Stephen Garrard Post (1951-; PhD University of Chicago, 1983) has served on the Board of the John Templeton Foundation (2008-2014), which focuses on virtue and public life. He is a researcher, opinion leader, medical school professor, and best-selling author who has taught at the University of Chicago Medical School, Fordham University-Marymount, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (1988-2008) and Stony Brook University School of Medicine (2008-). He is widely known for his research on the ways in which giving can enhance the health and happiness of the giver, how empathy and compassionate care contribute to patient outcomes, ethical issues in caring for people with dementia, medical professionalism and the virtues, and positive psychology in relation to health and well-being. Post is an elected member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Royal Society of Medicine, London. He was selected nationally as the Public Member of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Composite Committee (2000-2005), and was reappointed for outstanding contributions.
His book The Moral Challenge of Alzheimer Disease: Ethical Issues from Diagnosis to Dying (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2nd edition 2000) was designated a "medical classic of the century" by the British Medical Journal, which wrote (2009), "Until this pioneering work was published in 1995 the ethical aspects of one of the most important illnesses of our aging populations were a neglected topic." He is an elected member of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Panel of Alzheimer's Disease International.[1] Post is one of several recipients of the U.S. Alzheimer's Association "distinguished service award" for his work with family and professional caregivers over three decades. Post's culminating book in this field is Dignity for Deeply Forgetful People: How Caregivers Can Meet the Challenges of Alzheimer's Disease (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022).
Post wrote the 2011 WSJ best-selling book The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times.[2][3][4] He was lead author of the 2007 Why Good Things Happen to Good People: How to Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life by the Simple Act of Giving.[5] His writings were included in Best American Spiritual Writing (2005). Post received the Kama Book Award in Medical Humanities from World Literacy Canada (2008), and was listed in the "Best Spiritual Books of 2011" by Spirituality & Practice. Articles by or about him have been published in Parade (magazine),[6] O: The Oprah Magazine,[7] The New York Times,[8] and Psychology Today.[9] He has appeared on many major media venues, including 20/20, The Daily Show, Stossel, and Nightline. To capture the theme of synchronicity, which fascinated Post since youth, he wrote God and Love on Route 80: The Hidden Mystery of Human Connectedness (Mango Publishing Group, 2019).
The author of several hundred papers in leading professional journals including JAMA, Science, Annals of Internal Medicine, The Journal of Religion, and The American Journal of Psychiatry, his article "Rx It's Good to be Good (G2BG): Prescribing Volunteerism for Health, Happiness, Resilience, and Longevity" won the 2017 Paper of the Year Award from the editors of The American Journal of Health Promotion.