Photo: Faith Ninivaggi
After nearly a decade of leading the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center at UMass Chan Medical School, Jean A. Frazier, MD, the Robert M. and Shirley S. Siff Chair in Autism and professor of psychiatry, will step down as executive director.
The center will welcome a new leader, Sarabeth Broder-Fingert, MD, MPH, professor of pediatrics and vice chair of clinical research in the Department of Pediatrics, to oversee its ongoing mission of promoting health equity for people with intellectual developmental disability and autism throughout Massachusetts and beyond.
Dr. Frazier has held the position of executive director since 2015. She will continue her research within the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Center. She is the 2024 recipient of the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Service.
Dr. Broder-Fingert, who serves as the deputy director of the Shriver Center, will assume the executive director position on Jan. 1, 2025.
“It’s quite intensive to keep a center running successfully and ensuring that all our faculty and staff are supported,” Broder-Fingert said. “One of the many things I’ve learned from Dr. Frazier is the executive director role isn’t about you and your work, but it’s about supporting other people in doing their best work. Getting to work with Dr. Frazier to understand how to do that has been extremely helpful.”
“Continuing to increase access to services for folks who have traditionally been marginalized or not been able to access services is the direction we want to continue to go.”
The Shriver Center supports research, education and services aimed at improving the quality of life for persons with intellectual developmental disabilities and their families.
“We are inherently doing health equity work, because the populations we serve, intellectual developmental disability and autism, are populations that always have experienced disparities. Continuing to increase access to services for folks who have traditionally been marginalized or not been able to access services is the direction we want to continue to go,” Broder-Fingert said.
Broder-Fingert joined UMass Chan in July 2021. Prior to that, she was associate professor of pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine and spent more than a decade as a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Since joining the Shriver Center, Broder-Fingert has secured substantial funding to conduct clinical training and pursue research on autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities among underrepresented populations. She was promoted to deputy director in August 2023, overseeing the center’s faculty recruitment, fundraising efforts and public relations.
As deputy director, Broder-Fingert said she worked closely with Dr. Frazier, learning from her experience and guidance to help her have a better understanding of the inner workings of the Shriver Center, including administrative and operational duties.
“The Shriver Center has such a long history already and getting to start from that place and then continuing to grow is just the most exciting thing in the world to me,” Broder-Fingert said. “We’ve established ourselves as a major center at UMass Chan, as a hub for lots of different people from different departments and disciplines who want to do work in the autism and intellectual development disorder space. It’s time for us to grow, now that we’ve been so well established from within.”
Broder-Fingert is an active mentor, advising and supporting more than 20 pre- and postdoctoral trainees, and four UMass Chan faculty members. She has published more than 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts, and serves as an editor for several publications, including the premier journals in her field, Pediatrics and Autism. She also serves as funding path chair for the Academic Pediatric Association Young Investigator Award Program.
In addition to her academic and research roles at UMass Chan, Broder-Fingert serves as chief of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics for UMass Memorial Health.
