UCUR 2026

UCUR 2026 Keynote Speaker: James J. O’Connell, MD

About James J. O’Connell, MD

James J. O’Connell, MD, is President of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program (BHCHP) and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1970, earned a master’s degree in theology from Cambridge University in 1972, and received his MD from Harvard Medical School in 1982. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In 1985, Dr. O’Connell became the founding physician of BHCHP, dedicating his career to caring for people experiencing homelessness. The program now serves more than 10,000 individuals and families annually through hospital-based clinics, shelters, outreach sites, and street medicine in Boston. That same year, he helped establish the nation’s first medical respite program for homeless individuals, now the 104-bed Barbara McInnis House, providing acute, sub-acute, and end-of-life care. In 1995, he helped design the first computerized medical record system for a homeless health program.

Dr. O’Connell has published widely, received numerous honors, and collaborated internationally. His book Stories from the Shadows was published in 2015, and his work was chronicled in Tracy Kidder’s 2023 book Rough Sleepers.