Beth Frates, MD: Redefining Healthcare Through Lifestyle Medicine Education

Dr. Beth Frates is transforming healthcare by championing lifestyle medicine and reshaping medical education through her Harvard courses and global outreach.

WELLESLEY HILLS, MASSACHUSETTS / May 30th, 2025 / Dr. Beth Frates is a name synonymous with change. She has dedicated over three decades to health, wellness, and education. She is at the front of a movement that’s gaining global momentum: lifestyle medicine. Her work has shaped medical professionals, inspired students, and improved patient lives around the world.

As a Harvard Medical School Associate Professor, Part-Time, and Immediate Past President of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Dr. Frates has built a career around a simple but powerful idea: real health comes from daily lifestyle behaviors. Food, movement, sleep, connection, and mindset are not afterthoughts; they are the foundation.

A Vision That Became a Curriculum

Beth Frates, MD, taught lifestyle medicine by creating entire courses that are now shaping how future healthcare professionals approach chronic disease and preventive care. Her four classes at Harvard Extension School include:

• Lifestyle Medicine 101
• Culinary Psychology (Co-Created with a Chef and Therapist)
• Wellbeing from the Inside Out: From Cell to Community
• Empowering People to Change: The Science and Art of Behavior Change

Each course combines science and practical strategies. Students learn and transform. Her teaching style is personal, clear, and action-oriented. For students, Dr. Frates’s courses are life-changing. In fact, many students change their career trajectory to include lifestyle medicine after taking her courses. Dr. Frates has taken the status of "that one professor who makes you rethink your future.”

Dr. Frates’s courses fill within hours of registration opening. Harvard Extension School draws students from all over the world. Her Teaching Assistants note how Dr. Frates makes complex topics digestible and creates an inclusive classroom environment that promotes lasting learning.

Award Winning Teacher:

Dr. Frates started teaching during her residency and was the first in her class of residents to create an elective for teaching. She went to Harvard Medical School and was connected to the course director for the Human Central Nervous System and Behavior. This course was in the core curriculum for the medical students. Dr. Frates served as a tutorial facilitator for the 10-week course and met with the students 2-3 times a week for 3 hours to discuss medical cases. Harvard has been a case-based teaching program for years. Dr. Frates was a dedicated teacher and received Excellence in Tutorial Facilitation awards for her work in the Human Central Nervous System and Behavior course. Dr. Frates was invited to serve as Tutorial Facilitator in multiple other core curriculum courses, such as Introduction to the Profession, Endocrinology, Rheumatology, and Nutrition courses. 

In 2014, Dr. Frates started teaching at the Harvard Extension School, and shortly after starting, she was recognized for her excellence in teaching with “Letter of Commendation for Teaching” accolades. And, in May 2025, Dr. Frates received the prestigious Petra Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award from Harvard Extension School.

Making Medicine Accessible Online

Dr. Frates reaches hundreds more through Harvard Medical School’s Executive Education courses. Her two leading programs, Health and Wellness: Designing a Sustainable Nutrition Plan and Lifestyle and Wellness Coaching, have each enrolled over 200 students per cohort.

These online courses offer a rare chance to learn from a Harvard professor with real-world coaching experience and a passion for teaching. Participants include physicians, nurses, health coaches, and wellness professionals. What makes the courses stand out is how immediately applicable the lessons are. With the feedback overwhelmingly positive, Dr. Frates has become a "fan-favorite" in lifestyle medicine.

PAVING the Way to Better Health

Dr. Frates also leads the nonprofit PAVING the Path to Wellness, which focuses on creating tools and resources that make lifestyle changes more achievable for individuals and communities. The PAVING acronym stands for Physical Activity, Attitude, Variety, Investigations, Nutrition, and Goal Setting: a simple, structured approach that Dr. Frates uses in her talks, coaching sessions, and well-being programs. The second and sustaining STEPSS in her PAVING program include Stress Resilience, Time-Outs, Energy Management, Purpose, Sleep, and Social Connection. These six dimensions are added to the first six for a comprehensive, whole-person approach to optimal well-being. These six are also essential for sustaining behavior change.

Through this initiative, she brings well-being education to schools, hospitals, and underserved communities. It reflects her mission: health is a right, not a privilege.

From Harvard to the World

Dr. Frates has spoken on five continents and continues to receive invitations from medical schools, wellness summits, and public health conferences across the globe. Her talks focus on how lifestyle changes can treat and even reverse chronic conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and obesity. Dr. Frates brings the science and research into her lectures in a way that is understandable and digestible.

In 2024, she received the She for She Award at the Women in Medicine Conference in Chicago. The honor recognizes women who uplift and support other women in medicine. Those who’ve worked with her describe her as generous with her time, devoted to mentoring, and deeply invested in the success of others.

Educator, Advocate, and Innovator

Dr. Beth Frates continues to write, speak, and teach on a mission that’s as urgent as ever: reshaping how we think about health. The book, Essentials of Clinical Nutrition in Healthcare, published by McGraw-Hill Education and co-edited by Dr. Frates, further solidifies her place as a thought leader in this space. It addresses the long-standing gap in nutrition education in medical training and offers a practical roadmap for integrating nutrition into everyday clinical practice.

Her work with Mass General Brigham on clinician wellness also shows her dedication to taking care of the caregivers. The free 6-hour online CME (Continuing Medical Education) course she developed there supports physician mental health and happiness through research-backed lifestyle strategies. On May 13, 2025, Dr. Frates and the team in charge of the Wellness Initiatives for the Department of Surgery won a Pillars of Excellence Award from the Mass General Brigham.

Conclusion

Dr. Beth Frates is completely revolutionizing the concept of healthcare in the modern world. Her message is clear: true healing starts with how we live, eat, sleep, move, and connect. Through her courses, books, and nonprofit work, she is building a path that puts lifestyle at the heart of medicine.

Her motto, "Working toward a healthy body, peaceful mind, and a joyful heart," really depicts her life mission.

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