Dr. Michele Harper is an award-winning physician, New York Times bestselling author, and nationally recognized speaker whose work centers on individual healing and social justice. She speaks on healing from trauma, cultivating hope and transformation in difficult times, health equity, and health care provider burnout.
Harper has appeared nationwide, including at Yale University, the University of California San Diego, the University of Texas San Antonio, the Society of Academic Continuing Medical Education, and the American College of Surgeons, as well as Kaiser, Womanspace, T-Mobile, and Microsoft. She has also appeared as a commentator for MSNBC, NBC, ABC, and Cheddar networks, and on many popular podcasts.
Her debut memoir The Beauty in Breaking is a New York Times bestseller in both hardcover and paperback editions. The Beauty in Breaking is also a Los Angeles Times and Laura Bush Book Club pick, a Barnes & Noble Monthly Pick, a Book of the Month Club selection, and on the New York Times 2020 list of 100 Notable Books. The book is included among Barnes & Noble Best Medical Books and Amazon’s 100 Best Books of 2020. The Beauty in Breaking was longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction and a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. It was also selected for Oprah’s Book Club’s top summer memoir reads and Oprah’s Daily’s selections for top memoirs in 2022.
Harper is a board-certified emergency medicine physician who is a proud graduate of the Lincoln Medical & Mental Health Center emergency medicine residency program in the South Bronx, where she received the Joel Gernsheimer Award for excellence in emergency medicine. For her commitment to compassionate and equitable care in medicine, she is deeply honored to have received the Gold Foundation National Humanism in Medicine Medal in 2022.
During her time at MacDowell, she worked on her second book, a nonfiction memoir.
