Skip to main content
NATCON24 Main banner
Back

Jessica Isom, MD, MPH

Psychiatrist and Clinical Instructor
Codman Square Health Center, Boston Medical Center and Yale University
New Haven, Connecticut

Jessica Isom, MD, MPH, a Steve Fund mental health expert, is a board-certified community psychiatrist and a faculty member in the Yale Department of Psychiatry co directing the Social Justice and Health Equity Curriculum. Driven by a passion for collaborative leadership, she takes pride in providing the conceptual frameworks and psychological safety necessary to expand the growing edges of her clients and peers. Dr. Isom draws on her psychiatric training and humble background to connect across differences in power, education, and perspective to foster a collaborative approach to achieving racial justice and equity in medicine and beyond. As a resident in the Yale Department of Psychiatry, she was selected as the Chief Resident of Medical Education and as the Chief Resident of Diversity and Inclusion. In the Yale Department of Psychiatry, her professionalism, diversity and inclusion expertise and educational skillset were honored through awards and department-wide recognition. Her strong training background and leadership experiences inform her current role in Boston, MA at Codman Square Health Center where she serves an under-resourced patient population. She previously served as a leader within the American Psychiatric Association Assembly, where her contributions centered on illuminating the need for health equity in organized psychiatry. She has also been elected to the Councilor position for the Massachusetts Psychiatric Society and served a one year term. She primarily works in Boston as an attending psychiatrist at Codman Square Health Center where she has led a grant effort to infuse antiracism into opioid use disorder services. She received her MD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she also received her MPH with a focus on public health leadership. She is a nationally recognized expert on cultural sensitivity and responsiveness in mental health services with a focus on racial equity and justice in psychiatry. Her professional interests include working toward eradicating racial and ethnic mental health disparities, mitigating the impact of implicit racial bias on clinical care, and the use of a community-focused population health approach in psychiatric practice. She is a racial equity consultant, curriculum developer and presenter to a variety of organizations through her company, Vision for Equity LLC.

Presentation(s):