[1] During his time at Mass General, Stanley met colleague and future wife, Dr. Ellen Li, who was concurrently completing her residency in internal medicine.

Stanley also served as director of the National Institutes of Health-funded Midwest Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research.

[10][11] Stanley's tenure at Stony Brook was marked by enhancing the faculty, boosting minority and low-income student enrollment, raising academic success rates, and increasing research funding and the university's endowment level.

[27] Stanley's term expired in 2018 and in 2020 the board expanded the NCAA's sexual violence policy to require student-athletes to annually disclose any investigations or disciplinary matters in their past.

[28][29] Stanley was named president of Michigan State University on May 28, 2019,[30] to succeed Lou Anna Simon, who resigned in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal, with his tenure officially beginning on August 1.

[35] Feedback from those survivor sessions was also meant to help develop recommendations to improve the university's handling of sexual assault and formulate a comprehensive plan.

[39] Stanley restructured administration of the university's medical, osteopathic and nursing colleges and its clinical services in October 2019 to improve oversight and alignment of health care, education, and research activities.

Some members of the board had been pressing him to retire, based on their criticism of his handling of the case of a dean in the Broad College of Business, who had been made to leave after allegations of sexual misconduct.

[5] In 2008, he worked to create the Midwest Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases Research, with a $37 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

[1] He also serves as an ambassador for the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research and has received an honorary doctorate degree in Science from Konkuk University in South Korea.