George E. Thibault, MD
George E. Thibault, MD is currently the Daniel D. Federman Professor of Medicine and Medical Education Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. In January 2008, Dr. Thibault became the seventh President of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation and stepped down as President on June 30, 2018. Immediately prior to the Macy Foundation, he served as Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Partners Healthcare System in Boston and Director of the Academy at Harvard Medical School (HMS). In 2005 he was named the first Daniel D. Federman Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at HMS.
During his decade as President of the Macy Foundation he led educational reform to better align health professionals education with the needs of a changing patient population and a changing health care delivery system. He helped to bring about a heightened emphasis on Interprofessional Education (IPE) nationally, and he created the Macy Faculty Scholars Program for the career development of mid-career nursing and medical faculty members who are educational innovators.
Dr. Thibault previously served as Chief Medical Officer at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and as Chief of Medicine
at the Harvard affiliated Brockton/West Roxbury VA Hospital. He was Associate Chief of Medicine and Director of the
Internal Medical Residency Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). At the MGH he also served as Director of the Medical ICU and the Founding Director of the Medical Practice Evaluation Unit.
For nearly four decades at HMS, Dr. Thibault played leadership roles in many aspects of undergraduate and
graduate medical education. He played a central role in the New Pathway Curriculum reform and was a leader in the
new Integrated Curriculum reform at HMS. He was the Founding Director of the Academy at HMS, which was
created to recognize outstanding teachers and to promote innovations in medical education. Throughout his career
he has been recognized for his roles in teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, fellows and junior
faculty. In addition to his teaching, his research focused on the evaluation of practices and outcomes of medical
intensive care and variations in the use of cardiac technologies.
Dr. Thibault was Chairman of the Board of the MGH Institute of Health Professions from 2005 to 2018 and Chairman of the Board of the New York Academy of Medicine from 2014 to 2018. He currently serves on the Board of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, and he has previously served on the Boards of the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, New York Academy of Science, McLean Hospital, and Partners Community Health Inc. He served on the President’s White House Fellows Commission during the Obama Administration, and for twelve years he chaired the Special Medical Advisory Group for the Department of Veteran’s Affairs. He is a past President of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association and a past Chair of Alumni Relations at HMS. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine.
Dr. Thibault graduated summa cum laude in Philosophy from Georgetown University in 1965 and magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1969. He completed his internship and residency in Medicine and a fellowship in Cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He also trained in Cardiology at the National Heart and Lung Institute in Bethesda and at Guys Hospital in London, and he served as Chief Resident in Medicine at MGH.
Dr. Thibault has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors from Georgetown (Ryan Prize in Philosophy, Alumni Prize for most outstanding student, and Cohongaroton Speaker) and Harvard (Alpha Omega Alpha, Henry Asbury Christian Award and Society of Fellows). He has been a visiting Scholar both at the Institute of Medicine and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and a Visiting Professor of Medicine at numerous medical schools in the U.S. and abroad. In 2017 he was the recipient of the Abraham Flexner Award for Distinguished Service to Medical Education from the Association of American Medical Colleges and he was made an honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. In 2018 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Medical Fellowship and the 2nd Century Award from the Columbia University School of Nursing. In 2019 he received the Arnold P. Gold National Humanism Award and the Award for Outstanding Service to the New York Academy of Medicine. He has received honorary doctoral degrees from Georgetown University, Wake Forest University, The Commonwealth Medical College and the MGH Institute of Health Professions.