Dr. Joyce Sackey has been appointed to the position of Dean for Multicultural Affairs and Global Health at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Sackey began in March 2009. For a number of years, Dr. Sackey has served as an advisor and mentor in several pipeline programs aimed at preparing under-represented minority students for careers in the biomedical sciences. Dr. Sackey also works collaboratively with colleagues in Ghana on projects that include development of an exchange program for health professionals, international workshops on HIV/AIDS, and improved access to quality health care in resource-limited settings.
Dr. Sackey comes to TUSM by way of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, where she currently serves as a primary care physician and as associate master in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Society at Harvard Medical School. A graduate of Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Sackey completed a residency in internal medicine at BIDMC and served as chief resident in the primary care residency program. A full biography is below.
Dr. Sackey graduated from Dartmouth College in 1985 and Dartmouth Medical School in 1989 where she was honored with the prestigious, Good Physician Award by her graduating class. She completed her internship and a residency in primary care internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital and served as a primary care chief resident before joining the division. She has been active in both graduate and undergraduate medical education. She is a co-management preceptor in the medical house staff program. She has a long-standing interest in patient-doctor communication and serves as a Senior Fellow for the HMS course, Patient-Doctor I.
Dr. Sackey also plays a lead role on the international stage as a medical educator. She is co-founder of the Foundation for African Relief (FAR), a Massachusetts-based non-profit organization and directs the BIDMC-based AIDS Collaborative Project and its Visiting Scholar’s Exchange Program. The program has contributed to the fight against AIDS in Ghana and Sudan by training African physicians in the forefront of providing clinical care to people living with HIV/AIDS. Dr Sackey spent her year as senior fellow developing a curriculum for an elective in international health for medical students and residents. Under her mentorship, and using the curriculum she developed, a senior medical resident recently completed an elective and a practice improvement project at an HIV/AIDS clinic in Ghana. She has also served as a mentor and advisor for a number of medical students interested in international health, including several Harvard medical students who have completed international projects in Ghana and Uganda.
Dr. Sackey won a number of awards and honors during her year as Rabkin Senior Fellow for her contribution to international health. She was invited by the Department of Medicine and the Shapiro Institute to deliver the 2004 Aaron Thurman lecture in Humanism in Medicine. In January 2004, Dartmouth College named her a recipient of the Martin Luther King Social Justice Award. Dr. Sackey was also one of 4 nominees for the 2004 Klaus Peter international teaching award at HMS. In recognition of her contribution to the teaching and mentoring of medical students, the HMS graduating class of 2005 named her the recipient of the prestigious Arnold P. Gold Foundation’s Humanism in medicine award.
