Dr. Joan Y. Reede serves as the Dean for the Office for Culture and Community Engagement.

Dr. Reede created and developed more than 20 programs at HMS that address pathways for those who are interested in careers in medicine, academic and scientific research, and the healthcare professions. Supported by a dedicated staff, she has developed mentoring programs for students from middle school through the graduate and medical school levels. She has also designed a training program for middle and high school teachers, developed science curricula for public schools, implemented research and exchange clerkship programs at HMS, and designed and implemented innovative fellowships in health policy for physicians, dentists, and doctoral-level mental health professionals.

At a national level, Dr. Reede’s advice and expertise is highly sought after amongst several committees and councils, such as her past appointments to the Health and Human Services Advisory Committee on Minority Health, the Board of Governors for the Warren Grant Magnuson Clinical Center, the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce, the Advisory Committee to the Director for National Institutes of Health, and the Advisory Committee on Genetics, Health, and Society for the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Reede is a graduate of Brown University and Mount Sinai School of Medicine. She completed a pediatric residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, and a fellowship in child psychiatry at Boston Children’s Hospital. She holds an MPH, an MS in Health Policy Management from Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and an MBA from Boston University. Dr. Reede is a member of the National Academy of Medicine (2011) and a fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (2019). She serves as a member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Board of Directors and previously as the chair of AAMC Group on Diversity and Inclusion (GDI). She is the recipient of honorary Doctor of Science degrees from the New York Institute of Technology, Georgetown University, and the University of Connecticut. In July of 2024, Dr. Reede was recognized by the W. Montague Cobb/National Medical Association Health Institute (The Cobb Institute) by receiving the W. Montague Cobb Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 1989, Dr. Reede served as the medical director of a community health center in Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Department of Youth Services. She worked as a pediatrician in the community, serving populations in academic health centers, public schools, and juvenile prisons. In 1990, Dr. Reede founded the HMS Minority Faculty Development Program and currently serves as faculty director of the Community Engagement programs. In collaboration with the Massachusetts Medical Society and the New England Board of Higher Education, Dr. Reede founded the Biomedical Careers Program (BSCP) in 1991. A collaborative, community-based organization, BSCP’s scope of involvement includes academia, private industry, medical centers, public education, and professional societies. BSCP’s goal is to identify, inform, support, and provide mentoring for academically outstanding students, fellows, and early career professionals in the biomedical and health sciences.