Dr. Jim O’Connell

President of Boston Health Care and assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School

President of Boston Health Care and assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He began fulltime clinical work with the homeless in 1985 when he became the founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which now serves over 13,000 homeless persons each year in two hospital-based clinics (Boston Medical Center and MGH) and in more than 60 shelters and outreach sites in Boston.  O’Connell has received numerous awards, including the Albert Schweitzer Humanitarian Award in 2012 and he has collaborated with homeless programs in many cities in the USA and around the world, from London to Sydney. He is both an unsung hero to the homeless and the subject of Tracy Kidder’s latest book “Rough Sleepers”, which is the product of Kidder shadowing his work for 5 years.