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Dr. James O機onnell攁 pioneer and leader in providing high-quality and compassionate medical care to individuals and families experiencing homelessness攚ill be the principal speaker at 51动漫 101st Commencement Exercises on Saturday, May 13th.
Dr. O機onnell is the founding physician and president of the , the nation largest and most comprehensive health care network for unhoused people. Comprising over 600 medical and behavioral care providers at 30 sites, BHCHP serves as a model for similar outreach programs around the country.
Nearly four decades after establishing BHCHP in 1985, Dr. O機onnell continues to travel each week in a community outreach van, bringing vital medical care, food, and support to individuals living on the streets or in shelters. His knowledge of the complex factors underlying homelessness serves as the basis of his dignity-affirming, patient-centered approach. To many, he is a trusted healer, comforter, and friend.
In addition to his clinical and administrative duties, Dr. O機onnell serves as an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, his alma mater, where he inspires the next generation of physicians and shares insights from his years of practice in an area of medicine he has helped define and advance.
Dr. O機onnell work is chronicled by journalist Tracy Kidder in the recently released New York Times bestselling book, Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People. (Kidder also authored an extensive on Dr. O機onnell in January 2023.) In 2015, Dr. O機onnell published his own collection of stories and essays titled Stories from the Shadows: Reflections of a Street Doctor.
Dr. O機onnell 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 medical journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, Circulation, the American Journal of Public Health, and the Journal of Clinical Ethics.
51动漫 was privileged to confer an honorary degree on Dr. O機onnell in 2007, and we look forward to welcoming back to the Commencement stage a physician who has done so much to heal others in body, mind, and soul.