Eileen Reynolds, MD, Chief of the Division of General Medicine, Named the Richard A. and Florence Koplow – James L. Tullis Professor of Clinical Medicine

We are delighted to announce that Eileen Reynolds, MD, MACP, Chief of the Division of General Medicine, has been named the Richard A. and Florence Koplow – James L. Tullis Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Field of General Medicine and Primary Care at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Reynolds is the founder and Chair of the Linde Family Institute for Primary Care at BILH, which sponsors multiple leadership training programs including a year-long fellowship, and a large Primary Care Innovations Grants Program across the BILH health system. As Division Chief for General Medicine, she directs activities in primary care, hospital medicine, palliative care, and general medicine research at BIDMC. She moved to this role after spending 13 years as the Internal Medicine Residency Program Director and another 5 years as Vice Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine, directly overseeing the education for thousands of residents, medical students, and fellows over those years. Dr. Reynolds recently completed 15 years of service as a BIDMC assistant editor of the “Beyond the Guidelines” series, a recurring feature in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Dr. Reynolds graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude and received her medical degree from Harvard Medical School. She served as a house officer and faculty member at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and did fellowship training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), where she went on to create the Primary Care residency program during her time as a faculty member there. She has won teaching awards at UCSF, HUP, and HMS. She has won the ACGME’s Parker Palmer Courage to Teach Award, has served on the ACGME’s Residency Review Committee in Internal Medicine, including as Vice Chair, and was elected President of the Society of General Medicine. Dr. Reynolds and her husband currently serve as the Faculty Deans of Leverett House, one of Harvard College’s 12 residential houses.

In all of her roles, both inside and outside of our Department, Dr. Reynolds has demonstrated an unwavering loyalty to our missions and the people who seek to fulfill them. She has applied her powerful intellect, wit, and knack for innovation to building and strengthening all the programs she leads.

The Harvard Chair is named for Dr. James Lyman Tullis, who spent his career as a pioneering hematologist at the New England Deaconess Hospital. He advanced understanding of platelet disorders and leukemia, and in 1959, led the Deaconess to become the first hospital in the world to bank platelets for immediate transfusion—work that paved the way for modern stem cell collection. His impact went far beyond the laboratory and in 1964, he united the hospital’s physicians into a cohesive academic unit, “Deaconess Medicine,” and became its first Chief of Medicine. A Professor at Harvard Medical School, he built the Deaconess’s teaching and research programs and established its first HMS-recognized residency. His leadership and persistence helped earn the hospital official recognition as a Harvard teaching affiliate in 1985.

In recognition of his transformative influence and leadership, colleagues and friends proposed an endowed chair in his name in 1995. When Dr. Robert Moellering became Chair of Medicine at the newly merged BIDMC, he sought to honor Dr. Tullis and to recognize the preeminent division he found by creating the first Harvard chair in Primary Care and General Medicine. The effort was made possible by the Tullis Family, and by Richard and Florence Koplow, whose generosity and commitment to primary care completed the endowment.

Dr. Reynolds is the second recipient of the Tullis Chair, following in the footsteps of Dr. Tom Delbanco as the inaugural Chair. Long term supporters of both BIDMC and of Dr. Delbanco’s groundbreaking work, the Koplow family’s vision and support ultimately made this first HMS endowed chair in Primary Care possible.

Dr. Reynolds is honored to continue advancing the values of primary care and general medicine leadership fostered by Dr. Tullis, Dr. Moellering, Dr. Delbanco, and the generous Tullis family donors. Please join us in thanking Dr. Reynolds for all her exemplary service to our Department, and extending our congratulations on this very well-deserved Chair!