Elissa Epel, PhD
Elissa Epel, Ph.D, is a Professor, and Vice Chair, in the Department of Psychiatry, at the University of California, San Francisco. Her research aims to elucidate mechanisms of healthy aging and to apply this basic science to scalable interventions that can reach vulnerable populations. She is the Co-Director of the Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, and the Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study, & Treatment, (COAST), and a Co-Director of the Center for Health and Community.
She is also focusing on climate wellness. She is the Director of the Mental Health Council for climate change, part of the UC wide Climate Change, Health and Equity Center.
Epel is a member of the National Academy of Medicine, past President of the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and past co-chair of the Mind & Life Institute Steering Council. Since 2022, she is named as a highly cited research across fields (top .1% globally). She has served as a consultant to NIH, CDC, Facebook, Apple, United Health, and UC campus-wide initiatives on stress and health. Epel’s research has been featured in venues such as TEDMED, Wisdom 2.0, NBC’s Today Show, CBS’s Morning Show, 60 minutes, National Public Radio, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and science documentaries. She co-wrote the New York Times best-seller “The Telomere Effect: A revolutionary approach to living younger, longer” with Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn (translated into 30 languages) and the new “Stress Prescription,” an independent bookstore best seller and being translated into 15 languages. She enjoys leading science-based meditation retreats. Her personal website is www.elissaepel.com.