Faculty Affairs

April 2026 Faculty Promotions

Congratulations to the following Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Faculty on their April 2026 promotion.

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.