2025 Recipient of the Evelyn V. Hess Award

Karen Costenbader, MD, MPH

The 2025 Evelyn V. Hess Award recipient is Dr. Karen Costenbader. Dr. Costenbader is a Professor of Medicine and recipient of the Michael Weinblatt, MD, Distinguished Chair in Clinical Rheumatology at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). Dr. Costenbader has made extensive and influential contributions to the field of lupus epidemiology shedding light on clinically relevant environmental, psychosocial, and serologic risk factors implicated in the development of lupus. Specifically, she demonstrated the roles of cigarette smoking, alcohol use, PTSD, depression, and childhood abuse in the development of lupus. In addition, she has led nationwide studies illuminating racial, ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic disparities in lupus and lupus nephritis incidence, prevalence, and outcomes among Medicaid beneficiaries. She has mentored countless medical students, residents, fellows, doctoral and post-doctoral students and led many to careers in lupus research. She has had continuous NIH funding for her research, a K24 award recognizing her excellence in mentoring, and serves as the Chair of the NIH Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Special Grants Review Study Section. As the Director of the BWH Lupus Program, the largest lupus center in New England, she provides clinical care for individuals with lupus, leads a registry for research studies, and serves as a mentor to clinicians and researchers. In recognition of her leadership and academic scholarship in lupus, she is the former Chair of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Board of the Lupus Foundation of America. She is nationally and internationally regarded as a leader in lupus care and lupus epidemiology research, is the Co-Editor of Arthritis and Rheumatology, and is a powerful and tireless advocate to advance the health and quality of life of all patients with lupus.