The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) is pleased to welcome Jo Shapiro, M.D. ’80, to serve as the keynote speaker at the school’s annual White Coat and Honor Code Ceremony on Aug. 9.
Shapiro, who serves as the chief of the Division of Otolaryngology in the Department of Surgery at Brigham Women’s Hospital (BWH), was one of the first women division chiefs at BWH. She is also the founding director of the BWH Center for Professionalism and Peer Support and an Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School.
As director of the Center for Professionalism and Peer Support, Shapiro has been instrumental in the development of several programmatic initiatives that are focused on advancing the center’s mission, which is to encourage an institutional culture that values and promotes mutual respect, trust and teamwork. She lectures and conducts training sessions, nationally and internationally, in the areas of peer support, professionalism, team training, and disclosure and apology training.
Shapiro serves on the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the American Board of Medical Specialties. She has had 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 served on the faculty of the Harvard Leadership Development for Physicians and Scientists and she is on the Senior Advisory Board for the Office of Women's Careers at BWH. She was recently named as a finalist for the Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award.
She has an active surgical practice treating adults with oropharyngeal dysphagia. She is also involved in global health medical education and training.
Shapiro received her B.A. from Cornell University and her M.D. from GW SMHS. Her general surgery training was at University of California, San Diego and then UCLA. She did her otolaryngology training at Harvard Medical School followed by a year of a National Institute of Health Training Grant Fellowship in swallowing physiology. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Surgery at BWH since 1987.
Shapiro will deliver her address to GW’s incoming class of M.D. students and their family and friends, at the White Coat and Honor Code Ceremony. The event, held at the beginning of the fall semester each year, marks the official beginning of the medical student’s journey to attaining their M.D. degree at GW. During the event, new M.D. students will receive their first white coats, which are donated annually thanks to support from the SMHS Alumni White Coat Initiative.
