Rafael Campo, Director
RAFAEL CAMPO, M.A., M.D., D.Litt.(Hon) is Director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs. His scholarly interests relate to narrative and
medicine, the use of literature (and other humanities resources) in medical education, and cross-cultural issues in medical education and clinical practice. He is a well-known contemporary American poet and essayist. He also serves as Director of the Katherine Swan Ginsburg Humanism in Medicine Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. His primary care practice in Healthcare Associates serves mostly Latinos, gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered people, and people with HIV infection.
Born in New Jersey to immigrant parents, he went on to graduate
magna cum laude from Amherst College, and then received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School. He is also a graduate of Boston University's Creative Writing Program, where he received the George Starbuck Fellowship and studied with U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky and Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott. He completed his residency in Primary Care Medicine at the University of California - San Francisco.
He is the author of five collections of poetry and two books of essays. His poetry and prose have appeared in numerous anthologies, including the
Best American Poetry and
Pushcart Prize series; and in various periodicals, including
JAMA, The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Los Angeles Times, The Nation, New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Paris Review, The Progressive, Salon.com, Slate.com, and
Washington Post Book World. His work has also been featured on National Public Radio and on the National Endowment for the Arts website. His honors and awards include a Guggenheim fellowship, the Annual Achievement Award from the National Hispanic Academy of Arts and Sciences, an honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Amherst College, and the Nicholas E. Davies Memorial Scholar Award from the American College of Physicians for outstanding humanism in medicine. He also received the Harvard Medical School Faculty Council Teaching Award. He is also on the faculty of Lesley University's Creative Writing M.F.A. Program in Cambridge, MA, and frequently gives seminars and workshops relating to medicine, literary writing, and culture at such venues as the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, MA, and the Squaw Valley Writing Workshops in Squaw Valley, CA.