Karen H. Costenbader, MD, MPH
Chair, Medical-Scientific Advisory Council; Prof., Rheumatology, Harvard University Medical School; Director, Brigham and Women's Hospital; Editor, Arthritis and Rheumatology
Dr. Costenbader leads a multi-disciplinary group of medical experts to address unmet needs in research and professional development efforts on lupus. As Chair of the Medical-Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Costenbader works with other lupus experts to expand the Foundation’s strategic partnerships with key opinion leaders in lupus around the world to increase the Foundation’s reach and growing impact in efforts to help people with lupus now.
She is the Director of the Lupus Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She specializes in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and teaches at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health. She is board certified in internal medicine and rheumatology.
In 2009, Dr. Costenbader was the first recipient of the Lupus Foundation of America’s Mary Betty Stevens Young Investigator Prize, awarded to recognize exceptional achievements in the early part of an investigator’s career in lupus research. She received the Henry Kunkel Young Investigator Award in 2011 from the American College of Rheumatology.
Dr. Costenbader is an editor for The International Journal of Clinical Practice and Arthritis and Rheumatology. She sits on several grant review committees and acts as a reviewer for multiple journals. Her research investigates risk factors associated with the development of rheumatoid arthritis and lupus and outcomes among those who have these diseases.
Dr. Costenbader received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, a master’s degree from Cambridge University in England, and a master's in public health from Harvard School of Public Health. She completed an internal medicine internship and medical residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, as well as training in rheumatology at both the Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Costenbader is a rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.