Fredi Kronenberg, Ph.D.

We are deeply saddened by the passing of Dr. Fredi Kronenberg, who died on April 20th, 2017. She was a wonderful friend and inspiring colleague to many of us. We are hopeful that someone will pick up and carry forward with the many exciting and important projects that Fredi was still working on at the time of her passing. In fond remembrance, we are leaving her biosketch on our website, proud and honored to have shared so many interests and activities with her for many, many years.

Fredi Kronenberg, Ph.D. was a physiologist and international leader in women’s health and research in integrative, complementary and alternative medicine, with a particular focus on herbal and nutritional approaches to optimizing health and traditional systems of medicine (such as Traditional Chinese medicine). This included a long standing interest in ethnomedicine, and the environment.

She was a member of the Food Summit Advisory Board since its inception, and initiated the Stanford Hospital Food Project.

Dr. Kronenberg received her Ph.D. from Stanford University and subsequently conducted research in women’s health for more than 25 years at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons as Professor of Clinical Physiology. She was founding director and for 14 headed the Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Center for Complementary & Alternative Medicine at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons where she was Professor of Clinical Physiology. In addition, she was Consulting Professor in the Dept. of Anesthesia at in the School of Medicine at Stanford University.

Dr. Kronenberg was Director of one of the first complementary medicine research centers funded by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, to study Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Aging and Women’s Health. Dr. Kronenberg also developed, with funding from NIH/NCCAM, a research partnership with Fudan University and Ob/Gyn Hospital in Shanghai. Dr. Kronenberg has collaborated with institutions in China, Italy, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. Current works involves bringing a whole foods perspective, from the science to the plate, to physicians, nurses and other health care providers.

She initiated ground-breaking Continuing Medical Education courses including “Integrative Pain Medicine,” “Botanical Medicine in Modern Clinical Practice” and ‘‘Nutrition and Health: State of the Science and Clinical Applications,” the latter two co-directed with Dr. Andrew Weil. These courses have trained more than 8,000 health care professionals.

Dr. Kronenberg was co-founder of the North American Menopause Society (NAMS), North America’s leading professional organization in the field. She was a founding editor of the Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine: Research on Paradigm, Practice and Policy and is on the editorial board of journals including Menopause, the Journal of Women’s Health, Journal of Tropical and Medicinal Plants, and EXPLORE: The Journal of Science and Healing. Her most recent co-edited book is Botanical Medicine: From Bench to Bedside. Dr. Kronenberg is the author of numerous scientific and popular articles. Her work has been featured in newspapers and magazines nationally and internationally.