Jim Rodrigue

After completing his PhD in Clinical Psychology at the University of Memphis in 1989, Dr. Rodrigue joined the University of Florida faculty and served as Director of Transplant Behavioral Health Services until his 2005 recruitment to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Currently, he is Vice Chair for Clinical Research in the Department of Surgery at BIDMC, Director of the Department of Surgery’s FIRST Program (www.bidmcFIRST.com), and Director of the Clinical Scholarship Program for surgical residents. Dr. Rodrigue is Professor of Surgery and Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School.

Clinically, he is a leader in developing robust behavioral health services to improve the lives of transplant patients and living donors. In 2017, he received the AST’s Clinician of Distinction Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to clinical transplantation.

Currently, Dr. Rodrigue is Principal Investigator on five federally funded clinical research grants in transplantation. He has been PI or Co-Investigator on over 30 research grants from the NIH, HRSA, PCORI, private research foundations, state agencies, and industry. He has published 200+ peer-review articles, 4 books, and numerous book chapters on organ transplantation and donation. He has lectured nationally and internationally on the behavioral health aspects of transplantation, living donation, and disparities in transplantation and donation. He has served on the Editorial Board of Transplantation, Progress in Transplantation, and Clinical Transplantation, and on the NIH Behavioral Medicine study section.

Dr. Rodrigue joined the AST in 2001 and was inducted as a Fellow in 2016. His AST service includes serving on the inaugural Executive Committees of three Communities of Practice: Allied Health (2010-2012), Live Donor (2012-2015), and Psychosocial (2013-2016); AST representative on the Joint Steering Committee Workgroup for Live Liver Donation (2012-2013); and Co-Chair of the Consensus Conference on Best Practices in Live Kidney Donation (2013-2015).

He is actively involved in other transplant professional organizations, including the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, The Transplantation Society, and the European Society of Transplantation. He served on the UNOS Ethics Committee (2004-2007), VCA Committee (2015-2017), and Living Donor Committee (2016-2018), as well as the ASTS Ethics Committee (2009-2012) and Living Donor Committee (2017-2020). He has participated in numerous national and international consensus conferences focused on kidney exchange, transplant program quality and surveillance, the non-traditional living donor, living donor follow-up, transplant evaluation criteria, and pediatric deceased donation.

Beyond work, he is an avid Boston sports fan, loves to golf, and enjoys traveling.