Michelle Hauser

Dr. Hauser is the Obesity Medicine Director of the Medical Weight Loss Program in the Stanford Lifestyle and Weight Management Center, formerly known as the Stanford Bariatric Surgery and Medical Weight Loss Clinic. She is a board-certified specialist in internal medicine and lifestyle medicine. She also holds the position of Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine, General Surgery, and by courtesy, Primary Care and Population Health.

Beyond delivering patient care and medical education, Dr. Hauser is a prevention researcher and Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef. She combines her skills to help patients move away from lifestyles that lead to chronic disease and toward those that promote health and well-being.

Dr. Hauser develops and runs lifestyle and medical weight management programs that combine evidence-based, non-surgical treatment modalities, which can be used alone or as an adjunct to bariatric surgery procedures. She provides screening, prevention strategies, and treatment for conditions including hyperlipidemia, diabetes, fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease, and other metabolic diseases. As a chef, she recognizes the importance of enjoying food, so she incorporates cooking classes into her clinical practice to teach patients how to make delicious food that is also healthy in support of their short- and long-term health goals.

In her academic initiatives, Dr. Hauser has created and evaluated a novel medical weight management program for Veterans. It combines lifestyle medicine-enriched shared medical appointments and telehealth follow-up. She was a primary investigator of a Stanford study of food insecurity screening and referral to healthy food resources. She was also the project lead on a study of the impact of diet quality and type on weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors.

Dr. Hauser wrote the first comprehensive Culinary Medicine Curriculum for health care professional training programs, now in use in more than 100 countries. She also runs an ongoing culinary medicine elective course for medical and physician assistant students. She has co-authored numerous articles published in peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA, American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, and American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Topics address new strategies to improve nutrition, physical activity, and weight loss.

She has made invited presentations on obesity management, culinary medicine, and shared medical appointments at the American College of Lifestyle Medicine Annual Conference, Society for General Internal Medicine Annual Conference, and other meetings.

The Lifestyle Medicine Education Collaborative recognized Dr. Hauser as a “Champion for Change” for developing innovative programs to incorporate lifestyle medicine into medical education. Other honors include the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation and Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Hauser is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, where she previously served on the Board of Directors.

Clinical Focus

• Internal Medicine
• Obesity Medicine
• Lifestyle Medicine

Academic Appointments

• Clinical Associate Professor, Surgery - General Surgery
• Clinical Associate Professor (By courtesy), Medicine - Primary Care and Population Health

Administrative Appointments

• Obesity Medicine Director, Stanford University Medical Center (2021 - Present)

Honors & Awards

• Invited Fellow, American College of Physicians
• Champion for Change, Lifestyle Medicine Education Collaborative
• Local Hunger Fighter, Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo, California, Counties
• San Mateo Medical Center Above & Beyond Award, San Mateo Medical Center
• Food Hero, Honorable Mention, City of Cambridge, Massachusetts

All Honors & Awards (12)

• Boards, Advisory Committees, Professional Organizations
• Board of Directors, American College of Lifestyle Medicine (2015 - Present)
• Member, American College of Lifestyle Medicine (2014 - Present)
• Member, American College of Physicians (2012 - Present)
• Member, Society of General Internal Medicine (2013 - Present)

Professional Education

• Board Certification, American Board of Lifestyle Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine
• Board Certification, American Board of Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine
• Fellowship, American College of Physicians, Invited Fellow
• Fellowship, Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease Prevention
• Fellowship, American College of Lifestyle Medicine, Lifestyle Medicine
• Fellowship, Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Zuckerman Fellowship in Leadership and Public Service
• Residency, Harvard Medical School – Cambridge Health Alliance, Internal Medicine
• Medical Degree, Harvard Medical School