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Maya Adam, MD      

Director of Health Media Innovation & Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine

Dr. Maya Adam is the Director of Health Media Innovation and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Stanford School of Medicine. Her research focuses on measuring the impact of innovative, video-based entertainment-education approaches to global health communication. She produces short, animated films and online courses on topics related to maternal child health, nutrition, mental health, and disease prevention. She has designed and produced online educational content for the Stanford School of Medicine for use in their preclinical programs, continuing medical education programs, and global health promotion efforts.

She is the Faculty Lead for the Global Child Health Media Initiative and Associate Director of the Center for Digital Health at Stanford. She is also the lead instructor of eight massive open online courses reaching more than a million learners around the world. Dr. Adam is the principal investigator on two randomized-controlled trials investigating the impact of digital global health education interventions on health-promoting behaviors. Her research is conducted in collaboration with the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health in Heidelberg, Germany. She is a Faculty Fellow at the Center for Innovation in Global Health and the author of "Food, Love, Family: A Practical Guide to Child Nutrition."

Dr. Adam spent numerous summers working in a community health care clinic in South Africa and was the recipient of an African Service Fellowship/Amy Biehl Fellowship from Stanford University’s Haas Center for Public Service. She received her medical degree from the University of British Columbia and her bachelor’s degree in Human Biology from Stanford University. Before her medical studies, she spent almost 10 years as a professional ballet dancer in Germany.

Speech Topics

Feeding the Next Generation

One in three American children is currently overweight or obese, and processed food is a major contributor to the growing problem. Maya Adam explores strategies for raising healthy, happy children, and offers the skills and inspiration to revive basic cooking literacy throughout the country.

Nourishing Our Nation

Childhood obesity is an epidemic threatening not only to shorten children’s lives, but also bankrupt a nation forced to cope with increasing obesity-related medical costs. Maya Adam discusses the implications of this public health crisis, and outlines positive solutions for educating the nation about the issue and shifting the culture of eating in America.

Food and America: Repairing a Broken Relationship

Over the past 30 years, slowly but surely, America's relationship with food has turned toxic. Where once, there was love, familiarity and happy dependence, now there is contempt and mistrust. The intimacy we once shared with the things that nourish us has been replaced by almost total anonymity. Is it any wonder that we’re at war with our food? With the rise of the obesity epidemic and a barrage of conflicting nutrition messages, we’ve come to see eating as a combat sport. In a land where French fries and Buffalo wings lurk on every street corner, far too many of us feel that food is lying in wait for us – ready to attack at the slightest lapse of willpower. In a part of the world that believes in “every man for himself”, we find ourselves isolated in our struggles to control the uncontrollable. Because, by design, we are biologically programmed to over-consume high calorie foods when they’re available, we often feel we're fighting a losing battle.

Americans and their food are in need of some good couple’s counseling. Someone needs to hit the reset button. We can re-kindle the love, the symbiosis and the good health of our honeymoon days with food. Let me show you how.

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