Named Professorships and Directorships

Tufts University School of Medicine celebrates the continuing achievements of its named professors and directors.

Endowed and Term Professorships

  • Ekaterina Heldwein, PhD

    Ekaterina Heldwein, PhD

    Ekaterina (Katya) Heldwein, PhD, is professor of molecular biology and microbiology at the School of Medicine. She earned her PhD in biochemistry from the Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) and completed her postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard Medical School. She has been at Tufts since 2006.

    Heldwein’s lab investigates how herpesviral particles enter their target cells and move within them to establish infection, and how progeny herpesviral particles assemble and exit the cell to infect new cells and hosts. Her laboratory uses a multidisciplinary approach that combines the power of biophysics, cell biology, virology, and biochemistry. Heldwein also employs structural biology to determine the three-dimensional structures of herpesviral proteins. Early in her career, Heldwein made a breakthrough discovery in how herpesviruses penetrate their host cells to establish infection that was published in Science. Her recent work on deciphering the structural basis for how herpesviruses control their movement in nerve cells has led to a patent that covers the use of this technology in herpesvirus vaccination and oncolytic vector therapy. She is also a co-founder of Thyreos LLC, a startup that focuses on developing vaccines against neurotropic herpesviruses.

    Heldwein has received several accolades for her research, including the Pew Biomedical Scholar Award, the National Institutes of Health (NIH)’s Director’s New Innovator Award, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award, the Interscience Conference of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) Young Investigator Award, and the Merck Irving S. Sigal Memorial Award. In 2016, Heldwein was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Faculty Scholar, and in 2019, she was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She has also received several teaching awards from Tufts. Heldwein is an editorial board member of Virology and the Journal of Virology and is a member of the VIRA (Virology A) Study Section at NIH.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1968 by the American Cancer Society (ACS)'s Massachusetts Division. Founded in 1913, the ACS is dedicated to eliminating cancer as a major health problem. The professorship is held by a senior faculty researcher whose research focuses on the field of cellular differentiation and growth and leads to the better understanding of cellular processes, including those aberrant processes which contribute to cancer. In addition, the holder takes an active part in teaching medical students and post-graduate medical students in his or her special fields of competence and helps in the coordination and integration of cancer teaching.

  • John Coffin, PhD

    John M. Coffin, PhD

    John Coffin, PhD, is professor of molecular biology and microbiology at the School of Medicine. He joined Tufts in 1975.

    Coffin’s scientific career has been centered on developing an understanding of the association of retroviruses with their hosts. As a student with Howard Temin, he performed some of the initial studies defining subviral structures and their presence in cells as markers of infection. As a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Charles Weissmann, he developed methodology to show the nuclear synthesis of retrovirus RNA by RNA pol II and performed some of the initial studies on genetic structure of the retrovirus genome. In his subsequent work, he has analyzed many facets of retrovirus biology, including genome structure and genetics, mechanisms of replication, coevolution of viruses and hosts, and pathogenic mechanisms.

    Coffin has also been active in the field of HIV research. He was the founder and director of the HIV Drug Resistance Program of the National Cancer Institute and served on a number of government review and oversight committees relevant to the AIDS crisis. He has contributed extensively to scientific literature on the pathogenesis, evolution, and replication of HIV and other retroviruses, and was senior editor of Retroviruses, the definitive text in the field. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Editorial Board.

    Coffin earned his bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He completed his postdoctoral training at the Institute of Molecular Biology at the University of Zürich.

    About the Fund

    This professorship, supported by the American Cancer Society's national program, provides funding to a full-time, mid-career investigator who has made seminal contributions to cancer research and who provides leadership in his or her research area.

  • Jason Hall, MD

    Jason Hall, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCRS

    Jason F. Hall, MD, MPH, FACS, FASCRS, is professor and chair of surgery at the School of Medicine and Surgeon-in-Chief of the Department of Surgery at Tufts Medical Center. He joined Tufts in 2022.

    Dr. Hall is an international expert in diverticular disease. His other research interests include colorectal cancer and fistulas, with several of his studies appearing in national academic journals. Prior to coming to Tufts, Dr. Hall served as Chief of Colon and Rectal Surgery and Co-Director of the Dempsey Center for Digestive Disorders at Boston Medical Center. He is a recipient of fellowships from the American College of Surgeons and the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgery (ASCRS). He has received several citations for his teaching and appeared on Boston Magazine’s “Best of Boston” list of top colorectal surgeons. He was program director for Lahey Hospital’s colon and rectal surgery residency.

    Dr. Hall earned a BA in chemistry from College of the Holy Cross and his medical and Master of Public Health degrees from Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health, respectively. He completed residency training in general surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he served as the Churchill Instructor in Surgery, and a fellowship in colon and rectal surgery at Lahey Hospital and Medical Center.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1985 through an estate gift from Benjamin F. Andrews, M1914, and his wife, Catherine M. Andrews, with support from the TMCA Foundation. Andrews was a prominent physician in Worcester, Mass., and former chief surgeon at Worcester City Hospital. The Andrews Chair supports an outstanding surgeon whose principal clinical appointment is at Tufts Medical Center.

  • Clarissa Yang, MDCM

    Fei-Shiuann Clarissa Yang, MDCM

    Fei-Shiuann Clarissa Yang, MDCM, is associate professor and chair of the Department of Dermatology at the School of Medicine and chief of dermatology at Tufts Medical Center. She joined both institutions in 2018.

    Yang earned her medical degree from McGill University. She completed her medicine internship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and dermatology residency as chief resident in the Harvard Combined Dermatology Program.

    Yang is past-president of the New England Dermatological Society. Prior to joining Tufts, she held leadership positions in the Department of Dermatology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in education and curriculum reform at Harvard Medical School, and nationally in the American Academy of Dermatology’s Residents and Fellows Committee. Her work has led to enhanced interdisciplinary care, with a focus on continuity-of-care transitions and communications, as well as the use of standardized tools and technologies to support clinical and operational quality improvement initiatives. She has also been named and featured on the cover of Boston Magazine's “Top Doctor.”

    At Tufts, Yang has rapidly expanded the department and has recruited top faculty while developing Tufts’ reputation for dermatology sub-specialty clinical excellence. Specialized services include phototherapy, infusions, immunobullous disease, dermatology-rheumatology, infectious disease dermatology, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis, Mohs surgery, patch testing, hair loss, pediatric dermatology, transplant- and chemotherapy-related dermatoses, and laser and cosmetic clinics. The department also has the largest dermatology clinical trials unit in New England. Yang’s vision is to provide high quality, seamless, and specialized patient care through clinical care redesign, enhancement of education, and the advancement of research.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2003 through a gift from the Harvey B. Ansell Trust. Harvey B. Ansell, M32, served as clinical instructor in dermatology at the School of Medicine from 1952 through 1965. Ansell and his wife, Pauline, endowed this professorship to commemorate his long relationship with the school and his successful dermatology practice. The Ansell Professorship supports an outstanding faculty member from the School of Medicine’s Department of Dermatology.

  • Brent Forester

    Brent Forester, MD, MSc

    Brent Forester, MD, MSc, is professor and chair of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, psychiatrist-in-chief and chair of psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center, and director of behavioral health at Tufts Medicine. He joined Tufts in 2023.

    Dr. Forester’s research focuses on geriatric psychiatry and neurocognitive disorders, specializing in late life depression, older adult bipolar disorder, and the behavioral complications of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias. He is currently funded by three National Institute on Aging (NIA) R01 grants. Two study novel therapeutics—the synthetic cannabinoid dronabinol and electroconvulsive therapy—to treat agitation in individuals with AD and dementia. A third R01 studies the impact of nicotinamide riboside on neuronal bioenergetics and oxidative metabolism through the use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy in individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. Dr. Forester also studies collaborative care models to enhance the diagnosis and treatment of individuals with dementia, while supporting their families, within primary care medical settings. He is a past president of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry and chaired the association’s Teaching and Training Committee. Dr. Forester co-authored The Complete Family Guide to Dementia, which aims to educate and guide adult children of individuals with dementia as their families navigate the challenging dementia care journey.

