Dr. Esther Sternberg may not have predicted she would author several books on the built environment’s impact on human health. After all, until 2012, she was working as a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) studying the brain-immune connection. But a chance encounter in 2000 with the then-research director for the US General Services Administration (GSA) would forever change the trajectory of her research work––and it started with one question, “Can we measure the impact of a workplace on employees’ health, happiness and productivity?”

It’s a question she answers in her latest book, “Well at Work,” where she details the significant impact the built environment has on human health and longevity.  

Today, Dr. Sternberg serves as Professor of Medicine in the University of Arizona College of Medicine and as the Research Director of the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine. She’s also an advisor for the International WELL Building Institute. And it’s through this work and her various roles that she advocates for design professionals to view themselves as health professionals and true partners in the health of the nation. 

And this is exactly what we discuss in this podcast episode.