Richard Greene MD, MHPE, FACP
Helping people grow has been at the heart of my work for as long as I can remember. I've spent more than twenty years as a physician and medical educator at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital, where I'm a Professor of Medicine. Through all of it, the part of the work I've found most rewarding has stayed the same: sitting with someone at a turning point and helping them find their way forward.
I've been a faculty advisor to almost 400 residents and have coached and mentored dozens of students, residents, and junior faculty, many of whom have gone on to become leaders and teachers themselves. For four years I served as an Ombuds for NYU Langone Health, a confidential place for colleagues to bring difficult situations. Today I direct coaching and educational initiatives in the medical school's Office of Professional Development, and I've coached residents, faculty, and leaders at NYU, at Johns Hopkins, and in national programs and organizations.
In my experience, lasting change usually starts with seeing a strength you already have more clearly.
I trained as a coach for a program at NYU beginning in 2019 and enjoyed it so much that I became a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach in 2021. I'm completing a professional certification through the NYU School of Professional Studies and am in the process of obtaining my International Coaching Federation (ICF) certification. I've also studied coaching as a researcher, including how it helps new physicians through one of the hardest transitions in medicine: the move from student to doctor. My approach brings all of this together. We start with what you do well, look honestly at what's getting in the way, and decide together what comes next.
Much of my career has been devoted to health equity and LGBTQ+ health. I opened the first dedicated LGBTQ+ clinic in New York City's public hospital system in 2009 and built curricula that have reached more than a thousand medical students. That work taught me that leadership looks different depending on who is doing it and where they stand, and it shapes how I coach.
As a clinician, I know that medicine is only part of the story. I work with patients as they begin, sustain, and return to the changes in behavior that can improve their health, both physical and mental.
Balance is essential to my life. I spent several years as a personal trainer and group fitness instructor. About four years ago I started practicing yoga, and it has changed how I coach more than I expected. On the mat, most of the work is noticing: where you're holding on more tightly than you need to, where you can find ease, and when your attention has jumped ahead to what's next instead of staying with what's right in front of you. Coaching asks for the same kind of presence. When I'm with a client, I listen for what sits underneath the question they've just asked, rather than planning my next one.
“Don’t you see that everything that happens is always a beginning again?”
I work with people in every kind of work and at every stage, from those just starting out to established executives. What they have in common is a turning point, and the wish to meet it thoughtfully. It's a privilege to do that work alongside them.