Jo Shapiro, MD

Biography

JO SHAPIRO, MD, FACS, is an associate professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard Medical School and a consultant for the Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. 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. In 2018, Harvard Medical School gave her the Shirley Driscoll Dean's Award for the Advancement of Women's Careers. She was a faculty member in the Department of Surgery at BWH for over 35 years; her clinical expertise was in oropharyngeal dysphagia. She continues to educate and assist organizations in developing specific programmatic and educational approaches to patient safety and clinician wellbeing, such as peer support, disclosure and apology, professionalism, psychological safety initiatives, giving feedback and conflict management.
Dr. Shapiro received her B.A. from Cornell University and her M.D. from George Washington University Medical School. Her general surgery training was at the University of California, San Diego, and then UCLA. She did her otolaryngology training at Harvard, followed by a year of a National Institute of Health Training Grant Fellowship in swallowing physiology.
She is married to a pulmonologist, and they have 3 adult children and 2 granddaughters.