GW Medicine Chief Wellness Officer Leigh Frame, PhD, MHS, was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Academic Consortium for Integrative Medicine & Health, joining the innovative change makers elected by the organization's membership base to help guide it through these momentous times.
The Academic Consortium is the world’s most comprehensive community for advancing the practice of whole health, with leading expertise in research, clinical care, and education. The GW School of Medicine & Health Sciences is a longtime member of the organization, which brings together top institutions in the Integrative Medicine space to establish resources for world-class research, results, and expertise.
Along with her CWO duties, Dr. Frame is the Director of the GW Resiliency & Well-being Center. She also serves as Executive Director of the GW Office of Integrative Medicine and Health and Associate Professor of Clinical Research and Leadership and Physician Assistant Studies here at GW. As co-founder and Research Director of the Resiliency & Well-being Center, she has advanced initiatives promoting resilience, whole-person care, and well-being across the GW community and beyond.
Dr. Frame combines nutrition and immunity through translational research, leveraging extensive experience in biomedical research and program leadership. Her T-shaped expertise spans laboratory science, clinical studies, and leadership in developing research and education programs, including her role in the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Parkinson’s Disease Biomarkers Program (PDBP). Her interests include the microbiota-gut-brain-immune interface, the roles of the microbiome and nutrition in well-being, malnutrition in obesity, vitamin D as an immune-modulatory hormone, research ethics, science communication, resilience, and whole health.
Dr. Frame also serves on the boards of several healthcare and biotech companies globally, contributing to advancements in health and wellness. Her leadership and influence extend across academic, clinical, and industry settings. In 2021, she was named among the Top 100 Health Care Leaders by the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare.
Dr. Frame graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry with Distinction from Mary Baldwin College (now Mary Baldwin University). She then earned her Master of Health Science in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology and her PhD in International Health: Human Nutrition from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
In her leadership roles, Dr. Frame is building a robust GW Integrative Medicine research program and promoting interdisciplinary collaborations to translate research into impactful health initiatives. With her multifaceted knowledge and inquisitive approach, she offers invaluable insights into the complexities of well-being.
Dr. Frame and the other newly elected candidates assumed their roles on June 25, 2025. These positions will be held from June 2025–June 2028, with the exception of Position 1, which will be held through June 2026. The returning Board of Directors are Sian Cotton, PhD, chair, of the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati; Gloria Yeh, MD, MPH, vice chair, of Harvard Medical School; Marni Hillinger, MD, of Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine; Darshan Mehta, MD, MPH, of Harvard Medical School; and David Victorson, PhD, of Northwestern University.