    Dr. Forester trained at Dartmouth Medical School (MD), Massachusetts General Hospital (internal medicine internship), McLean Hospital (general psychiatry, chief resident), and Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (geriatric psychiatry, fellow). He also completed Harvard / MIT’s Clinical Investigator Training Program.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1992 through an estate gift from Frances S. Arkin, J1925, M1929, for the benefit of the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine. A Boston native, Arkin was a noted psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded the first psychoanalytic training program at New York Medical College in 1944, where she was a faculty member for 24 years. She was also past president of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis.

  • Andrew Greenberg, MD

    Andrew S. Greenberg, MD

    Andrew Greenberg, MD, is senior scientist and director of the Obesity Metabolism Laboratory at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts. He is also an associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and on the clinical faculty of the School of Medicine.

    While completing an endocrinology fellowship and postdoctoral training at the National Institutes of Health, Greenberg and his mentor discovered the first members of a family of proteins that coat the surface of stored fat within fat cells and unlocked pathways that regulated the storage and breakdown of fat within cells. In 1993 he moved to Tufts to assume the directorship of the Obesity Metabolism Laboratory and was named inaugural holder of the Atkins Professorship.

    Since coming to Tufts, Greenberg’s research has focused on understanding the genetic, molecular, and nutritional basis of obesity and its metabolic complications, particularly in the onset of diabetes mellitus, in an effort to prevent and develop therapeutic approaches for obesity and diabetes. He was honored by NYU School of Medicine with the Solomon A. Berson Medical Alumni Achievement Award in Basic Science, by the Obesity Society, and with the TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) Research Award for a singular achievement in the field of obesity.

    Greenberg received his undergraduate degree (with honors) from Amherst College and his medical degree from NYU School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2006 by the Dr. Robert C. and Veronica Atkins Foundation to support the teaching and research efforts of an outstanding investigator seeking to understand the complex biology of metabolism—especially as it relates to diabetes, nutrition and obesity—and to develop new treatment strategies for these conditions. The Atkins Professor provides international leadership in the study of metabolism at Tufts University and serves as a strong proponent of metabolic research, clinical and research training, and patient care, with a goal of positively impacting the health of individuals in the community and beyond.

  • Charles Cassidy, MD

    Charles Cassidy, MD

    Charles Cassidy, MD, is orthopaedist-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center and associate professor and chair of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the School of Medicine. He is also the residency director of the Tufts- Affiliated Hospitals Orthopaedic Residency Program.

    Cassidy’s expertise is in hand, elbow, and upper extremity surgery. He is past president and current member of the board of directors of the Massachusetts Orthopaedic Association and vice president of the New England Hand Society. He has also served as a member on various committees of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand and the American Orthopaedic Association. Cassidy has received numerous awards including a clinical teaching award from Tufts University School of Medicine; Teacher of the Year Award, Tufts Orthopaedics; and Mentor of the Year, Tufts University School of Medicine Graduating Class of 2011. He was named a “Top Doctor” by Boston Magazine.

    Cassidy earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College and his medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School. He completed an internship in general surgery, an orthopaedic residency, and a hand surgery fellowship at Tufts-New England Medical Center.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1978 by friends and colleagues of Henry Banks, M45, J74P, AG74P, in recognition of his professional accomplishments. Banks was the first full-time Chairman of Orthopaedics to be based at the School of Medicine, after benefitting from the tutelage of renowned physicians and researchers at Beth Israel Hospital, Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, where he was Chief of Orthopaedic Surgery. He served in leadership positions with the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy, American Board of Orthopaedic Surgery, and the American Orthopaedic Association. Banks was appointed dean of the School of Medicine in 1983, becoming dean emeritus and professor emeritus in 1990.

  • James Schwob, MD, PhD

    James E. Schwob, MD, PhD

    James Schwob, MD, PhD, is professor of developmental, molecular and chemical biology and director of the MD-PhD Program at the School of Medicine. He joined Tufts in 2000.

    Schwob’s research focuses on the phenomenon of lifelong neurogenesis in the mammalian olfactory epithelium. Since 1988 his lab has received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for work on the regulation of neural stem cells, the regeneration of this part of the nervous system, and the processes of neuronal differentiation and axonal targeting. More recently Schwob and his lab have been working to translate the basic knowledge surrounding, and develop a therapeutic strategy for reversing, the smell loss that frequently accompanies aging and viral infection in humans, including that caused by SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Schwob has served on numerous NIH and non-NIH grant review panels and as a member of the advisory council at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders and the NIH Council of Councils. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, and he was awarded the Kenji Nakanishi Research Award by the Association of Chemoreception Sciences.

    Schwob earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa and his medical degree and doctorate in neuroscience from Washington University in St. Louis. He completed his residency training in anatomic pathology at Washington University Medical Center and a postdoctoral research fellowship with David Gottlieb at Washington University in St. Louis.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was jointly established in 1926 as a memorial to George A. Bates, AG1904, D1905 (1847-1925) by the alumni associations of Tufts School of Medicine and Tufts School of Dental Medicine to fund a professorship in histology benefitting both schools. Bates was professor of Histology at Tufts’ Medicine and Dental Medicine schools. He graduated from Boston Dental College in 1889 with the degree of DDS and received his MS in 1904 and DMD (extra ordinem) in 1905 from Tufts College. An inspiring and dedicated teacher, his interests were broad, and he strove to both widen his students’ intellectual horizons and their compassion. In addition to his teaching, Bates also conducted histological and embryological research, and he ran a private dental practice in Salem and Auburndale, Mass.

  • Karl Munger, PhD

    Karl Munger, PhD

    Karl Munger, PhD, is the interim vice dean for research and the chair of the Department of Developmental, Molecular and Chemical Biology at the School of Medicine. He joined the faculty in 2014 and became a tenured professor of developmental, molecular, and chemical biology in the same year. 

    Munger studies the mechanisms by which human papillomavirus (HPV) infections contribute to human carcinogenesis. HPV infections cause approximately 5% of all human cancers, including almost all cases of cervical carcinoma, and a large percentage of other anogenital tract cancers, as well as head and neck tumors. He has identified the cancer-causing genes encoded by HPVs and has uncovered important mechanisms by which infections with these viruses drive cancer initiation and progression. His work has also led to the identification of specific vulnerabilities of HPV-infected cells that may be harnessed therapeutically. His work has been continuously supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for more than 20 years, and he has contributed more than 180 publications to the HPV field. 

    Munger has served on multiple NIH study sections and advisory panels. He is an elected member of the American Academy of Microbiology. Throughout his academic career, he has been committed to diversity efforts, and he actively contributes to all the major outreach programs offered by the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences. 

    Munger earned his PhD from Zurich University in Zurich, Switzerland, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. He started his independent research career as an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, where he moved up through the ranks and became a professor of medicine before moving his research group to Tufts.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2021 through an estate gift from Stephen L. Bishop, EG70, to support a faculty member who conducts clinical and/or basic science research designed to encourage the development of treatments for malignant diseases such as cancer. The fund is named for Mr. Bishop’s late wife, Dorothy, and honors the excellent care she received from School of Medicine faculty member and hematologist Jane Desforges, MD, M45.

  • Linden Hu, MD

    Linden Hu, MD

    Linden Hu, MD, joined the Tufts University School of Medicine faculty in 1997 as staff in the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center. He became a tenured professor of molecular biology and microbiology in 2015. 

    Hu studies the host-pathogen interactions caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease. His work spans both applied and basic immunology. His laboratory has worked on the development of vaccines for both humans and animals to prevent Lyme disease. On the basic research side, he has been studying the mechanisms by which the immune system recognizes and then develops tolerance to B. burgdorferi, and how the breakdown of these processes can lead to prolonged symptoms in patients. His work has led to more than 20 NIH grants totaling more than $35 million dollars. He also is co-director of the Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative.

    Hu has served on multiple NIH study sections and advisory panels and is co-chair of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Tick-Borne Disease Working Group. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He has also received multiple teaching awards from students at Tufts University School of Medicine.  

