Dr. Natalie Azar is a proactive American rheumatologist, medical journalist, and public health advocate based in New York City. Her career is unique, as she has combined medical capability with media presence, making her a reliable communicator around health. Currently, in addition to actively practicing, Dr. Azar is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Rheumatology at NYU Langone Medical Center and a medical contributor at NBC News. She has committed her life to public health education around essential topics while still being a practicing physician.

Background and education

Dr. Azar entered the field of medicine primarily due to her father (also a physician), who was a practicing psychiatrist. She was born on April 9, 1970, and raised in Pennsylvania, where she was an excellent student. She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College in 1992 with her degree in psychobiology and was also inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. She obtained her medical degree from Cornell University Medical College and graduated with her honors degree in anesthesiology in 1996.

Upon completing her medical degree, she finished one year of internship and three years of internal medicine residency training with NYU/Bellevue Hospitals Center (completed in 1999), and rheumatology fellowship training was completed at NYU Hospital for Joint Diseases (also completed in 2001). As a result of the extensive medical training, Dr. Azar was well equipped for a busy and successful career in managing complex rheumatologic issues, including, but not limited to, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis.

A Career Destined as a Medical Practitioner and Journalist

CONTRIBUTE TO MEDICAL PRACTICE AND RESEARCH AND ACADEMIC TRAINING

Dr. Azar is a Clinical Assistant Professor at NYU Langone Medical Center, where she sees patients and functions as an educator. She acts as a teaching faculty in the “Practice of Medicine,” is on the admissions committee for NYU School of Medicine, and contributes her expertise to the teaching and preparation of the next generation of physicians to meet the current adversities of medicine in 2023.

IN THE MEDIA

In 2014, Dr. Azar joined NBC News as a contributor in the medical field and has reached millions of viewers on TODAY, MSNBC, and NBC Nightly News. She has used her voice and knowledge to give context to breaking medical news, health trends, public health crises, and more, depending on the circumstances. One such instance would be her communications about COVID-19 during the height of pandemic and she was lucky enough to have a role in providing information to millions of people. Dr. Azar is skilled at taking complex medical information and simplifying it for the everyday reader, listener, and viewer.

Dr. Azar has also offered her medical expertise in many other capacities outside of NBC News and even television generally, such as on the Dr. Oz show, in various articles for Everyday Health and ZocDoc, and in online wellness and video content for Healthguru.com and Sharecare.com. In 2016, she was even nominated for an Emmy and was named as one of Crain’s “People to Watch” in medical journalism.

Personal Life

Dr. Azar is married to Michael Stephen Hubner, an attorney in New York. They were married on November 10, 2000, after five years of dating. Dr. Azar and her husband have two children, Lucas Hubner and Darby Hubner, and are located in New Jersey. Even with all of the time commitments associated with the various roles she navigates, family time is a huge priority, which she routinely shares as a working parent.

Accolades and other types of advocacy

* Emmy nomination (2016): Dr. Azar was nominated for an Emmy for her work as a medical journalist for NBC News as one of the best.

* Crain’s “People to Watch”: Dr. Azar was highlighted in Crain’s article about five medical journalists, honoring them as “people to watch”: Dr. Azar was noted as a big impact medical journalist, and the article, respectively, outlined their value.

* Reporting on COVID-19: Dr. Azar has greatly contributed as a journalist alarmingly broadcasting credible, evidence-informed information on COVID-19 vaccination and public health as a whole and advocating for vaccination and other public health measures connected to COVID-19.

* ME/CFS education advocacy: Dr. Azar has been an unrelenting advocate to more education and awareness campaigns for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), and she even brought the subject of ME/CFS to the NYU medical curriculum.

Lifestyle and interests:

Dr. Azar leads an active lifestyle, where regular exercise is extremely important, and walks to work whenever she can. Dr. Azar loves reading and uses twitter to keep up to date with news and to touch base with the public. Her ongoing passion for learning and sharing knowledge is present in her daily media and medicine routines.

Net Worth

Dr. Natalie Azar’s net worth is estimated to be around 2 million dollars as of 2025. She is projected to earn 300,000 per year. As a physician, her pay is derived from her duties as a clinician, pay from being an assistant professor, and pay, or simply bankability, as compensation for her identity as a media journalist. In many ways she has reached financial security, but her overall impact is leveraging her education-based background to educate and empower audiences about health information that connects medicine to media.

Conclusion

Dr. Natalie Azar can exemplify what is possible by merging clinical expertise and communication skill. In any space, whether it be a space to see a patient, mentoring medical students, or speaking in the homes of tens of millions on television, Dr. Azar is confident in making sound contributions to improve the health of the public at large. As a physician first, educator second, and journalist last, she is simultaneously creating (and inspiring) trust and societal health.

Social media accounts:

Instagram

Twitter