Paul L. Geltman, MD, MPH

Biography

Dr. Paul Geltman is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and of Health Policy and Health Services Research at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. He serves as Medical Director for Refugee Health in the Division of Global Populations and Infectious Disease Prevention at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. After starting his career as a primary care pediatrician at the Upham's Corner Health Center in Dorchester, he returned in 2019 as its first Chief Medical Officer. Prior employment included Franciscan Children's, Cambridge Health Alliance, and the Whittier Street Health Center.

Dr. Geltman is a graduate of Princeton University and received his M.D. and M.P.H degrees from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. After his pediatric residency at the Floating Hospital for Children in Boston, he completed a post-graduate academic fellowship in child advocacy and community pediatrics, with a focus on immigrant and refugee children, at Boston Medical Center (then Boston City Hospital). His academic work has produced wide-ranging publications focused on the health issues of low-income children and refugees, in particular prevention of iron deficiency and lead poisoning as well as oral health. His research has included the most extensive report on lead poisoning among refugee children in the U.S., a nationwide study of the health status outcomes of the unaccompanied refugee minors known commonly as the “Lost Boys” of Sudan, and a NIH-funded study of the impact of literacy and acculturation on the oral health and other health outcomes of Somali refugees in Massachusetts.

Dr. Geltman has worked in clinical, policy, and public health settings with refugee populations resettled in Massachusetts, as well as in Rwanda. For the Department of Public Health, since 1997, he has helped oversee clinical aspects of the Commonwealth’s statewide health screening program for newly-arriving refugees and other related public health programs.