials aimed at treating celiac disease. Dr. Leonard currently holds funding from the NIH, and has previously been funded by the NIH, the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard, and the Thrasher Research Foundation.

Hallie Levine

Health Writer

Hallie Levine is an award-winning health and medical journalist whose work has been published in The New York Times, Consumer Reports, Oprah, and WebMD, among others. She lives with her three children and gregarious yellow labrador in Fairfield, CT.

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH

Contributor

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH is a board certified Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrician and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is the Director of the Adolescent Substance use and Addiction Program (ASAP) in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, which is comprised of clinical, research, training and policy arms. Dr. Levy has evaluated and treated thousands of adolescents with substance use disorders, and has taught national curricula and published extensively on the outpatient management of substance use disorders in adolescents, including screening and brief advice in primary care, the use of drug testing and the outpatient management of opioid dependent adolescents. She is the past chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Substance Use and Prevention, the President of the Association for Medical Education and Research in Substance Abuse (AMERSA) and serves on the board of directors of the Addiction Medicine Fellowship Director’s Association.

Howard E. LeWine, MD

Chief Medical Editor, Harvard Health Publishing; Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

Dr. Howard LeWine is a practicing internist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Chief Medical Editor at Harvard Health Publishing, and editor in chief of Harvard Men’s Health Watch.

Elizabeth Liebson, MD

Contributor

Elizabeth Liebson, MD, is a staff psychiatrist on the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorders Unit at Mclean Hospital and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. She divides her time between clinical work and teaching residents and medical students. Dr. Liebson’s clinical focus is assessment of first psychotic episodes and exploring patients’ subjective experiences. Dr. Liebson has been on staff at McLean Hospital since 2006. While primarily a clinician, Dr. Liebson has experience as an investigator in several disciplines relevant to clinical neuroscience research, including nosology and clinical pharmacology.

John Sanford Limouze, MD

Contributor

Dr. John Limouze is associate chief of the Division of Hospitalist Medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, a lecturer in Medicine at Harvard Medical School and a Master’s Student at Harvard’s Center for Bioethics. He is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of Michigan. His academic interests include medical professionalism, conscience, and providing care to vulnerable populations.

Jennifer Lin, MD

Contributor

Jennifer Lin, MD, co-directs the Melanoma Risk and Prevention Clinic, and the Multicultural Dermatology clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She also is the Dermatology Lead of the Melanoma Program at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. She has authored several papers related to melanoma as well as on lasers and light-based therapies. Dr. Lin received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She completed her residency at the Harvard Residency Program, and completed her fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Kristina Liu, MD, MHS

Contributor

Kristina Liu, MD, MHS, is a dermatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she serves as the director of the vitiligo clinic and director of dermatology simulation education. She received her medical degree and masters in health science from Yale School of Medicine, and completed her residency at the Harvard Combined Dermatology Program, where she served as chief resident. Her clinical and research interests include laser and cosmetic dermatology, pigmentary disorders of the skin, and medical education.

Victor A. Lopez-Carmen, MPH

Guest Contributor

Victor A. Lopez-Carmen, MPH, is a Dakota and Yaqui writer, health advocate, and student at Harvard Medical School. He is currently a member of Boston’s COVID-19 Health Inequities Task Force, and cochair of the UN Global Indigenous Youth Caucus. His commentary on minority health has been featured in the BBC, The Boston Globe, Teen Vogue, and the UN News Centre.

Kevin R. Loughlin, MD, MBA

Contributor

Kevin R. Loughlin, MD, MBA, received an AB from Princeton University, MD from New York Medical College, MBA from Boston University, and MA (honorary) from Harvard University. He practiced urology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for 35 years, receiving an AUA research award while in training. He received the Alumni Medal of Honor from New York Medical College, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the New England Section of the AUA, and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Urological Association. He received the faculty teaching award on three occasions. He was a trustee of the American Board of Urology and a member of the board of directors of the American Urological Association. He has published over 250 articles in the medical literature, has been an author or editor of 12 books, and has served on multiple medical journal editorial boards.

Vasanti Malik, ScD

Contributor

Vasanti Malik, ScD., is a Research Scientist in the Department of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She obtained a MSc. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Toronto and a dual doctorate in Nutrition and Epidemiology from the Harvard Chan School. Her research focuses on evaluating risk factors for obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease with an emphasis on diet quality. Dr. Malik also studies nutritional drivers of the global obesity and diabetes epidemics in countries undergoing epidemiologic transition and currently directs the Global Nutrition and Epidemiologic Transition Initiative; a collaborative project with 13 low- and- middle income countries that aims to reduce diabetes risk by improving diet and lifestyle. She is an Associate Editor for BMC Obesity and a Review Editor for Frontiers in Public Health. The ultimate goal of Dr. Malik’s work is to inform future large-scale community-based interventions and policy strategies to reduce the risk of obesity and related chronic diseases nationally and globally.

