Johnson to Leave BWH to Become President of Wellesley College

Paula A. Johnson, MD, MPH, executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology and chief of the Division of Women’s Health, will leave the Brigham to become the 14^th president of Wellesley College. She begins at Wellesley on July 1.

Johnson, a professor at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has devoted her career to the advancement of women through education, faculty development and by working to improve their health and well-being. As president of Wellesley College, she will continue this work by fostering critical and interdisciplinary thinking, which she believes is the foundation of women’s health.

Johnson began her career at BWH as a medical resident and was appointed chief resident. After a cardiology fellowship, she joined the Brigham faculty.

Johnson founded one of the first centers in the country to focus on heart disease in women. In 2002, she founded the BWH Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology and, under her leadership, the center developed a robust clinical, education and interdisciplinary research program that focuses on how disease is expressed differently in women and men. This program has become a model for academic medical centers across the U.S.

A transition plan will be forthcoming.

Shapiro to Step Down as Chief Otolaryngology Chief; Assume CPPS Director Role Full-Time

Jo Shapiro, MD, will step down as chief of the Division of Otolaryngology (ORL), effective March 31, and will assume a full-time role as director of the BWH Center for Professionalism and Peer Support (CPPS).

Since the CPPS launched in 2008, the center has, under Shapiro’s direction, become a model for institutions that are seeking methods to enhance teamwork and respect. Taking the helm full-time will enable her to further strengthen the center through research and programmatic initiatives and promote its vision among physicians, health care leaders, policy makers and patients.

During her 17-year tenure as one of the first female chiefs at BWH, the Division of Otolaryngology has tripled in size to 12 full-time faculty members who care for patients in multiple locations, including the community-based otolaryngology in two newly-constructed clinics at Foxboro and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital. The division now offers subspecialty care in Head and Neck Surgery, Otology and Neurotology, Laryngology, Rhinology, and Pediatric Otolaryngology, as well as a team of professionals specializing in audiology, newborn hearing screening and voice therapy.

As one of the country’s leading experts on dysphagia, Shapiro will maintain an active surgical practice at BWH. She will also continue her global health work through the BWH Global Health Program in Otolaryngology at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda.

Development Names Three Senior Directors

BWH Development recently announced the appointments of three senior directors:

Karen Fogerty was appointed the Development Office’s senior director of Content Management last month. Previously, Fogerty served as the department’s director of Integrated Communications. In the newly created role, Fogerty will continue to oversee the editorial and proposals teams and manage content for signature events. She will also work with colleagues across departments to enhance the process for identifying inspiring stories about patient care and research breakthroughs that can be shared with BWH supporters. Fogerty earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing and entrepreneurial studies at Babson College.

Kathleen Hughes, MS, has been named senior director of Stewardship and Donor Relations. Since 2013, Hughes served as director of Stewardship and Donor Relations and was promoted to senior director last fall. In her new role, Hughes oversees a team charged with activities that acknowledge, recognize, inform and engage BWH and BWFH donors, including impact reporting, donor plaques, signage and recognition walls, new fund establishment and naming opportunities. Hughes received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at Boston University.

Wendy Lennon was hired recently as senior director of Development. She comes from MGH, where she spent 10 years working in a similar capacity. In her role, Lennon is tasked with raising philanthropic support for the Department of Medicine, with a focus on the divisions of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care, Gastroenterology, Pulmonology and Critical Care Medicine, Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy, and Sleep Medicine. She will have the opportunity to build a team and new program for philanthropy within the Department of Medicine. Lennon received her bachelor’s degree in journalism at Indiana University.