An emergency room physician, clinical epidemiologist and an alumna of the School of Public Health, Dr. Francesca Beaudoin, M.D., M.S., Ph.D.’17 is a national expert in addressing opioid use disorders and pain management as well as partnering with small businesses and state stakeholders to pioneer innovative solutions to key public health problems. She has called Brown home for nearly two decades, as an emergency physician, doctoral student, faculty member, department chair and dean.

Dr. Beaudoin has spent much of her career on the frontlines of the opioid crisis, advancing evidence-based and community-centered approaches to pain management, substance use and recovery. She was one of the first physicians in the nation to serve patients through a mobile drug recovery unit. Operated in partnership with CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, the mobile clinic delivers opioid use disorder treatment, medical care and counseling to individuals suffering from addiction in one of Rhode Island’s underserved communities.

Dr. Beaudoin has authored 190+ peer-reviewed articles, served as a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee and written and implemented practice management policies for health care systems on pain management and opioid prescribing. Dr. Beaudoin has served as a Senior Medical Advisor to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review providing expert review of time sensitive treatments such as gene therapies and GLP-1 medications for obesity. She is principal investigator of multiple federal and private grants focused on improving how people are identified, treated and supported after opioid overdose and recovery.

As dean, Dr. Beaudoin leads the school’s strategy to advance its public health mission through education, research and policy translation. Prior to taking office as dean, Dr. Beaudoin served two years as academic dean overseeing the school’s academic departments, research centers, doctoral and master’s programs and undergraduate concentrations. She has also served as chair of the Department of Epidemiology and has held faculty and research appointments at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School. Dr. Beaudoin continues to practice as a physician, holding appointments at Brown University Health and CODAC Behavioral Healthcare.

Dr. Beaudoin earned her bachelor’s and master’s in kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2000 and 2002, respectively, where she was an All-American in women’s rowing. In 2006, Dr. Beaudoin received her M.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, followed by a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Brown University School of Public Health in 2017.

Dr. O’Connell graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1970 and received his master’s degree in theology from Cambridge University in 1972. After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1982, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In 1985, Dr. O'Connell began full-time clinical work with homeless individuals as the founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which now serves over 10,000 homeless individuals and families each year in two hospital-based clinics (Boston Medical Center and MGH) and in 30 shelters and outreach sites, and on the streets of Boston. With his colleagues, Dr. O’Connell established the nation’s first medical respite program for homeless persons in September 1985, with 25 beds in the Lemuel Shattuck Shelter. This innovative program now provides acute and sub-acute, pre- and post-operative, and palliative and end-of-life care in the freestanding 104-bed Barbara McInnis House. Working with the MGH Laboratory of Computer Science, Dr. O’Connell designed and implemented the nation’s first computerized medical record for a homeless program in 1995.

From 1989 until 1996, Dr. O'Connell served as the National Program Director of the Homeless Families Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Dr. O’Connell is the editor of The Health Care of Homeless Persons: A Manual of Communicable Diseases and Common Problems in Shelters and on the Streets. His articles have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, the American Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Clinical Ethics, and several other medical journals.

Dr. O’Connell has been featured on ABC’s Nightline, CBS Evening News and in several feature-length documentaries including Give Me a Shot of Anything and The Antidote. He has received numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award in 2012 and The Trustees’ Medal at the bicentennial celebration of MGH in 2011. Dr. O’Connell has collaborated with homeless programs in many cities in the USA and across the globe, including Los Angeles, London, and Sydney. Dr. O’Connell’s book Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor was published in 2015 in celebration of BHCHP’s 30th anniversary. In 2023, Dr. O’Connell work was chronicled by Pulitzer Prize winning author, Tracy Kidder in Rough Sleepers, Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People.

• Francesca Beaudoin, Dean
• Sara Walsh, Executive Dean for Finance and Administration
• Rob Hancock, Associate Dean of Strategic Communications
• Scott Rivkees, Interim Associate Dean for Education
• Jennifer Tidey, Associate Dean for Research
• David Williams, Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs

Department Chairs

• Katie Biello, Epidemiology
• Joseph Hogan, Biostatistics
• Ateev Mohrotra, Health Services, Policy and Practice
• Jennifer Sacheck, Behavioral and Social Sciences

Program Directors

• Karen Andes
• Kate Carey
• Stavroula Chrysanthopoulou
• William Goedel
• Tao Liu
• David Meyers
• Alice Paul
• Nithya Ramesh
• Patti Risica
• Scott Rivkees
• Corwin Zigler

Note: This event will be photographed and video recorded for archival, educational, and related promotional purposes.