Hershel Raff

Hershel Raff, PhD, FAAAS, FAPS, is a Professor in the Department of Medicine, Physiology, and Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) School of Medicine. He also holds an adjunct professorship in Biomedical Sciences at Marquette University. His academic roles include secondary appointments in Physiology and Surgery at MCW and the MCW School of Pharmacy. Dr. Raff earned a BA in Music from Union College and a PhD in Environmental Physiology from Johns Hopkins University, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Endocrinology at UCSF.

His research focuses on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, neonatal stress effects, obesity-pain interactions in adolescents, and diagnostic endocrine tests like salivary cortisol assays. He has authored two textbooks: Vander’s Human Physiology and Medical Physiology: A Systems Approach.

Dr. Raff’s awards include FAAAS and FAPS fellowships, and recognition as an inaugural MCW Society of Teaching Scholars member (1991) and Alpha Omega Alpha inductee by MCW’s Class of 2005. He leads editorial roles for Endocrinology and the Journal of the Endocrine Society.

His educational contributions span medical, pharmacy, and graduate student instruction, including directing endocrinology courses and physiological systems training. His lab investigates neonatal stress, HPA axis dysfunction in opioid relapse, and cortisol biomarkers in conditions like Cushing’s syndrome and traumatic brain injury.