Faculty Affairs

July 2026 Faculty Promotions

Congratulations to the following Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine faculty on their July 2026 promotion.

Clinical Associate Professor

Jessica Brick, MD, Pediatrics, is a clinician-educator known for innovation in care delivery, teaching and mentorship. She founded and directed the Music Project, an innovative program embedded within pediatric primary care that provided free music classes to promote early childhood development and parent-child bonding while addressing barriers to access. She has been a core faculty member in the Academy of Medical Educators since 2019 and leads small-group sessions in clinical skills, clinical reasoning and physical examination for first- and second-year students. In addition, Brick serves as a longitudinal advisor to first- through fourth-year students, as well as a clinical coach for students requiring additional support. She precepts medical students as well as pediatric residents from the Boston Combined Residency Program. Brick recently was nominated to be a Massachusetts Medical School Collaborative Scholar and will participate in the Massachusetts Medical Schools Collaborative VitalTalk Faculty Development Program focused on teaching serious illness communication.  

Robert Helm, MD, Medicine/Cardiovascular Medicine, is an academic cardiac electrophysiologist whose clinical and research interests include atrial fibrillation and advanced cardiac pacing. As director of the Cardiac Device Clinic at Boston Medical Center (BMC), he has expanded arrhythmia services across BMC’s regional affiliates, including Sturdy Health, while improving the safety and accessibility of perioperative care and magnetic resonance imaging for patients with cardiac implantable electronic devices. His research examines cognitive outcomes and health disparities in atrial fibrillation, innovative pacing techniques, arrhythmia detection and anticoagulation management. Current projects include developing a mapping system to facilitate left bundle branch area pacing, investigating anodal biphasic pacing to improve diastolic function and serving as site principal investigator for the NIH-funded REACT-AF trial of Apple Watch-guided anticoagulation. Helm contributes to national consensus statements and physician certification programs through the Heart Rhythm Society and American College of Cardiology.

Jill Kasper, MD, Pediatrics, is a clinician-educator who serves as interim chief of the division of pediatric primary care, where she leads a group of more than 20 providers, mentors faculty, and advances clinical and academic initiatives across the division. In addition, she serves as medical director of Supporting Our Families through Addiction and Recovery (SOFAR), a multidisciplinary medical home for children affected by parental substance use disorder, as well as a continuity clinic preceptor for residents in the Boston Combined Residency Program and teaches medical students in the pediatric clerkship.

Michael Perloff, MD, PhD, Neurology, is a clinician-scientist who specializes in interventional pain, headache and pharmacology. His scientific work has impacted the way we investigate and treat patients with neurologic pain syndromes. His ongoing projects include studying lumbar puncture efficacy and reducing morbidity, cross-sectional epidemiology studies on low back pain and body mass index, and imaging analysis of spine-based pain. Perloff has served as the department’s chief of pain medicine since 2019.

Rachel Thompson, MD, Pediatrics, is a clinician-educator with a focus on undergraduate medical education and an attending pediatric emergency medicine physician at Boston Medical Center. As the department’s director of pediatric medical student education and the core clerkship from 2013 to 2023, she led a comprehensive redesign of the pediatric clerkship and fourth-year pediatric advising program. Thompson serves as director of fourth-year medical student education in pediatrics. She has developed numerous innovative curricula, including a redesigned, case-based pediatric core curriculum; the Pediatric Internship Preparation Course; collaborated on a virtual reality curriculum addressing social drivers of health; and assisted in developing numerous national workshops on medical student education and advising. Thompson serves on the board of the Committee on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics (COMSEP) and as a faculty advisor for local and national student programs, including FuturePedsRes, an organization that helps guide medical students across the country through the residency application process.