Dr. Kales is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and Professor & Director of the Occupational Medicine Residency at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health (HSPH). He is also Chief of Occupational Medicine /Medical Director- Employee Health at the Cambridge Health Alliance, a Harvard-affiliated hospital system. He organized and hosted Harvard’s groundbreaking 2014 Mediterranean Diet Conference, and he was Scientific Chair of the landmark 2017 Mediterranean Diet & Health Conference in Greece. In 2019, Dr. Kales received competitive funding from Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study to organize and host the invitation-only Exploratory Seminar: “Mediterranean Diet: Promotion and Dissemination of Healthy Eating”. He is the founder of the Hellenic Center for Excellence in Health & Wellness, and was the scientific organizer of the 2022 & 2023 Cretan lifestyle conference.
Dr. Kales has participated in a wide range of medical/public health research, advisory and teaching activities on five continents resulting in over 225 publications and wide recognition nationally and internationally. He serves on the editorial boards of several biomedical journals and is a faculty member in Harvard’s Cardiovascular Epidemiology Program and Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine.
Dr. Kales has received numerous honors, including the 2013 Kehoe Award for Excellence in Education and Research and 2014 Harriet Hardy Award for outstanding scientific contributions to the field. He has also received honors from the International Association of Fire Chiefs and was inducted into the Order of Emperor Dom Pedro II by the Federal Corp of Brazilian Military Firefighters. He has also received several million dollars in competitive US federal funding, including an ambitious Mediterranean Diet Intervention trial (“Feeding America’s Bravest: Survival Mediterranean Style) among Midwestern firefighters which was awarded the 2017 Silver Medal for Health Research by the Oleocanthal International Society, and another recent grant to create a Healthy Lifestyle smartphone application.
Dr. Kales grew up around traditional Greek foods prepared by his beloved grandmother in the family kitchen and expanded these formative experiences through extensive travels in Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy. As a health educator, he seeks to lead by example; following a Mediterranean diet, practicing regular physical fitness and good sleep hygiene. Based on his combined medical and public health training, his research and clinical practice, he is convinced that lifestyle measures like Mediterranean nutrition are the most accessible, effective and valuable means of chronic disease prevention and control. Dr. Kales’ ultimate goal is to use innovative approaches to disseminate healthy Mediterranean eating in schools, workplaces and hospitals. Dr. Kales recently co-authored the “Textbook of Lifestyle Medicine“, from Wiley & Sons publishers, which emphasizes olive oil and Mediterranean lifestyle as the gold standard for healthy living. In May 2022, he participated as an invited speaker in the Pontifical Academy of Sciences symposium: “The Art & Science of Olive Oil” at the Vatican. He also co-organized and led a conference in Cyprus on lifestyle for dementia prevention under the auspices of the A. G. Leventis Foundation. He was also recently invited to participate as an expert advisor to Greece’s National Public Health Organization (EODY).