Iris Litt, MD, has enjoyed more than a half-century-long career as a physician, professor, and advocate for the underserved. A founder of the field of adolescent medicine, she has contributed to research, health care, and policy reform in settings as disparate as New York’s Rikers Island Prison and Stanford University.

At Stanford since 1976, she established its Division of Adolescent Medicine and became one of the first women to receive tenure while in the School of Medicine. Elsewhere in the University she held leadership roles in the Clayman Institute for Gender Research; the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; the Distinguished Careers Institute and the Stanford Center on Longevity. Since 2021, she has held the position of Inaugural Associate Dean in the School of Medicine with responsibility for Senior and Emeriti/ae Faculty.

Her national leadership has been evidenced in her position as President of the Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine; editor of the Journal of Adolescent Health; member of the Board of the American Board of Pediatrics and elected membership in the National Academy of Medicine.

A widow, wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, she enjoys travel, cooking, and creating wearable glass art.