The Gaples Institute is proud to announce that Dr. Stephen Devries has been appointed Adjunct Associate Professor of Nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr. Devries joins the Harvard faculty in addition to continuing his full-time role as Executive Director of the Gaples Institute, a position he assumed since co-founding the educational nonprofit in 2012.
Dr. Devries will teach a new course at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health (HSPH), entitled Integrating Nutrition into Clinical Medicine: The Role of Health Professionals as Change Agents. This intensive one-week course will be taught on-site and will equip students with essential nutrition knowledge and practical skills for applying nutrition-focused interventions in clinical settings. Students are anticipated from the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School. Enrollment is also open to clinical professionals throughout the Harvard community.
Applying Proven Nutrition Fundamentals to Patient Care
The course will include a nutrition learning program previously developed by the Gaples Institute, an interactive program now required in the curriculum of six medical schools and taken by over 4,000 clinicians.
As part of their hands-on coursework, students will examine the health and economic impact of incorporating nutrition as a key driver of successful patient care.
Students will also identify and explore opportunities for systemic nutrition-focused changes in their own clinical environments, as well as target their own personal dietary goals as part of an exercise in clinician self-care.
Continuing the History of Collaboration
Dr. Devries’ HSPH faculty appointment complements his primary role as leader of the nonprofit Gaples Institute, allowing him to further leverage his passion for sharing actionable nutrition insights as well as his 30-plus years in academic medicine.
The Gaples Institute and the Harvard School of Public Health have partnered on several nutrition and education initiatives over the past several years, including the development of two highly acclaimed interactive online resources, Healthy Plate/Healthy Planet for the public and a special edition for health professionals. These award-winning programs, co-authored by Dr. Devries and Harvard’s Dr. Walter Willett, spotlight how dietary changes yield the dual benefit of personal and planetary health.
“We hope to continue expanding this collaborative legacy between the Gaples Institute and HSPH. Joining their faculty will foster this wonderful synergy,” said Dr. Devries. “It’s an honor to help ensure that the substantial body of evidence connecting diet and health—largely originating from work done at HSPH—is even more widely translated into clinical practice as we have already done so successfully in our programming at the Gaples Institute.”