portrait

Harriet A. Hall, MD



Founding Fellow
Board of Directors (Emerita)


Puyallup, Washington, USA




Harriet Hall, MD, also known as “The SkepDoc” from the title of her column in Skeptic magazine, is a retired family physician and flight surgeon.

Dr Hall writes about medicine, so-called “complementary and alternative medicine,” science, quackery, and critical thinking. She is one of the founders of the Science-Based Medicine Blog, a contributor and adviser to the Quackwatch website, a contributing editor to both Skeptic and Skeptical Inquirer magazines, and is on the faculty of the annual Skeptic’s Toolbox workshop. She was recently named a Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. She was a columnist on health matters for O, The Oprah Magazine,

Dr Hall spent 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a full colonel. She graduated from the University of Washington School of Medicine and completed a family practice residency at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, and the Aerospace Medicine Primary Course at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. She was the second female ever to do an Air Force internship (1970-71) where she “ran into a lot of aggravating and amusing situations as a woman in three fields then dominated by men: medicine, the military, and aviation.” She wrote about her experiences in a memoir entitled Women Aren’t Supposed to Fly. Dr Hall also held various administrative positions including Director of Base Medical Services, Chief of Clinic Services, and Chief of Aerospace Medicine at bases in Spain, New York, Washington, and Wyoming. She did “everything from delivering babies to taking the controls of a B-52.” With an abiding interest in Spanish language and literature, she also lived in Spain for a total of seven years. She is married, with two grown daughters.

Dr Hall served on ISM’s board of directors during its first year (2009-2010).

Selected Publications/Presentations:




Pasted Graphic “The SkepDoc” Column in Skeptic Magazine:



YouTube:



Vaccine false alarms,” panel presentation at The Amazing Meeting, Las Vegas, 2009 Jul.


Podcast:


Other Noted Publications:

book coverWomen Aren’t Supposed to Fly: The Memoirs of a Female Flight Surgeon (iUniverse, 2008).


The Online Harriet Hall:

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