BUMC Faculty Promotions – April 2026
Congratulations to the following Medical Campus faculty on their April 2026 promotion.
Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
Clinical Professor
Jean Francis, MD, Medicine/Nephrology, specializes in the early detection and diagnosis of thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA), management of BK virus infection, antibody-mediated rejection, recurrent glomerulonephritis and metabolic disorders that occur after kidney transplantation. A UNOS-certified transplant nephrologist, he serves as medical director of the kidney transplant program at Boston Medical Center (BMC), clinical co-director of the ARC on thrombosis and medical director of the Pancreas Transplant Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He founded and co-leads the TMA Team at BMC, establishing an integrated clinical-research model that has improved patient outcomes, which has been adopted by other institutions. Additionally, he co-founded the New England BK Consortium, standardizing BK virus protocols across 14 transplant programs, and serves as its quality director. Dr. Francis also established the Live Kidney Donation Task Force at BMC to address disparities in transplantation through culturally informed education, community outreach and enhanced donor identification. In parallel, he co-leads the IgA Nephropathy Task Force and the Thrombotic Microangiopathic Hemolytic Anemia Program, where he has advanced mechanism-based treatment protocols that have been adopted across the renal section and presented at national forums.
Research Associate Professor
Anica Pless Kaiser, PhD, Psychiatry, focuses on understanding the effects of stress and trauma over the lifespan, PTSD symptom course over time, assessment of PTSD and related disorders, development of interventions for older Veterans, social function in PTSD, the relationship between PTSD and aging, and suicide prevention for older Veterans. She currently serves as program co-director of the Stress, Health and Aging Research Program and as a clinical research psychologist in the Behavioral Science Division of the National Center for PTSD and in the New England Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center, both based at VA Boston Healthcare System.
School of Public Health
Clinical Professor
Jennifer Beard, PhD, MPH, MA, Global Health, is an expert in public health writing whose work explores the intersection between population health, the arts and humanities, and journalism. She developed and teaches courses in global mental health and global health storytelling and is always looking for ways to incorporate fiction and creative non-fiction into her courses. In 2022, Dr. Beard’s book “Teaching Public Health Writing” was published by Oxford University Press, providing a roadmap for public health educators to teach practitioners and researchers how to effectively communicate messages to different audiences. She directs the Public Health Writing Program and is the associate editor of Public Health Post, where she mentors student writing fellows and expert guest authors to translate and broaden the reach of their research.
Research Associate Professor
Amelia Wesselink, PhD, Epidemiology, is a an internationally recognized expert in environmental influences on reproductive and gynecologic health. Her work aims to identify social and environmental determinants of gynecologic outcomes, evaluate the effects of climate change on fertility, and advance reproductive equity and justice. To that end, she has led research on environmental exposures and infertility for the Black Women’s Health Study, has led work on the reproductive health effects of air pollution and heat within the Pregnancy Study Online, and has focused on exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals and gynecologic health within the Study of Environment, Lifestyle and Fibroids. She currently serves as PI of two NIH R01s, and serves as a mentor to many graduate students.