Meet the Advisors
Shawn O'Leary
Shawn O'Leary is the Director of Multicultural Affairs and is the academic advisor to the Urban Health Scholars Program. Shawn is responsible for developing, implementing and overseeing Dartmouth Medical School's diversity programs and executing its mission of promoting a climate of unity and respect. He serves as an advisor to minority students and student groups and works to ensure the success and retention of all minority students, faculty and staff.
Shawn comes to DMS from the University of Maine where he served as Assistant Director of the Native American Center. Prior to coming to New England, Shawn worked in his home state of Minnesota developing minority recruitment and retention strategies, based on an individualized student service philosophy, at the Center of American Indian and Minority Health, University of Minnesota Duluth School of Medicine. A member of the Bois Forte Band of Ojibwe in Northern Minnesota, Shawn is married and has four sons with whom he shares a passion for ice hockey.
Joe O'Donnell
Joe O'Donnell graduated from Harvard College in 1969 and came to Dartmouth Medical School for his first two years of medical school. He finished medical school in 1973, receiving his M.D. from Harvard. Joe returned to Hanover to do his residency in internal medicine from 1973-76. He decided to subspecialize in medical oncology and did a fellowship at the NCI from 1976-78. He then assumed the position of chief of medical oncology at the White River Junction VA Hospital, where he has practiced medicine since 1978.
Always interested in medical education and student life, Joe served as the Associate Dean for Student Affairs from 1987-95. A Professor of Medicine, Joe enjoys being a facilitator for small group learning. He changed roles in 1995 and assumed the titles of Senior Advising Dean and Director of Community Programs, reflecting his interests in human values aspects of medicine, prevention, ethical issues, and the medical humanities.
As a medical oncologist and community activist, Joe has a longstanding interest in strategies at the individual and community policy level to prevent illness, disability, and death. He has worked vigorously to address the issues of substance use and obesity and to promote healthy lifestyles. He chairs the advisory group for the Dartmouth Center on Addiction, Recovery and Education Program and is dedicated to helping that group produce evidence-based, replicable materials to lessen the impact of substance use/abuse. He directs the NH-VT Schweitzer Fellowships, and was the force behind the Urban Scholars Program, the DMS Advocacy Network, and numerous community service efforts. He was recently named Senior Fellow of the C. Everett Koop Institute.