    Hu earned his medical degree from Brown University and completed an internal medicine residency at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston and an infectious diseases fellowship at Tufts Medical Center.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2019 by Paul Chervinsky, M.D., A48, M52, A77P, J79P, and his wife, Elaine, to support a faculty member studying immunology at the School of Medicine. A proud double Jumbo, Chervinsky was medical director and principal investigator at Northeast Medical Research Associates Inc., one of the largest clinical research centers in the U.S. He also ran a private practice, Allergy Associates Inc. Chervinsky received Tufts University’s Distinguished Service Award in 1978 in recognition of his extraordinary service to Tufts and professional excellence.

  • Rachel Buchsbaum, MD

    Rachel Buchsbaum, MD

    Rachel Buchsbaum is professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology at Tufts Medical Center, and director of the Tufts Medical Center Cancer Center. She joined the Tufts faculty as a lecturer in 1992.

    Buchsbaum has led the Hematology-Oncology Pathophysiology course for over ten years. She has received numerous teaching awards and citations from the school, including the Milton O. and Natalie V. Zucker Clinical Teaching Prize for Innovation in Medical Education. Honors for clinical practice include U.S. News & World ReportWho’s Who, and the Boston Globe’s Boston’s Top Doctors.

    Buchsbaum’s laboratory research focuses on investigation of molecular pathways in the breast cancer microenvironment that regulate cancer cell invasion and metastasis, with the goal of developing novel therapeutic inhibitors for clinical use against breast cancer. She has ongoing collaborations with multiple investigators both within and outside of Tufts to develop better tools for detection of breast cancer.

    At Tufts Medical Center, Buchsbaum is the Director of the Cancer Center, leading multi-disciplinary program development and initiatives across the institution on behalf of patients with cancer. She is a founding member and former chair of the Tufts Medical Center Women in Medicine and Science Committee. She is a standing member of the Faculty of 1000, a collaboration of international experts that identifies important articles in biology and medical research. She participates in cancer review boards, including for the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense, and she serves on national committees on medical education in cancer within the American Society of Clinical Oncology.

    Buchsbaum earned her medical degree from Cornell University and completed her internship and residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. She trained under Desforges as a hematology and oncology fellow at Tufts–New England Medical Center.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1998 by the Pratt Medical Group Inc. in honor of distinguished faculty member and alumna Jane F. Desforges, M45 (1921-2013). A renowned hematologist, Desforges was an authority on anemia, specifically sickle-cell disease and Hodgkin’s lymphoma. A recipient of several teaching awards at Tufts and the first woman to receive the American College of Physicians’ Distinguished Teacher Award, Desforges cared deeply for her students and her patients. The Desforges Chair supports an outstanding School of Medicine faculty member whose work strengthens teaching and research capabilities in the areas of hematology and oncology.

  • Kathleen Finn, MD, MPhil, FACP, SFHM

    Kathleen Finn, MD, MPhil, FACP, SFHM

    Dr. Kathleen Finn is the Vice Chair for Education and Residency Program Director in the Department of Medicine. In this role she collaborates with department leadership to promote education and training for faculty, fellows and residents and to create a learning environment of curiosity, excitement and psychological safety.

    Dr. Finn is a hospitalist by training. She earned her M.Phil in Social Anthropology from Oxford University and her medical degree at Harvard Medical School. She completed residency training at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and worked as a hospitalist at both BWH and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). She served as the Senior Associate Program Director for Resident and Faculty Development at MGH before joining Tufts in 2022.

    Dr. Finn is known for creating innovative educational workshops and medical education research. Her research has focused on supervision, leave policies, discharge safety and teamwork. She was awarded the National Board of Medical Education Stemmler Educational Research Grant in 2015 to study supervision. She is currently Chair of the APDIM Survey and Scholarship Committee and was Course Director for the Society of Hospital Medicine national meeting in 2018. She was named top hospitalist in 2014 by the American College of Physicians and received the Society of Hospital Medicine Excellent in Teaching Award in 2020.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1950 by Samuel Clapp Endicott in memory of his mother, Louisa. Mr. Endicott was a musician and composer who served as an interpreter for the Department of Justice during World War I and later as head of the language department at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Mass.

  • (vacant)

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1998 primarily through an estate gift from radiologist Jack Dreyfuss, M51, and other friends and colleagues in honor of longtime Tufts radiology professor and pioneer, Alice Ettinger (1899-1993). Ettinger helped to bring new X-ray techniques to diagnose gastrointestinal illness to the United States. She was the first radiologist-in-chief of New England Medical Center (now Tufts Medical Center) and the School of Medicine’s first chair of radiology, where she taught for more than 50 years. Jack Dreyfuss was a major figure in the clinical practice of radiology at Massachusetts General Hospital for 25 years. He was known as a meticulous gastrointestinal radiologist and an outstanding teacher of the art of fluoroscopy. Dreyfuss was Ettinger’s first resident in the U.S.

  • Mark Sarnak, MD, MS

    Mark J. Sarnak, MD, MS

    Mark J. Sarnak, MD MS, is a professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and chief of the William B. Schwartz Division of Nephrology at Tufts Medical Center.

    Sarnak became a faculty member in the Division of Nephrology at Tufts Medical Center in 1998. His research has played a seminal role in our understanding of the pathophysiology of cardiovascular disease in chronic kidney disease. He explores chronic kidney disease as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, traditional and nontraditional risk factors for cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease and cognitive impairment in chronic kidney disease, and novel prognostic markers in chronic kidney disease.

    A prolific lecturer and author with more than 350 articles to his credit, Sarnak is a recipient of the National Kidney Foundation’s Shaul G. Massry Distinguished Lecture Award. He has led or served on several guideline work groups and conferences organized by Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes, as well as on editorial boards of the field’s major journals.

    Sarnak has mentored medical students, medical residents, renal fellows, and nephrologists at Tufts and at institutions throughout the U.S. and abroad, receiving numerous commendations for his teaching. He is a sought-after clinician and keeps an active clinical practice in the Schwartz Division, where he cares for dialysis patients, transplant recipients, and patients with early-stage chronic kidney disease.

    Sarnak earned his medical degree from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and nephrology fellowship at Tufts Medical Center.

    Andrew Levey, MD

    Andrew S. Levey, MD (emeritus)

    Andrew S. Levey, MD, is former chief of the William B. Schwartz Division of Nephrology at Tufts Medical Center and a current professor of medicine at the School of Medicine.

    Levey’s development of formulas to estimate glomerular filtration rate and their use to define and classify chronic kidney disease (CKD) have transformed research, clinical practice, and public health related to CKD. His work has been instrumental in the identification of early stages of the disease in the general population and in identifying CKD as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease and as a global public health problem. Levey led the National Kidney Foundation workgroup that established the definition and classification of CKD, which has been accepted worldwide.

    Levey is a founding member of the Chronic Kidney Disease Prognosis Consortium and first principal investigator of the division’s National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases–supported training grant in clinical trials, epidemiology, and outcomes research. He is former editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Kidney Disease. He has been honored with awards from the National Kidney Foundation, the American Society of Nephrology, the European Renal Association / European Dialysis and Transplant Association, and the Association of American Physicians. He has been recognized by Thomson Reuters (now Clarivate) as a highly cited researcher (top 1% most cited works in the field). Levey has also received the Tufts University School of Medicine Distinguished Faculty Award and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Boston University School of Medicine.

    Levey earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2000 by the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman New York Foundation for Medical Research for the chief of the Division of Nephrology at New England Medical Center (now Tufts Medical Center). Gerald J. Friedman was a pioneer in the field of clinical nutrition and advocate for nutrition’s role in preventing illness who also specialized in cardiology, diabetes and metabolism, endocrinology and internal medicine. He and Mrs. Dorothy R. Friedman believed in the importance of giving back and were involved with several health-related causes at Tufts and elsewhere. The Friedman Professorship supports operations for clinical care, research, and education in nephrology within the William B. Schwartz Division of Nephrology at Tufts Medical Center.

  • José Caro, MD

    José Antonio Caro Vásquez, MD, FIDSA

    José Antonio Caro Vásquez, MD, FIDSA, is an assistant dean for multicultural affairs and assistant professor of medicine at the School of Medicine, and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center.

    Originally from Lima, Perú, Dr. Caro earned his medical degree from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, then completed an internal medicine residency at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham, Massachusetts, followed by a fellowship in infectious diseases at Boston University School of Medicine.

