Rachel Gilgoff

Bio

As a board-certified general pediatrician, child abuse pediatrician, and integrative medicine specialist, Dr. Gilgoff brings a multidisciplinary, whole-family approach to ACEs, toxic stress, healing, and well-being. She is currently an advisor with the California Aces Aware Initiative, UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN), and the Center for Youth Wellness, a program of Safe and Sound, as well as an Adjunct Clinical Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. She is the co-founder of the National Committee on Asthma and Toxic Stress and co-PI on “Systems-based, Multidisciplinary Assessment of Adversity and Toxic Stress for Individualized Care (The SYSTEMAATIC Project),” an ACEs and Precision Medicine research project through the California Initiative to Advance Precision Medicine (CIAPM). She co-created the “Stress Busters: Clinical Strategies for Preventing and Mitigating Toxic Stress,” a free, on-line course to help clinicians develop their clinical response to childhood adversity and toxic stress. In tandem, she led the development of the ACEs Aware Stress Busters Resource Webpage, sharing tools and resources to prevent and heal toxic stress for all of us. Dr. Gilgoff is dedicated to conducting translational research and promoting patient-centered, individualized, multidisciplinary clinical care to address health issues resulting from child abuse and toxic stress.

Board Certification:
American Board of Physician Specialties, Integrative Medicine (2022)
American Board of Pediatrics, Child Abuse Pediatrics (2011)
American Board of Pediatrics, General Pediatrics (2004)

Professional Education

Fellowship:
Integrative Psychiatry Institute, Integrative Psychiatry (2023)
Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine (2022)
Stanford University Medical Center, Pediatric Integrative Medicine (2021)
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and UC Davis, Child Abuse Pediatrics (2007)

Residency:
UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and Research Center at Oakland (2004)

Medical Education:
Keck School of Medicine, USC (2001)

Selected Publications

Gilgoff R, Marshall J, Kotz K, Ismail S, Harsamizadeh Tehrani S,…; ACEs Aware Patient Advisors; ACEs Aware Community Partner Council. (2025) “Stress Busters Toolkit for Community Based Organizations: Strategies to help clients prevent and heal from toxic stress.” California ACEs Aware Initiative, Office of the California Surgeon General, and the California Department of Health Care Services. https://www.acesaware.org/managestress/cbotoolkit/

Gilgoff, R., Mengelkoch, S,, Elbers, J., Kotz, K., Radin, A., Pasumarthi, I., Murthy, R., Sindher, S., Burke Harris, N., Slavich, G.E. (2024) The Stress Phenotyping Framework: A Multidisciplinary Biobehavioral Approach for Assessing and Therapeutically Targeting Maladaptive Stress Physiology. Stress. 27 (1).

Gilgoff R, Schwartz T, Owen M, Bhushan D, Burke Harris N. (2023) Opportunities to Treat Toxic Stress. Pediatrics. Jan 1;151(1):e2021055591.

Jeung, J., Hessler Jones, D., Frame, L., Gilgoff, R., Long, D., Thakur, N., Koita, K., Bucci, M., Burke Harris, N. (2022) A Caregiver-Child Intervention for Mitigating Toxic Stress (“The Resiliency Clinic”): A Pilot Study. Matern Child Health J.

Bhushan D, Kotz K, McCall J, Wirtz S, Gilgoff R, Dube SR, Powers C, Olson-Morgan J, Galeste M, Patterson K, Harris L, Mills A, Bethell C, Burke Harris N. (2020) Office of the California Surgeon General. Roadmap for Resilience: The California Surgeon General’s Report on Adverse Childhood Experiences, Toxic Stress, and Health. Office of the California Surgeon General.

Gilgoff R, Singh L, Koita K, Gentile B, Marques SS. (2020) Adverse Childhood Experiences, Outcomes, and Interventions. Pediatr Clin North Am. Apr;67(2):259-273.