She has served as the chair of the Minority Affairs Section (MAS) for the
American Medical Association, chair of the
American College of Physicians Obesity Advisory Committee, executive committee member of the
American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Obesity,
The Obesity Society Advocacy, Public Affairs, and Regulatory Board of Directors member, the
American Board of Obesity Medicine Outreach and Awareness Committee, Through the
NIH, she serves as the director of the Nutrition Obesity Research Center (NORC) working group on workforce diversity. Stanford's research focuses on the utilization of anti-obesity pharmacotherapy after
bariatric surgery, outcomes and utility of adolescent
bariatric surgery, pharmacotherapy for the treatment for obesity, the effectiveness of calorie counting, the appropriateness of
body mass index (BMI) as a measure of health, and physician education and training in obesity care. She has also published work in
COVID-19 disparities with
Esther Duflo and
Marcella Alsan. Stanford has conducted interviews with the
New York Times, USA Today, Time, U.S. News & World Report, Glamour, and NPR. On January 1, 2023, Stanford appeared on
60 Minutes with
Lesley Stahl, stating
obesity is a chronic disease and that there is physician bias against those with excess weight As part of a panel with
Deborah Roberts on addressing weight stigma, Dr. Stanford advocated for elimation of bias towards those with higher weights.
Oprah Winfrey interviewed Dr. Stanford as an obesity expert for her "The Life You Want Class: The State of the Weight" on
Oprah Daily. In this interview, Stanford teaches about the science of obesity as a chronic disease. In an interview with
Sanjay Gupta for his
CNN Chasing life podcast, she coined the term "street corner medicine" to refer to the assumption that people judge people based on their size—they assume that heavier people are unhealthy and leaner people are healthy without investigating whether this is factual by evaluating metabolic health parameters such as blood pressure, cholesterol,
liver function tests, blood sugar, etc. In 2018, Stanford said she was racially profiled when administering medical assistance to a fellow passenger on a
Delta Air Lines flight. Flight attendants did not believe that she was a physician despite her presenting her medical license to them. The
United States Department of Health and Human Services and
United States Department of Agriculture named Dr. Stanford to the 2025
Dietary Guidelines for Americans Advisory Committee as one of 20 nationally recognized nutrition and public health experts. In 2025, she and over 55 international commissioners, led by Dr. Francesco Rubino, proposed a new definition and diagnostic criteria for obesity. The specific aim of the
Lancet Commission was to establish objective criteria for disease diagnosis, aiding clinical decision-making and prioritization of therapeutic interventions and public health strategies. A
PBS documentary titled "Breakthrough: Women in Science & Medicine – Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford" was developed to highlight Dr. Stanford's career and contributions to the fields of obesity medicine and
health equity. The program explores her research, clinical work, and advocacy. She is an independent board member for Eolo Pharma. == Books ==