Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs Jean Ramsey to Retire from BUSM

Associate Dean for Alumni Affairs Jean E. Ramsey, MD, MPH, will be retiring from BUSM on July 15. A magna cum laude BUSM graduate in 1990 and Vice President of the AOA honor society, Dr. Ramsey led the Alumni Affairs Office for 13 years during which her alumni team led the very successful Medical Student Residence alumni fundraising initiative and developed a monthly E-newsletter and social media presence. She expanded key affinity events such as EMSSP alumni weekend, neighborhood/regional events and student networking/mentoring events to engage BUSM students, thus fostering a culture of philanthropy within the BUSM community.

Her team launched the annual Alumni Black History Month events and hosted a symposium on micro-aggression. Dr. Ramsey diversified the Alumni Board by age, gender, race and ethnicity. Board members have endowed a number of scholarships, including those for URM applicants.

Dr. Ramsey, a pediatric ophthalmologist, was recruited in 2002 from Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. She obtained her MPH in Maternal and Child Health at BUSPH while working at BUSM/BMC reflecting her longstanding interest in advocacy, public health and public policy. She has been recognized for her leadership roles in the adoption of the Massachusetts preschool vision screening mandate in 2004 (the first such mandate in the country) and in keeping children’s eye health a key issue on the national agenda by the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s Board of Trustees Distinguished Advocacy Award in 2015.

During Dr. Ramsey’s decade of service as the Residency Program Director and Vice Chair for Education for the Department of Ophthalmology, the fraction of ophthalmology residents identifying as URMs has increased to one third. In recognition of resident advocacy, the Department of Ophthalmology recently received the combined American Academy of Ophthalmology and the Association of University Professors of Ophthalmology Commitment to Resident Advocacy Award.

Dr. Ramsey is a Board Examiner for the American Board of Ophthalmology and has served as President of the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons, Chair of the Inter specialty Committee at Massachusetts Medical Society, Chair of the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s (AAO) Council, and Executive Committee Member of the AAO Board of Trustees. She currently leads the Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s Advisory Committee for the National Center for Children’s Vision and Eye Health.