George E. Thibault
Board of Governors
President, Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation
George E. Thibault, MD became the seventh president of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation in January 2008. Immediately prior to that, he served as Vice President of Clinical Affairs at Partners Healthcare System in Boston and Director of the Academy at Harvard Medical School (HMS). He was the first Daniel D. Federman Professor of Medicine and Medical Education at HMS and is now the Federman Professor, Emeritus.
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 has focused on the evaluation of practices and outcomes of medical intensive care and variations in the use of cardiac technologies.
Dr. Thibault is Chairman of the Board of the MGH Institute of Health Professions, interim Chairman of the New York Academy of Medicine, and he serves on the Board of the New York Academy of Sciences, the Institute on Medicine as a Profession, and the Lebanese American University. He serves on the President's White House Fellows Commission and for twelve years he chaired the Special Medical Advisory Group for the Department of Veteran's Affairs. He is past President of the Harvard Medical Alumni Association and Past Chair of Alumni Relations at HMS. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Thibault graduated summa cum laude from Georgetown University in 1965 and magna cum laude from Harvard Medical School in 1969. He completed his internship and residency in Medicine and 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 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, 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.