Valerie E. Stone

Stone is from Montclair, New Jersey.[1] Stone has said that her early life inspired her career in medicine.[2] As a child she lost her grandmother to metastatic cancer, and as an undergraduate student she lost a cousin to pneumonia caused by HIV/AIDS. Stone was already a successful science student at high school, and decided that she would eventually pursue a degree in medicine.[2] As an undergraduate Stone studied chemical engineering, but whilst she enjoyed the science; she missed the interaction with members of society. Motivated by her grandmother, Stone became focussed on women's health.[2] She completed her medical education at the Yale University School of Medicine.[2][3] She worked as a DJ throughout her studies and lived in the Harkness dorm.[2][4] Whilst she was studying medicine, she saw members of her family, classmates and friends get infected with HIV.[2] She has called AIDS the "defining disease of [her] generation".[2] After graduating in 1984, Stone initially began residency in obstetrics and gynecology, but after internship, switched to internal medicine and completed medicine residency at Case Western Reserve University.[2] As a medical resident, Stone joined the American College of Physicians, and she was board certified in 1988.[2][5] She earned a Master of Public Health at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She later completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at the Boston City Hospital.[2] Her first job was at Boston City Hospital, where she directed ambulatory care services.[3]

After completing her training, Stone was appointed to the faculty at Harvard University.[2] At the beginning of Stone's career medicine there were limited treatment pathways for patients suffering from HIV/AIDS.[2] She treated her first HIV/AIDS patient in 1983.[6] In 1996, things dramatically changed, when highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) made it possible to manage AIDS like other chronic illnesses. Her research focussed on why HIV/AIDS was so prevalent amongst Black communities, and how to optimise the care of patients from underserved communities.[7][8] Whilst working at Harvard, Stone was an active primary care physician and a senior scientist at the Stoeckle Center for Primary Care Innovation at the Massachusetts General Hospital.[9] She was appointed a full Professor of Medicine at Harvard in 2011, and was the first African-American to hold such a position.[3][9]

In 2014, Stone was made Chair of the Department of Medicine at Mount Auburn Hospital, and was named the Charles S. Davidson Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.[9] She moved to the Brigham and Women's Hospital in 2019, where she was made the Vice Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, while continuing her role at Harvard Medical School.[5] Here she also serves on the faculty of the women's leadership program.[10]

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Stone used social media to discuss the disproportionate impact of SARS-CoV-2 on communities of colour. In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, Stone wrote to the faculty of Harvard Medical School to describe the anguish that she felt.[11]

Stone is married to Kathryn Hall, a molecular geneticist at the Harvard Medical School.[2] They have one daughter who works in healthcare management.[2]