    Dr. Caro is passionate about enhancing the educational experience of learners in their clinical environments by decreasing barriers related to bias and inequities. He fosters an atmosphere of belonging among students, infectious disease fellows, and internal medicine residents, and leads others to replicate those efforts across our school. As a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Dr. Caro has served on the Inclusion, Diversity, Access, and Equity Task Force. He is a member of Tufts University’s Cabinet on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the School of Medicine’s Anti-Racism Committee. He holds a leadership role in various pathway programs at TUSM, including our enrichment program for undergraduate students of UMass Boston who are considering health-care or biomedical science careers.

    In addition to his focus on the medical student learning experience, Dr. Caro’s clinical and research interests include human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), human papillomavirus, and sexually transmitted infections. An accomplished physician and educator, Dr. Caro has received Top Doctor recognition from Boston Magazine and continuous praise from our students, faculty, and staff, who know him as a trusted mentor, advisor, and friend.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2018 through a gift from Gerard Gaughan, MD, M71, in memory of his wife, Jane Murphy Gaughan. The Gaughans have championed diversity and several efforts to support underrepresented students at Tufts and other institutions. This professorship is meant to be awarded to a physician leader who is responsible for diversity initiatives and programs at the School of Medicine.

  • Philip Haydon, PhD

    Philip G. Haydon, PhD

    Philip Haydon, PhD, is professor of the Department of Neuroscience at the School of Medicine. He has been at Tufts since 2008.

    Haydon’s research has focused on roles played by glial cells in the modulation of neurons and most recently has looked into the use of glial targets as therapeutic interventions for brain disorders. He published the first paper demonstrating the release of gliotransmitters and showed that astrocytes could modulate neuronal activity through the release of the excitatory transmitter glutamate. He also coined the concept of “The Tripartite Synapse” to recognize the important role played by glia in the modulation of synaptic transmission. While at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he integrated molecular genetics into his studies and established the importance of glial cells in the control of sleep. His research now focuses on the importance of glial cells in Alzheimer’s disease. Through a Tufts University spin-off company, GliaCure Inc., he has successfully moved his preclinical studies into clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease.

    Haydon has received many prestigious awards, including an Alfred P. Sloan Scholarship, the McKnight Innovator Award, and the Jacob Javits Award from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health.

    Haydon earned his bachelor’s degree with honors and his doctorate in physiology from the University of Leeds, England. He completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Iowa.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2008 through the generosity of Annetta Grisard-Schrafl, J94P, a Tufts international advisor and university trustee emerita, and her spouse, Gustav Grisard, PhD, J94P, to further strengthen Tufts’ ability to recruit excellent biomedical faculty. The Grisard Professorship supports an outstanding neuroscientist at the School of Medicine.

  • Wayne Altman, MD

    Wayne Altman, MD

    Wayne J. Altman, MD, is professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine at the School of Medicine. He joined Tufts in 1998.

    Altman is co-owner, president, and family physician at Family Practice Group, the Sagov Center for Family Medicine in Arlington, Mass. His research interests include health policy, wellness group visits, medical education, medical scribes, and vaccination hesitancy. He is president of the non-profit Wellness Campaign. He also cofounded Care That Matters, a multidisciplinary group of U.S. health care professionals that advocates for performance quality measures that are both patient-centered and evidence-based. Altman is leading MAPCAP (MA Primary Care Alliance for Patients), a grassroots effort advocating for increasing primary care investment and the shift of payment method for primary care from fee-for-service to global payment.

    At Tufts, Altman served as director of the school’s top-ranked, third-year clerkship in Family Medicine for 17 years, and he continues to direct an annual primary care faculty development conference. He led the creation of Tufts’ Competency-based Apprenticeship in Primary care (CAP) course, which involved the recruitment of more than 100 primary care clinical faculty at sites throughout New England. Altman also teaches in the Tufts Family Medicine Residency program at Cambridge Health Alliance. He has received more than 30 teaching awards from Tufts as well as “Top Doctor” recognition by Boston Magazine nine times.

    Altman received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed residency training at UMass’s Hahnemann Family Health Center.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2000 by pharmaceutical industry leader Michael Jaharis, M87P, H15; his wife, Mary, M87P; son and family physician, Steven, M87; and daughter, Kathryn; through the Jaharis Family Foundation, Inc. The Jaharis Family Chair supports an outstanding physician and advocate in the area of family medicine.

  • Chloe Bird

    Chloe Bird, PhD, FAAAS, FAAHB

    Chloe E. Bird, PhD, FAAAS, FAAHB, is director of the Center for Health Equity Research at Tufts Medical Center and a professor of medicine at the School of Medicine.

    Her research has focused on eliminating health disparities, primarily by improving women’s health and health care. With funding from the National Institutes of Health and support from a wide array of other federal, foundation, and corporate organizations, she has conducted numerous studies demonstrating gaps in the evidence base on women’s health and health care and the opportunities to improve science, policy and practice. Much of her current work focuses on improving maternal health outcomes to reduce disparities in women’s health.

    Dr. Bird has served as a senior advisor in the National Institutes of Health’s Office for Research on Women’s Health and as editor of the journal Women's Health Issues. She received the 2020 William Foote Whyte career award from the American Sociological Association (ASA) Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology and the 2021 Distinguished Career Award in the Practice of Sociology from the ASA.

    Dr. Bird is a member of Women of Impact in Healthcare. She earned her BA with Honors in sociology from Oberlin College. She earned her PhD and MA in sociology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1954 by the Theodore Edson Parker Foundation and colleagues in honor of Sara Murray Jordan, M1921, H43 (1884-1959). A world-renowned gastroenterologist, Jordan was a founding member of the Lahey Clinic in Boston, Mass., and in charge of its Department of Gastroenterology from 1923 until her retirement in 1958. She also served on the Tufts University Board of Trustees from 1951 to 1959. Physician, scientist, and mother, she exemplified the best in her varied career.

  • Geoff Binney, Karp Professor of Pediatrics

    Geoffrey Binney Jr., MD, MPH

    Geoffrey Binney, MD, MPH, is chair of the Department of Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine and president of Pratt Pediatrics at the Tufts Medical Center Physicians Organization. As a clinical neonatologist, he continues to care for sick neonates in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Tufts and in many of the department’s community-affiliated nurseries.

    Binney holds passion for and commitment to teaching, acting as rotation director for both the NICU Acting Internship and Taste of the NICU courses at the School of Medicine (2015-2018) and receiving consistent high praise from trainees at all levels. He has also facilitated the school’s Problem Based Learning course and served as a mentor to numerous pediatric residents, junior faculty, and neonatal-perinatal fellows.

    Binney’s interest is in improving quality and safety. He has served on the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Perinatal Advisory Committee (2010-2017) and continues to serve on the DPH’s Newborn Screening Advisory Committee (2013-present). At Tufts Medical Center, he serves on the Solutions for Patient Safety’s Oversight Team, Neonatal Quality Improvement Collaborative of Massachusetts (NeoQIC) quality improvement teams, Care Improvement Council, Infection Control Committee, Patient Experience Committee, and the Board of Trustees for the Tufts Medical Center Physicians Organization.

    Binney obtained his medical degree from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, and completed both his residency in pediatrics and fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC.  He also obtained a Master of Public Health degree from George Washington University, with a focus on Administrative Medicine.

    About the Fund

    This professorship in pediatrics was endowed in 1984 by David Karp, M34, and Mrs. Leona F. Karp in honor of Karp’s 50th reunion from Tufts University School of Medicine. Karp practiced pediatrics in Quincy, Mass., for 45 years. He was a senior instructor in pediatrics at the School of Medicine and served on the staff of the Floating Hospital for Infants and Children of New England Medical Center.

  • (vacant)

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established through a commitment from neurosurgeon Ghahreman Khodadad, M.D., which concurrently established the Ghahreman Khodadad Center for the Study of Excessive Pathological Selfishness (EPS) based at the School of Medicine. The long-term vision of the Khodadad Center is to develop an understanding of the neurobiological underpinnings of EPS that can serve as a basis for the development of its relief. The Khodadad Professor conducts EPS research and serves as the director of the Khodadad Center.