Anant Mandawat, MD

Contributing Editor

Dr. Anant Mandawat has been a medical columnist for several years translating scientific papers for the public. He graduated with a MD with honors from Yale. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School, and is currently a cardiology fellow at Duke. His research interests are in clinical and economic outcomes for the elderly using large datasets. He has multiple publications in the field and has received the Marvin Moser Award and Bechtel Award for his research.

Nandini Mani, MD

Contributing Editor

Dr. Nandini Mani is a Hospitalist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and an Instructor in Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Mani is board-certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. Her clinical interests include Hospital Quality Improvement, Healthcare Disparities, and International Health. She is dedicated to teaching both medical students and resident physicians in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, and has received an Ambulatory Teaching Award from the MGH Med-Peds residents. She earned her medical degree from the Penn State College of Medicine, and completed her Med-Peds residency at the University of Rochester.

Brad Manor, PhD

Contributor

Brad Manor is an associate scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research; the associate director of the Mobility and Falls Translational Research Center; director of the Mobility and Brain Function Lab; and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Dr. Manor’s career goal is to alleviate the burden of balance decline that often accompanies biological aging into senescence. As the director of the Mobility and Falls Program, he works to achieve this goal by directing interdisciplinary, translational research in the fields of human balance and rehabilitative medicine. His research combines biomechanical assessments of human movement with advanced medical imaging, noninvasive brain stimulation, and nonlinear signal processing techniques to identify the link between brain function, balance and falls in older adults; and design rehabilitative interventions that improve balance via optimization of brain function and exploitation of its adaptive properties.

JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH

Editorial Advisory Board Member, Harvard Health Publishing

JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH, MACP, is professor of medicine and the Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women’s Health at Harvard Medical School; professor in the department of epidemiology at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; chief of the division of preventive medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and scientific advisor to the BWH Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology. Dr. Manson is a physician epidemiologist, endocrinologist, and principal investigator (PI) or co-PI of several research studies, including the Women’s Health Initiative Clinical Center In Boston; the cardiovascular disease (CVD) component of the Nurses’ Health Study; the VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL); the COSMOS trial; and the VItamin D for COVID-19 (VIVID) trial. Her primary research interests include randomized clinical prevention trials of nutritional and lifestyle factors related to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer; the role of endogenous and exogenous estrogens as determinants of chronic disease; life course–related risk factors for cardiometabolic outcomes in women; and biomarker predictors of CVD.

Dieter Manstein, MD, PhD

Contributor

Dieter Manstein, MD, PhD, completed his PhD in Physics, in addition to his dermatology residency training at the University of Munster in Germany. He then completed a Clinical Applications of Laser fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School with Dr. R. Rox Anderson. During this time, he co-invented both fractional photothermolysis (Fraxel) and cryolipolysis (CoolSculpting) technologies. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Harvard Medical School. He is also the PI of his own research lab at the Cutaneous Biology Research Center, which contributes to the development of novel solutions for important clinical problems in dermatology.

Shannon Manzi, PharmD

Contributor

Dr. Shannon Manzi has practiced pediatric pharmacy for more than 20 years and pediatric emergency medicine for 15 years. She is currently the Director of the Clinical Pharmacogenomics Service and the Manager for ED and ICU Pharmacy Services at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is also an NR-EMT and has served as a pediatric expert for the Strategic National Stockpile, the National Advisory Committee on Children and Terrorism, the CDC and MADPH. In addition, Shannon is the Lead Pharmacist for the Massachusetts–1 Disaster Medical Assistance Team and has deployed twelve times, including responses to major hurricanes, the Haitian earthquake and the Unaccompanied Minor Border Crossing mission. She has been a simulation instructor at BCH for 6 years and runs several unique programs related to disaster and prehospital medicine. She holds a faculty position with the Computational Health Informatics Program at BCH and clinical adjunct faculty positions at Northeastern University and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences University. Shannon has authored over 35 publications and presented numerous national and international workshops and lectures on pediatric emergency medicine, simulation and disaster related topics.

Harvard Health Experts and Contributors

List of Experts

Gayle Lang, OTR/L, CHT, MS

Helene Langevin, MD

Debi LaPlante, PhD

Nicole J. LeBlanc, MA

Erica H. Lee, PhD

Dara K. Lee Lewis, MD

Anthony Lembo, MD

Inga Lennes, MD, MPH, MBA

Maureen Leonard, MD, MMSc

Hallie Levine

Sharon Levy, MD, MPH

Howard E. LeWine, MD

Elizabeth Liebson, MD

John Sanford Limouze, MD

Jennifer Lin, MD

Kristina Liu, MD, MHS

Victor A. Lopez-Carmen, MPH

Kevin R. Loughlin, MD, MBA

Vasanti Malik, ScD

Anant Mandawat, MD

Nandini Mani, MD

Brad Manor, PhD

JoAnn Manson, MD, DrPH

Dieter Manstein, MD, PhD

Shannon Manzi, PharmD