Jennifer Potter, professor of medicine at HMS and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, was named interim dean for students in October 2025. In this role, she oversees all functions of the Office of Student Affairs, in collaboration with the Senior Director of Student Affairs, aimed at ensuring academic, personal, and professional success for all students, including through advising, learning support, major events, and residency application support.

A general internist at Beth Israel Deaconess, Dr. Potter is a nationally recognized clinician educator with expertise in sexual and gender minority health and trauma-informed care. Her scholarship has led to innovations in patient care and clinical skills training across the medical education continuum. She is associate director of the HMS CME course Primary Care Medicine and an associate editor and editorial board member at MedEdPORTAL.

Dr. Potter’s teaching and educational leadership have been recognized through the receipt of multiple awards, including the 2009 Harold Amos Diversity Award, HMS Class of 2019 and Class of 2020 Outstanding Faculty Mentor Awards, and the 2023 Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Women in Medicine Individual Leadership Award.

Potter has nearly a decade of service at Harvard, including in her roles as Advisory Dean and Director of the William Bosworth Castle Society and Director of Student Well-Being Programs in the Office of Student Affairs. After earning her BS in Psychobiology from the University of Massachusetts Boston and her MD from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Potter completed her internship,