  • David Greenblatt, MD

    David J. Greenblatt, MD

    David J. Greenblatt, MD, is a professor in the Department of Immunology and a professor of psychiatry, medicine, and anesthesia at the School of Medicine. He is also a member of the Special and Scientific Research staff at Tufts Medical Center.

    Greenblatt has been an active investigator in a number of areas, including the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and neuroreceptor properties of benzodiazepine derivatives; the influence of age, gender, and body habitus on drug disposition and response; molecular mechanisms and consequences of drug-drug interactions; modulation of drug metabolism by nutrients and natural medicines; and the regulation of expression and function of Cytochrome P450 enzymes and energy-dependent transport proteins.

    Greenblatt has authored nearly 1,100 publications listed on PubMed, of which more than 780 are original research articles.  He served as co-editor-in-chief, with Tufts Professor Emeritus Richard I. Shader, MD, of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology since the Journal’s founding in 1980 up until 2020. He also is founding editor-in-chief of Clinical Pharmacology in Drug Development. Greenblatt received the Rawls-Palmer Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the Research Achievement Award in Clinical Sciences from the American Association of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and an Outstanding Speaker Award from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry. He also received three awards from the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, of which he is a former president. In 2015, he was the recipient of the School of Medicine’s Distinguished Faculty Award, and in 2016 received the PhRMA Foundation Award in Excellence in Clinical Pharmacology.

    Greenblatt earned his bachelor’s degree (magna cum laude) from Amherst College, and his medical degree from Harvard Medical School. He completed training in internal medicine at the Montefiore Hospital, New York City, and the Harvard Medical Service at Boston City Hospital. He completed a fellowship in clinical pharmacology at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he later headed the Clinical Pharmacology Unit before joining Tufts in 1979.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1997 by the Behrakis Foundation, G.D. Searle & Co., and other friends and colleagues of Louis Lasagna, MD (1923-2003), dean of the Tufts Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences from 1984 to 2002 and founder, and director of the Center for the Study of Drug Development from 1984 to 1998. Lasagna was often called the “father of clinical pharmacology,” largely a result of his considerable teaching and research in the field following the publication of his groundbreaking article in the American Journal of Medicine in 1954 in which he showed that taking a pill, even one containing no medication, can have a “placebo effect.”

  • Aviva Must, PhD

    Aviva Must, PhD, N87, NG92

    Aviva Must is the Morton A. Madoff, M.D., M.P.H., Professor of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and a professor in the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition and Policy at Tufts.

    Trained as a nutritional epidemiologist, Must’s primary research has focused on the epidemiology of obesity in children and adolescents. Her research was among the first to establish the link between adolescent obesity to all-cause mortality and cardiovascular mortality. She has continued to conduct epidemiologic research on physical and psychological health consequences of childhood obesity. Her current observational and intervention research focuses on modifiable risk factors for obesity in youth in community settings, with a current focus on underserved and vulnerable pediatric populations, racial/ethnic minorities, immigrants, and youth with developmental disabilities.

    Must earned an undergraduate degree in biology from New York University, and a PhD in nutrition from Tufts University, with fellowship support from the National Science Foundation. 

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1999 by Tufts Health Plan to honor the many contributions that Morton Madoff, MD, MPH (1927-2009), made to Tufts Health Plan from its inception in the early 1970s to the present time. Madoff served as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Tufts Health Plan from 1978 to 1998, was professor and then chairman of the School of Medicine’s Department of Community Health from 1974 to 1992, and served as dean of the School of Medicine from 1992 to 1995. An educator, physician, public health leader, and innovator, Madoff was a distinguished and greatly admired member of the Tufts community.

  • Iris Jaffe, MD, PhD

    Iris Jaffe, MD, PhD

    Iris Jaffe, MD, PhD, is professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and Executive Director of the Molecular Cardiology Research Institute (MCRI) at Tufts Medical Center.

    Jaffe joined the School of Medicine faculty in 2005 as a cardiologist and investigator in the MCRI. The work of the Jaffe Laboratory combines her expertise in gene transcription and vascular biology with her interests as a clinical cardiologist to explore the molecular mechanisms that contribute to common cardiovascular diseases. She was the first to demonstrate the presence of functional mineralocorticoid receptors in human vascular cells and explored their role in hypertension, atherosclerosis and aging and more recently is exploring mechanisms by which cancer treatments promote cardiovascular disease.

    In addition to her research, Jaffe has mentored many budding scientists, cares for patients as an attending cardiologist, and has taken on several leadership roles at Tufts. She was the first chair of the Women in Medicine Committee at Tufts Medical Center and is co-program director of the Tufts NIH Building Interdisciplinary Careers in Women’s Health (BIRCWH) training grant.

    Awards and honors include the Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Milton O. and Natalie V. Zucker Award from Tufts School of Medicine. She is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Association of University Cardiologists, and the Association of American Physicians. Jaffe also chaired the NIH Vascular Cell and Molecular Biology Study Section and is Associate Editor of the journal Circulation.

    Jaffe earned her medical and doctoral degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. She completed residency training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and fellowship training in the MCRI (in vascular biology research) and cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1998 by New England Medical Center (NEMC) and the School of Medicine to support the executive director of the Molecular Cardiology Research Institute at NEMC (now Tufts Medical Center). In 2006 the fund was renamed the “Elisa Kent Mendelsohn Professorship in Molecular Cardiology” in memory of the daughter of the chair’s inaugural holder, Michael Mendelsohn.

  • Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, PhD

    Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha

    Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha is the Julia A. Okoro Professor of Black Maternal Health in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Her current research interests include maternal health disparities, reproductive health and social justice, infant mortality, and HIV/AIDS in Black women. Amutah-Onukagha also serves as the inaugural Assistant Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Tufts’ Public Health and Professional Degree Programs.

    Amutah-Onukagha is the Principal Investigator of two multi-year studies on maternal mortality and morbidity: an R01 funded by National Institutes of Health, and an interdisciplinary grant on health equity funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Additionally, she is a member of the MA COVID-19 Maternal Equity Coalition and was honored with the American Public Health Association’s Maternal and Child Health Section’s Young Professional of the Year Award in 2019. She was a 2020 recipient of the National Minority Quality Forum’s 40 Under 40 Leaders in Minority Health Award. Amutah-Onukagha is a life-long member of the American Public Health Association and is currently the co-chair of the Perinatal and Women's Health committee in the Maternal and Child Health section. She also serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Women’s Health Issues, and as a board member for the Neighborhood Birth Center in Boston and the National Women’s Health Network. A nationally known speaker, her work has been featured in The Atlantic, The Lancet, and, most recently, the TedX stage.

    Amutah-Onukagha is the Founder and Director of the Maternal Outcomes for Translational Health Equity Research (MOTHER) Lab, a research lab comprised of 35 students from undergraduates to postdoctoral fellows with a keen interest in reducing maternal health disparities as experienced by Black women. A well-published author, she has over 45 manuscripts, five book chapters, a best-selling book on Amazon, and a textbook on culturally responsive evaluation. She joined the faculty of Tufts University School of Medicine in 2017 and lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two sons.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2021 by an anonymous couple to support a faculty member studying Black maternal health. The fund is named for Julia A. Okoro, the grandmother of the professorship’s first holder, Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, PhD, who was a midwife in Nigeria.

  • Erika F. Werner, MD, MS

    Erika F. Werner, MD, MS

    Erika F. Werner, MD, MS, is the Chair of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the School of Medicine and the Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Tufts Medical Center. Werner joined Tufts in 2021. Prior to Tufts, she served in numerous roles at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, including Fellowship Program Director, Director of Obstetrical Peer Review and, most recently, Division Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine.

    Werner is a national expert on diabetes in pregnancy, preeclampsia, and cost-effective practices in obstetrics. She has had funding from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), and the American Diabetes Association. She has nearly 100 peer-reviewed publications, and is the associate editor of several obstetric journals, as well as the Diabetes section editor for the online medical resource UpToDate. Werner has won numerous teaching awards including from the National Council on Resident Education in Obstetrics and Gynecology, has been recognized by the March of Dimes for her research in prematurity, and was voted “Distinguished Physician of Year” by the Care New England Medical Staff for her service to the Rhode Island community during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is also on the board of the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine and advocates nationally for improvements in health care to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality. 

    Werner received her undergraduate degree in biology and a graduate degree in environmental engineering at the University of Virginia, where she also completed her residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology. She completed her fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at Yale University.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1959 in memory of Louis Eusebe Phaneuf, M1913, by his friends and colleagues. Renowned within the field of gynecology, Phaneuf was professor of gynecology at the School of Medicine for over 40 years. Leader of and surgeon in the Department of Gynecology at Carney Hospital, he served as consultant to no fewer than thirteen hospitals in the Boston area. Among the many honors bestowed upon Phaneuf by Tufts were an honorary Doctor of Science degree and the Distinguished Service Award. In 1938, he was made an Officer of the Order of the Crown by King Leopold of Belgium.

  • Arjang Djamali, MD, MS, FASN, FACP

    Arjang Djamali, MD, MS, FASN, FACP

    Arjang Djamali, MD, MS, FASN, FACP, is professor of medicine at the School of Medicine and chair of medicine and director of the Adult Medicine Service Line at Maine Medical Center (MaineHealth system). Dr. Djamali joined Maine Medical Center in January 2022, where he plays an important role in the clinical training of MD students who rotate in the MaineHealth system, including members of the Maine Track program.

    Prior to joining Maine Medical Center, Dr. Djamali was on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW Health), where he rose through the ranks to the position of tenured professor of medicine and surgery and head of nephrology.

    As a transplant nephrologist and scientist with more than 200 manuscripts published in peer-reviewed journals, Dr. Djamali is considered a national leader in the areas of antibody mediated processes and kidney transplant outcomes. He has been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), foundations, and industry throughout his career and has been a member of the NIH’s, Veterans Affairs Hospital’s, and national societies’ grant review panels; a member of advisory panels to the FDA and pharmaceutical industry; an invited speaker nationally and internationally; and a member of planning committees for national and international society meetings. Dr. Djamali has three INDs (investigational new drugs in clinical trials in transplants) and is the associate editor of Kidney360, the most recent publication from the American Society of Nephrology.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was jointly established by the School of Medicine and St. Elizabeth's Hospital, then one of its major teaching hospitals, in honor of Maurice S. Segal, A1928, M32, A65P (1907-1988). Dr. Segal, an internationally recognized pioneer in the field of inhalation therapy and respiratory care, was pivotal in the development of one of the earliest lung stations in the nation for respiratory care and research. His contributions to teaching and research at Tufts spanned a period of 40 years and led to his appointment as professor emeritus in 1973.

  • Caroline Attardo Genco, PhD

    Caroline Attardo Genco, PhD

    Caroline Attardo Genco, PhD, is Provost and Senior Vice President at Tufts University as well as a professor of immunology at the School of Medicine.

    As a member of President Sunil Kumar’s senior team, Genco works with faculty and university leadership to develop and implement strategic research priorities at Tufts, advocates for the research and scholarship mission of all disciplines across all of Tufts’ schools, facilitates strategies to enhance extramurally supported research from all sources, and accelerates interdisciplinary initiatives.

    Genco’s research and translational work focuses on chronic inflammation and the role of the microbiome in systemic inflammatory disorders, sexually transmitted infections, and oral infectious diseases. A distinguished scientist, she has authored more than 125 scientific articles, and her research program has been continuously supported by NIH. She has served on numerous NIH scientific advisory committees. While chairing the School of Medicine’s Department of Immunology, she restored fiscal sustainability and re-energized the department’s research enterprise by recruiting early-career faculty who are ethnically and gender diverse, as well as facilitating interdisciplinary collaborations.

    Genco has a strong track record of institutional leadership at all levels and served as PI on an NIH pre- and post-doctoral training grant, PI on two Program Project Grants, and project leader on two Center Grants. She is a graduate of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM®) program. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and completed postdoctoral training at the Centers for Disease Control.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2015 with an estate gift from Arthur E. Spiller, A34, M38. Spiller practiced ophthalmology in Needham, Mass., for many years and was professionally associated with the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, the V.A. Regional Office, Boston City Hospital, and Holy Ghost Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. The Spiller Professorship supports an outstanding biomedical researcher-educator at the School of Medicine who demonstrates expertise in the field of genetics. 

  • John Leong, MD, PhD

    John Leong, MD, PhD

    John Leong, MD, PhD, is professor and chair of the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the School of Medicine.

    Leong studies bacterial pathogens and the host-microbe interactions that lead to pathogen clearance or tissue damage and disease. While a faculty member at Tufts Medical Center in the early 1990s, he began studies of the Lyme disease bacterium and later, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, his investigations also focused on host-cell manipulation by the food-borne enterohemorrhagic E. coli pathogen. Leong came back to Tufts to chair the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology in 2011 and initiated a research program focused on the respiratory pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae, including investigation into the particular susceptibility of elderly individuals to this infection. He catalyzed the construction of a state-of-the-art biocontainment laboratory at the School of Medicine as part of an effort to build a cutting-edge research program to fight the global scourge of tuberculosis, and he hired two new faculty to investigate the TB pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This bacterium is notoriously difficult to treat, in part due to drug resistance, and Leong has been instrumental in the establishment of the Stuart B. Levy Center for the Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance, a joint endeavor of Tufts Medical Center and Tufts University.

    Leong was a Pew Biomedical Scholar and an American Heart Association Established Investigator. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and the recipient of a Tufts Distinguished Faculty Award and the Tufts Discovery Award.

    After earning his PhD and MD from Brown University, Leong trained as a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellow with Ralph Isberg in the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2016 through a gift from Hyman S. Trilling, A28, J57P, A62P, AG67P, and Edith Rieva Trilling, J57P, A62P, AG67P. A businessman with an economics degree from Tufts, Mr. Trilling founded Hub Cash and Carry Groceries, frozen fishery company Boston Bonnie Inc., and Boston Bonnie Bakers Inc. Long interested in the concerns of the elderly, he and Mrs. Trilling founded the Trilling House assisted living center in Randolph, Mass., and were also benefactors of the Hebrew Rehabilitation Center for the Elderly. The Trilling Professorship supports an outstanding scholar-educator at the School of Medicine whose research is related to geriatrics or aging.

  • Margie Skeer, PhD

    Margie R. Skeer, ScD, MPH, MSW

    Margie Skeer, ScD, MPH, MSW, is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and leader of the behavioral science and health communication concentration in the Master of Public Health Program.

    Skeer’s research currently focuses on interpersonal communication and the role that family meals play in adolescent risk prevention. She has served as principal investigator on multiple studies to develop and test innovative interventions related to adolescent substance use prevention. These include a substance use preventive intervention geared toward parents of fifth- through seventh-grade students in schools in Greater Boston, funded through the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and a study in rural Idaho to develop a methamphetamine use prevention communication intervention for teens delivered by dental clinicians, funded by the DentaQuest Foundation. She was also funded to conduct qualitative research with parents and guardians and their high school–age children on perspectives around marijuana as the recreational law took effect in Massachusetts.

    Skeer earned her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University, her master’s degrees in social work and public health from Boston University, and her doctorate in social epidemiology from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She also completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Brown University Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies. She joined Tufts in 2011.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2019 by Ken Weiner, MD, A73, M77, Anita Hailey, and their family. A national expert in the treatment of eating disorders, Ken Weiner is executive chairman and founding partner of Eating Recovery Center, a behavioral healthcare system for the treatment of eating disorders with 30 locations in seven states. The Weiner Hailey Family Professorship is held by a faculty member studying addiction prevention and intervention to support his or her teaching, research, service, and other activities. Additionally, the family established the Weiner Hailey Family Research Fund to support the Weiner Hailey Family Professor’s research activities.

  • Pilar Alcaide, PhD

    Pilar Alcaide, PhD

    Pilar Alcaide is an associate professor of immunology, the director of the Immunology graduate program, and a Kenneth and JoAnn G. Wellner Professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to Tufts, Alcaide was appointed to instructor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, where she successfully competed for a “Pathway to Independence NIH K99/R00” award.

    Alcaide’s research focuses in understanding the role of T lymphocytes in heart inflammation and their impact on the progression of heart failure, with the goal of unveiling new pathways that can potentially be targeted in therapeutic useful ways. Alcaide’s impactful work in the growing field of cardio-immunology has been published in prestigious journals such as Circulation and the Journal of Experimental Medicine, and has resulted in continuous funding from the NIH and private foundations.

    Alcaide has received several awards, including the Cotran Early Career Investigator, awarded to early career investigators with demonstrated excellence in pathology, and was named a Fellow of the American Heart Association. In addition, Alcaide is committed to mentoring and training the next generation scientists and has forged a reputation as a role model for women in science, serving on many review panels and committees nationally.

    Alcaide received her PhD, cum laude, in molecular biology and immunology from the Universidad Autonoma of Madrid, Spain. As a recipient of a Fulbright postdoctoral fellowship, Alcaide trained in vascular biology at the Department of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

    Jamie Maguire, PhD

    Jamie L. Maguire, PhD

    Jamie Maguire, PhD, is a tenured associate professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine. She has been at Tufts since 2010.

    Maguire’s research focuses on the contribution of stress and GABAergic inhibition to the underlying neurobiology of neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders, including epilepsy, postpartum depression, major depression, anxiety disorders, and alcohol/substance use disorders. Given the adverse effects of stress on numerous health outcomes, Maguire’s research is able to span multiple research areas, investigating novel mechanisms whereby stress contributes to the underlying neurobiology of disease and potential targets for treatment. Her work has led to the first FDA-approved treatment specifically for postpartum depression. Her research, which has received significant media attention and sparked collaborations both within and outside of Tufts, has been supported by several foundation grants, including a Young Investigator Award from the American Epilepsy Society; four substantial R01 Research Project Grants from the National Institutes of Health; and a sponsored research agreement with Sage Therapeutics.

    Maguire is on the faculty for the graduate programs in Neuroscience and Pharmacology & Drug Development within Tufts’ Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and she serves as the director of the Building Diversity in Biomedical Sciences program. She has contributed to training future scientists ranging from high-school students to postdoctoral fellows. In addition to her research, teaching and service efforts at Tufts, Maguire leads science-related outreach efforts in the community and is an active committee member with the American Epilepsy Society. She is on the editorial board for the Society’s publication Epilepsy Currents as well as Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.

    Maguire earned her undergraduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and her PhD in neuroscience from The George Washington University. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Los Angeles, under the mentorship of Istvan Mody, PhD.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2018 through a gift from JoAnn Wellner, Esq., J63. A trustee emerita of Tufts University, Ms. Wellner’s long involvement with her alma mater has also included serving as chair of the university libraries’ Board of Overseers; as founding chair of the Friends of Tufts Libraries; on the Board of Advisors for the School of Arts & Sciences; and as chair of the Board of Advisors for the School of Medicine. Ms. Wellner’s gift commemorates her late husband, Kenneth Wellner, and his inspiring optimism in the face of great difficulties. The fund can either support a professorship for a senior faculty member, or two faculty development professorships, at the School of Medicine.

  • Gennaro Carpinito, MD

    Gennaro A. Carpinito, MD

    Gennaro A. Carpinito, MD, is urologist-in-chief at Tufts Medical Center and professor and chair of the Department of Urology at the School of Medicine since 2005. He joined Tufts Medical Center in 2003 where he served as chief of adult urology.

    A specialist in urologic oncology, minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, and da Vinci robotic surgery, Carpinito was awarded the prestigious Leadbetter Fellowship in Cancer in 1982 by the American Urologic Association, allowing him to conduct extensive, basic science research in cancer. This led to the development of a pioneering and novel immunotherapy for metastatic kidney cancer, autolymphocyte therapy (ALT), and a noninvasive immunodiagnostic test (NMP-22) for early detection and monitoring of urothelial carcinoma, which is now used worldwide. Carpinito pioneered laparoscopic surgery in Boston and created the laparoscopy programs at both Boston Medical Center (including the Living Kidney Donor Transplant Program) and at Tufts Medical Center. He also developed a very successful preceptorship program to teach this challenging methodology to his urology colleagues.

    Carpinito has received numerous awards, including “Outstanding Teacher of the Year” and Oliver Smith awards. He was named as one of “America’s Top Physicians for Cancer” by Castle Connolly and a “Top Doctor” by Boston Magazine. He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honors Medical Society. Prior to coming to Tufts, he was a faculty member at Boston University School of Medicine and chief of the Urology Department at Boston City Hospital.

    Carpinito earned his bachelor’s degree from Boston University and his medical degree from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed his residency training in urology, subspecializing in renal transplantation, at Boston University.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1977 with an estate gift from Charles M. Whitney, MD. A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Whitney served on the Tufts faculty from 1903- to 1932, achieving the rank of professor of Urology. The Whitney Professorship supports an outstanding faculty member from the Department of Urology.

  • Karen Freund, MD, MPH

    Karen Freund, MD, MPH

    Karen M. Freund, MD, MPH, is Physician-in-Chief at Tufts Medical Center, and Professor and Chair of Medicine at the School of Medicine. She joined the School of Medicine faculty in 2012.

    Freund’s research has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for over 30 years, resulting in more than 180 publications. Her first focus area is disease prevention and chronic disease management for women and under-resourced populations. She is a principal investigator of a five-year NIH grant to eliminate breast cancer treatment disparities across the city of Boston through a regional collaboration of medical centers focused on patient navigation and social determinants of health. Her previous funding has included the development of patient navigation programs, and investigation of the impact of insurance reform on chronic disease outcomes.

    Freund also studies the career trajectories of women and faculty underrepresented in medicine and science medicine. She is a passionate mentor of early-career faculty as principal investigator of NIH-sponsored career development awards including Tufts’ Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women’s Health Program. Freund is a recipient of Tufts Medical Center’s BJ Magnani Leadership Award, the American Cancer Society – Harry and Elsa Jiler Clinical Research Professorship, and was the Society of General Internal Medicine’s 2013 Distinguished Professor in Women’s Health.

    Freund earned her medical degree from Stanford University School of Medicine and completed residency training at Cambridge Health Alliance / Harvard Medical School (internal medicine) and Boston University Medical Center (preventive medicine), followed by a general internal medicine fellowship at Boston University Medical Center.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1995 by New England Medical Center (now Tufts Medical Center), Charles A. Dinarello, Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Tupper, Mr. and Mrs. Walter Moreira Salles, the Abbott Fund, and other close friends of Sheldon M. Wolff, MD, M83P. Wolff, a renowned expert on infectious and inflammatory diseases, served as physician-in-chief of New England Medical Center from 1976 until his untimely death in 1994. The Wolff Professorship supports an outstanding contributor to internal medicine who emulates Wolff’s leadership as a clinician, teacher, and investigator.

  • Timothy McAlindon, MD, MPH

    Timothy E. McAlindon, MD, MPH

    Timothy McAlindon, MD, MPH, is chief of the Division of Rheumatology at Tufts Medical Center and professor of medicine at the School of Medicine.

    McAlindon is recognized internationally for his work in the field of osteoarthritis. His research is focused on the development of simple and inexpensive disease-modifying interventions for osteoarthritis. He is one of a small number of investigators developing expertise in highly technological image-based evaluation of osteoarthritis structural progression and has been awarded research grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate the role of bone in osteoarthritis progression using periarticular DEXA X-rays and MRI-based trabecular morphometry.

    McAlindon has co-authored articles in multiple publications including The American Journal of Medicine and JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association. He is a member of the steering committee of the NIH Osteoarthritis Initiative and co-principal investigator at its Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island clinical site. He is also on the board of the Osteoarthritis Research Society International. He has been named a “Top Doctor” by Boston Magazine.

    McAlindon earned his medical degree from the University of Southampton School of Medicine and his master of public health degree from Boston University School of Public Health. He completed his medical training at Bristol Royal Infirmary (UK) and St. Thomas’ Hospital, London.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 1998 with support from Milton Zucker, M30, Natalie V. Zucker, MS, Tufts University, New England Medical Center (NEMC), and Pratt Medical Group. The Zuckers were ardent supporters of Tufts University School of Medicine throughout their lives. The Zucker Chair in Rheumatology is meant to fulfill the vision that the Division of Rheumatology and Arthritis Center continue to be internationally recognized affiliates of NEMC (now Tufts Medical Center) and the School of Medicine, committed to quality care and excellence in research.

  • Claire L. Moore

    Claire Moore, PhD

    Claire Moore, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Developmental, Molecular, and Chemical Biology at the School of Medicine.

    Moore studies the molecular mechanisms of mRNA processing, its regulation during differentiation and oncogenesis and in response to environmental cues, and its coordination with other nuclear processes. Her research has been steadily funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation, and the American Cancer Society (ACS). Awards and honors include the Distinguished Faculty Award from the School of Medicine, the ACS Junior Faculty Research Award, election into the American Academy of Microbiology, and induction into the Tufts University Hall of Diversity.

    A passionate advocate for increasing diversity within the field of biomedical research, Moore has established or co-developed several successful pipeline programs at Tufts and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences serving undergraduate students from underrepresented-in-science backgrounds. These include the Building Diversity in Biomedical Sciences program and the Postbaccalaureate Research Education Program. She also established and directs the NIH-funded Institutional Research and Career Development program, which prepares Tufts postdoctoral fellows for academic careers through partnerships with minority-serving colleges in the Boston area. Recently, she helped develop the Leadership, Education, Advancement and Diversity Scholars Program, which is funded by the Genentech Foundation, and offers structured professional development to postgraduates and faculty at the School of Medicine who are members of groups underrepresented in medicine and biomedical sciences.

    Moore earned her PhD from the University of North Carolina. She conducted postdoctoral studies at the Pasteur Institute (Paris, France) and with Philip Sharp at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she earned a BSc and MSc and participated in the discovery of mRNA splicing, which later earned Sharp a Nobel Prize.

    About the Fund

    This professorship was established in 2001 by psychologist Natalie V. Zucker, MS. Discouraged from becoming a physician by her physician father, Mrs. Zucker’s passion was to support women at Tufts University School of Medicine, the alma mater of her husband, Milton Zucker, M30. The Zucker Professorship is designated for an outstanding female scholar and teacher at the School of Medicine, selected from any discipline, who is willing to be a role model and mentor for other women at the School of Medicine.

Endowed Directorships

  • Laura Snydman, MD, Berman Clerkship Director

    Laura K. Snydman, MD, M04

    Laura K. Snydman, MD, M04, FACP, is an associate professor of medicine at the School of Medicine. She joined the Department of Medicine at Tufts Medical Center in 2007.

    Snydman is passionate about medical education and has dedicated her time to teaching and mentoring medical students at Tufts in various capacities. She was a preceptor in the Competency-based Apprenticeship in Primary Care course from 2010 to 2016, a facilitator in the Introduction to Clinical Reasoning course from 2010 to 2016, a Learning Community Advisor from 2013 to 2020, and has co-directed the popular month-long Medical Education Elective for fourth-year medical students with Dean Maria Blanco since 2009. She has been the site director of the third- and fourth-year internal medicine clerkships at Tufts Medical Center since 2013, and in 2019 she became the overall internal medicine clerkship director, overseeing 12 hospital sites for the third-year medicine clerkship.

    Snydman has won multiple faculty recognition awards, including the 2018 Jack Mitus Special Faculty Recognition Award, the 2016 Outstanding Teaching in the Clerkship Years Award, and the 2015 Julius ‘Red’ Kritzman Award for Primary Care Teaching. In 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2020, she was nominated by the School of Medicine’s graduating classes to receive the Excellence in Teaching Award. She was inducted into Alpha Omega Alpha as a faculty member in 2015 and was the invited Faculty Marshall for Commencement Exercises in 2016 and 2018.

    Snydman’s clinical interests are in primary care, preventative medicine, and medical weight management. She was listed in Boston Magazine’s “Top Doctors” in 2020 and 2021. She earned her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and completed residency training at Tufts Medical Center.

    About the Fund

    This fund was established in 2019 by Harris A. Berman, MD, FACP, on the occasion of his retirement as dean of Tufts University School of Medicine. Berman, a professor of public health and community medicine and infectious disease specialist, became dean ad interim in 2009 and served as dean from 2011 to 2019. Among his accomplishments as dean were the launch of the Maine Track Program and the opening of the Michael Jaharis Jr., M87P, H15, Anatomy Laboratory. Prior to arriving at the medical school, he was a pioneer in managed care and then chief executive of Tufts Health Plan. The directorship supports the faculty member who is responsible for the school’s medicine clerkship. 

  • Keith Nokes

    Keith Nokes, MD, MPH 

    Keith Nokes received his MD/MPH degree from the University of Connecticut and trained in Family Medicine at the University of Rochester’s Brown Square “Inner City” Track. He completed a four-year National Health Service Corps scholarship commitment at the Greater Lawrence Family Health Center (GLFHC, a community health center in Lawrence, Mass.), where he has practiced since 2001. He has served in a number of faculty and leadership roles in Lawrence, including chief of family medicine at Lawrence General Hospital, director of off-site clinical programs (including GLFHC’s School-Based Health Centers and its Health Care for the Homeless program), and primary care medical home clinical team leader. He is currently director of medical student education for the health center and a faculty member at the health center-based Lawrence Family Medicine Residency Program, where he directors inpatient pediatric training for the residents, precepts residents in the hospital and clinic, and works with the health center and the My Care Family Accountable Care Organization on initiatives to identify and address unmet social needs.

    Nokes co-founded the Sam W. Ho Health Justice Scholars Program at Tufts University School of Medicine in 2012 and served as the program’s co-director prior to assuming leadership in 2019. The Ho Health Justice Scholars Program is a longitudinal program for medical students committed to the care of populations which have been systematically underserved and marginalized within our current health system. Scholars complete a four-year curriculum of didactic, clinical, and project experiences focused on the development of knowledge and skills in preparation for careers as leaders in working in and engaging with communities facing increased barriers to health.

    Nokes’ academic interests include health inequities, the role of health systems in identifying and addressing unmet social needs, and medical student/resident education with a focus on health justice.

    About the Directorship

    This directorship celebrates Tufts University School of Medicine’s commitment to health justice and was made possible through the generosity of Sam W. Ho, MD, M76. It is held by the director of the Sam W. Ho Health Justice Scholars Program, which gives students the knowledge and skills to become physician-leaders who work in and engage with communities that face barriers to health and medical care. Dr. H. Jack Geiger (1925-2020) was a professor of community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and co-founded the nation’s first community health centers with Dr. Count Gibson in South Boston and Mound Bayou, Mississippi, in the 1960s. 

  • Jody Schindelheim, MD, Hira and Toos Family Clerkship Director

    Jody Schindelheim, MD

    Jonathan (Jody) Schindelheim, MD, is vice chairman of medical education and residency training at Tufts Medical Center and a clinical professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine.

    Schindelheim has been the director of the first-year course “Medical Interviewing and the Doctor-Patient Relationship” and clerkship director for the Department of Psychiatry since the early 1980s and the program director for the General Psychiatry Residency at Tufts Medical Center since 2001. He has been recognized as a leader in medical education at both the local and national levels. He is the recipient of numerous teaching awards from the School of Medicine (many Special Faculty Recognition Awards, Outstanding Teacher in the Clinical Sciences Awards, and Citations for Excellence in Teaching, as well as the Milton O., M30, and Natalie Zucker V. Clinical Teaching Prize), and from the Department of Psychiatry (Medical Student Teaching Awards and Resident Excellence in Teaching Awards). In addition, Schindelheim received the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation; the Nancy C.A. Roeske, M.D., Certificate of the American Psychiatric Association; and the Edith Sabshin Teaching Award of the American Psychoanalytic Association.

    Schindelheim is a graduate of Carleton College and Northwestern University Medical School. He received his postgraduate training in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital and in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and Tufts–New England Medical Center. He completed psychoanalytic training at the Psychoanalytic Institute of New England, East.

    About the Fund

    This clerkship directorship was generously established in 2019 by a family wishing to sustain Tufts’ excellence in the clinical teaching of psychiatry and neurology.

  • Benjamin Johnson, MD

    Benjamin P. Johnson, MD

    About the Fund

    This fund was established in 2020 by otolaryngologist Donald Shapiro, MD, MPH, M71, and Karlyn Shapiro in honor of Shapiro's School of Medicine classmates on their 50th reunion and in gratitude for the excellent education that they received. The directorship supports the faculty member who is responsible for the surgery clerkship.