Beth Frates, MD, FACLM

AUTHOR
Clinical Assistant Professor @Harvard Medical School, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Dr. Beth Frates is passionate about lifestyle medicine and has been working to promote the field on a national level through the American College of Lifestyle Medicine as a Board Member as well as locally in the Boston area where she is a Clinical Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and an award-winning teacher. Having developed the first semester-long lifestyle medicine course at Harvard through the Harvard Extension School, Dr. Frates collaborated with ACLM to share her syllabus in hopes of empowering other faculty to teach similar courses. Additionally, Dr. Frates invited Dr. Jon Bonnet, Dr. Rich Joseph and Dr. Jim Peterson to co-create and publish The Lifestyle Medicine Handbook: An Introduction to the Power of Healthy Habits, which was produced in collaboration with ACLM. As Director of Wellness Programming at the Stroke Institute for Research and Recovery at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, a Harvard Medical School affiliate, Dr. Frates leads wellness workshops for stroke survivors and their caregivers. Dr. Frates has her own lifestyle medicine consulting/coaching practice where she sees patients one on one and in groups.

Michelle Tollefson, MD, FACOG, DipABLM

CONTRIBUTOR
Associate Professor @Metropolitan State University of Denver
Physician @St. Luke’s Medical Clinic

Dr. Michelle Tollefson is board certified in lifestyle medicine as well as obstetrics and gynecology, with expertise encompassing lifestyle medicine across the female lifespan. For over a decade, she has been active in the lifestyle medicine and wellness coaching movements. She currently co-chairs both the Women’s Health as well as the Pre-Professional Lifestyle Medicine Education Member Interest Groups for ACLM while also serving on the ACLM Education and Conference Planning Committees. Dr. Tollefson was previously the Medical Director of Women’s Wellness Education for a Colorado health system and in full-time clinical practice, but she now volunteers at a non-profit clinic. As an associate professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver, she developed and now oversees the Lifestyle Medicine and Wellness Coaching Curriculum including the Bachelor’s Level Lifestyle Medicine Major (IDP) and Minor. Dr. Tollefson lectures nationwide on a variety of topics related to lifestyle medicine and women’s health and is passionate about optimizing women’s health across the lifespan.

Gia Merlo, MD, MBA, DipABLM

CONTRIBUTOR
Clinical Professor, and Senior Advisor on Wellness @New York University
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry @NYU Grossman School of Medicine
Adjunct Professor @Rice University

Dr. Gia Merlo is passionate about lifestyle medicine, wellness and medical professionalism. Dr. Merlo is active on multiple national professional organizations including secretary of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) Pre-professional Member Interest Group (LMPP), as well as chair of the LMPP Mentoring & Outreach and Curriculum subcommittees. In 2020, she was elected to the Board of Directors of Plant Powered Metro New York after serving on the Advisory Medical Board in 2019. Prior to joining NYU, Merlo was Associate Dean of Health Professions, Professor in the Practice, and Founding Director of the Medical Professionalism Program at Rice University since 2014. She also taught medical students, residents and fellows at Baylor College of Medicine, where she was a 2017-19 Master Teacher Fellow. Additionally, she provided clinical supervision of the child and adolescent psychiatry fellows at Texas Children’s Hospital medical home located at Corinthian Pointe in Houston. In the past, she served on the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In 2018, Merlo was chosen as one of Houston’s 50 Most Influential Women by Houston Woman Magazine.