About Jo Shapiro
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"Parker Palmer, an activist and educator, said that institutions “are where the human heart gets welcomed or thwarted or broken.” Let’s all commit to co-creating institutions that welcome the human heart."
JO SHAPIRO, MD, FACS, is an associate professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School. She is a Principal Faculty member for the Center for Medical Simulation in Boston and a Consultant for the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Anesthesia, Pain and Critical Care.
In 2008, she founded the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Professionalism and Peer Support where she served as the director for over 10 years. During that time the Center became a model for national and international institutions seeking methods to enhance a culture of trust and respect and improve clinician wellbeing. She continues to educate and assist organizations in developing specific programmatic and educational approaches such as peer support, professionalism initiatives, and wellbeing programs.
She served as chair of the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the American Board of Medical Specialties and has held multiple educational leadership roles including: senior associate director of Graduate Medical Education for Partners HealthCare, founding scholar of the Academy at Harvard Medical School, and president of the Society of University Otolaryngologists.
She was one of BWH’s first woman division chiefs. She serves on the faculty of the Harvard Leadership Development for Physicians and Scientists. She was a faculty member of the Department of Surgery at BWH for over 35 years; her surgical expertise was in treating adults with oropharyngeal dysphagia.
She was named as a finalist for the Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award. In 2019, Harvard Medical School gave her the Shirley Driscoll Dean’s Award for the Enhancement of Women’s Careers.
Dr. Shapiro is involved in global health medical education and training including Professor of Professional Behavior and Peer Support in Medicine through the academic track at Groningen University Medical Center in The Netherlands; Visiting Professor and Otolaryngology Residency Program Advisor for Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) in Uganda; and having served as a member of the Israeli Commission for Higher Education International Committee for the Evaluation of Medical Schools in Israel. In 2019 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland.
Dr. Shapiro received her BA from Cornell University and her MD from George Washington University Medical School. Her general surgery training was at UC San Diego and then UCLA. She did her otolaryngology residency at Harvard, followed by a year of a National Institute of Health Training Grant Fellowship in swallowing physiology. She is married to an internist, and they have three children.
