Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, MPH, MPA, FAAP, FACP, FAHA, FTOS is an obesity medicine physician scientist who cares for children, adolescents, and adults at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS). At MGH and HMS, she is also an Associate at the Disparities Solution Center, Affiliated Faculty at the Mongan Institute of Health Policy, Executive Committee Member for the Mid-life Women’s Health, and Executive Committee Member for the Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard (NORCH). At the MGH Weight Center, she provides behavioral, pharmacologic, and bariatric surgery pre and post-op care. She is one of a handful of clinicians fellowship trained in obesity medicine in the United States. She is a Diplomate of the American Board of Obesity Medicine and a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Physicians, and The Obesity Society.

Dr. Stanford received her BS and MPH from Emory University as a MLK Scholar, MD from the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine as a Stoney Scholar, and her MPA from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government where she was a Zuckerman Fellow. She served as a health communications fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and worked as a behavioral sciences intern at the American Cancer Society. Upon completion of her MPH, she received the Gold Congressional Award, the highest honor that 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, an AMA Paul Ambrose Award for national leadership among resident physicians in 2009, she was selected for the AMA Inspirational Physician Award in 2015. In 2017, she was selected for the Harvard Medical School Diversity Award and by the Massachusetts Medical Society for their Women’s Health Award. In 2019, she was selected for the Massachusetts Medical Society Suffolk District Community Clinician of the Year and for the Reducing Health Disparities Award.

Dr. Stanford completed her internal medicine and pediatrics residency at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine/Palmetto Health. She completed her three year obesity medicine and nutrition fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. She has served as the socio-medical affairs officer for the World Medical Association Junior Doctors Network executive board where she co-wrote the World Medical Association policy on physician well being that was adopted at their annual meeting in Moscow, Russia in 2015. The American College of Physicians selected her as the 2013 recipient of the Joseph E. Johnson Leadership Award. Additionally, she is the 2015 recipient of the MA ACP Young Leadership Award. Her current research focuses on obesity, health disparities, and health policy. She is widely published in peer reviewed journals such as NEJM, Circulation, and Annals of Internal Medicine, in popular press outlets such as the NY Times, and as a featured expert on numerous broadcast television outlets such as CNN. She served as the keynote speaker on obesity for the AMA House of Delegates prior to their decision to acknowledge obesity as a chronic disease at their 2013 meeting. She currently serves on the governing council for the AMA Minority Affairs Section and alternate delegate to the AMA from the Obesity Medicine Association (OMA).

Dr. Stanford teaches medical students, residents, and fellows at Harvard Medical School. She was selected for the Certificate of Excellence in Tutoring for her instruction in the Harvard Medical School Health Policy New Pathway Course, and she was a nominee for the Harvard Medical School Donald O’Hara Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching.