Deborah Jones Inaugurated as President of Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions

Sean Hennessey

Date

September 17, 2026

Topics

Leadership

Seventh president sets out vision of a health professions university built for health-system impact

Surrounded by friends, family, peers, and the community she will lead, Deborah J. Jones, PhD, MSN, RN, FAAN, was inaugurated Thursday as the seventh president and John Hilton Knowles Professor of Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions. She set out a vision of a health professions university built for health-system impact, with an ambition measured “not simply by what we build, but by what changes because we were here.”

Rays of sun glistening on the waters of the neighboring Boston Harbor provided a captivating vista as a crowd of approximately 200 gathered inside 1 Constitution Wharf to witness this historic moment for an institution that had become Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions just nine days earlier. For nearly fifty years, the MGH Institute of Health Professions prepared the healthcare workforce of the future and translated knowledge into better care. Today the University enrolls approximately 2,200 students across 35 degree and certificate programs and counts more than 12,000 alumni. Now there is a new name, a new president, and a sharpened focus: helping shape the future of health and health care.

“Imagine a university whose relationship with Mass General Brigham becomes a model for what is possible when education, clinical care, research, innovation, and workforce development reinforce one another, and whose reach extends outward so those capabilities contribute to healthier communities here and far beyond our campus,” Jones told the audience. “That is the opportunity before us.”

Before delivering her 18-minute inaugural address, Jones accepted the presidential medallion and charter from her predecessor, President Emerita Paula Milone-Nuzzo, the last inaugurated president of the MGH Institute of Health Professions. She then recited the oath of office as the first inaugurated leader of Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions. The oath was administered by Board of Trustees Chair Jeanette Ives Erickson, who spoke about the search that brought Jones to the University.

“When we met Deborah Jones and saw what she brought to the table in terms of energy, accomplishments, temperament, experience, insight, interpersonal skills, and passion,” Ives Erickson noted, “we knew we had found someone special.”

Deborah Jones puts on regalia before the Inauguration ceremony while Dr. John Herman takes a photo — With Board of Trustee Dr. John Herman taking a picture near Associate Dean and Registrar Jim Vitagliano, President Deborah Jones puts on her regalia while speaking with President Emerita Paula Milone-Nuzzo.

President Deborah Jones puts on her regalia while speaking with President Emerita Paula Milone-Nuzzo — Moments before the Inauguration began, leaders pause for a photo: (l to r) Paula Milone-Nuzzo, President Emerita; Deborah Jones, President, Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions; Jeanette Ives Erickson, Board of Trustees Chair; David F.M. Brown, MD, President Academic Medical Centers of Mass General Brigham; and Joe Knowles, Trustee and son of University Founder John Hilton Knowles.

President Emerita Milone-Nuzzo adjusting the tassel of President Jones.

David F.M. Brown talks to the crowd at inauguration — David F.M. Brown, MD, President Academic Medical Centers of Mass General Brigham, said the inauguration is a not only a celebration of Jones’ presidency, “but also an opportunity to look ahead about what the future of healthcare means and how, under Deborah's leadership, the university can contribute to that.”

Board of Trustees Chair Jeanette Ives Erickson looks into the crowd during the Inauguration. On the stage are (l to r) John “Joe” Knowles, Trustee, and son of University Founder John Hilton Knowles; Paula Milone-Nuzzo, President Emerita; and President Deborah Jones.

President Emerita Milone-Nuzzo presents President Jones with the University’s medallion, which has the newly designed seal.

paula milone-nuzzo presents deborah jones with the university charter — Following the presentation of the medallion was the passing of the University’s charter from Milone-Nuzzo to Jones.

Chair Ives Erickson delivers the oath of office to President Jones.

Joe Knowles addresses the inauguration audience — Knowles told the audience that President Jones “is a highly accomplished executive recognized for her ability to meet all challenges that confront her – and gain allies in the process.”

Knowles sharing a laugh with Jones after introducing her as the President of Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions and the John H Knowles Professor.

Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions President Deborah Jones delivers her inaugural address.

Friends and family watch Deborah Jones be inaugurated — A front row seat to this moment in history as Jones was the first to be inaugurated as leader of the Mass General Brigham University of Health Professions. (l to r) Jones’ mentor, Dr. Cindy Munro, her husband Brett, brother Dion Jefferson, his fiancé Toya Taylor, Jones’ father Frankie Jefferson, her mother Mary Jefferson, her stepson Shawndre Jones, mother-in-law Carolyn Jones, and husband Shawn Jones.

The Inauguration crowd included many friends and family of Deborah Jones — President Jones’ family and friends travelled from Texas, North Carolina, and Virginia for the inauguration, and they sat in the front two rows. In thanking them, Jones said, “You have encouraged me, challenged me, prayed for me, celebrated with me, and helped me become the person standing before you today.”

The crowd at the Inauguration stands to applaud Deborah Jones — A standing ovation at the end of the Inaugural address.

President Deborah J. Jones walks out of the ceremony at the end — Newly inaugurated, President Deborah J. Jones, the seventh president of the University.

Deborah Jones with her family — (clockwise) President Jones with husband Shawn, brother Dion, father Frankie Jefferson and mother Mary Jefferson.

The post Inauguration reception included food, drink, and music — Along with food, drink, and music, the post Inauguration reception featured giveaways of University tote bags with embroiders on site to embroider customized monograms.

E. Lorraine Baugh (l) shares a word with President Jones and husband Shawn. — E. Lorraine Baugh (l), former Board Chair of Mass General Brigham University, shares a word with President Jones and husband Shawn.

Echoing that sentiment was Dr. David F.M. Brown, president of the Academic Medical Centers for Mass General Brigham, who also spoke about the University’s place within Mass General Brigham, a world-class healthcare system, the essential role it plays in preparing the next generation of health professionals, and how Jones’ arrival comes at an important and difficult time for healthcare and education.

“We're grateful that you are willing to take on such an important role on behalf of all of us during a time when there's turbulence in healthcare, there's turbulence in education,” reflected Brown. “We're not sure what the support for either of those truly means at the federal level right now, and that's a challenge. Sometimes there are challenging workforce issues. There are changes in how healthcare is delivered, there's an enormous technology impact on how we deliver care.

“All of these changes need to be managed, incorporated, and we need leaders with vision and strength who can lead them, and that's what we have with Dr. Jones.”

Board of Trustees member Joe Knowles, whose father John Hilton Knowles was the Massachusetts General Hospital physician who imagined what he called “MGH University” and helped give rise to the MGH Institute of Health Professions, talked about how proud his father would be of all it has become, then raised the question of how the University would remain autonomous while sharing the Mass General Brigham name.

“Managing our dependence while forging our independence, creating it again, is no small task,” Knowles acknowledged before introducing Jones. “Only a leader as deft as she is determined, as insightful as she is self-possessed, could handle it and thrive within it. We have that leader. Our successes over the last half century have led us to her, and she to us.”

Upon taking the podium, the University’s newly inaugurated president looked out into the crowd and thanked the colleagues and distinguished guests who came. But when Jones turned her attention to the family and friends who had traveled from Texas, North Carolina, and Virginia, the enormity of her journey, and of the support along the way, took hold.

“To my friends, extended family, and colleagues who have traveled from near and far to share this day with me,” Jones said, then paused, visibly moved, before continuing. “You have no idea how much it means to look out and see you.”

Jones shared how growing up in Crewe, Virginia helped shape who she is, her approach to leadership, and how she thinks about universities, which she called “acts of faith in the future.”

“Think about what we do,” reasoned Jones, who arrived in January from The University of Texas Medical Branch. “We educate students for careers and challenges that will continue changing long after they leave us. We pursue questions without always knowing where the answers will lead. We mentor people whose greatest contributions we may never witness. We create knowledge whose impact may occur years from now in places we may never see. Universities rest on a fundamental belief: that investing in people and ideas today can make tomorrow better. And few investments in the future matter more than educating health professionals.”

Jones addressed the pressures on higher education and the challenge to demonstrate value, expand access, and adapt more quickly.

“We can respond to those pressures by defending the familiar,” Jones said. “Or we can allow them to push us toward better questions. What does the world need from us now? And what will the world need from us next?”

Her answer is a health professions university built for health-system impact, a phrase she was careful to define. “Health-system impact does not mean serving only the needs of one organization,” Jones said. “Health happens everywhere. In hospitals and clinics. In homes and schools. In rehabilitation centers and community health centers. In workplaces and neighborhoods. And around kitchen tables.”

She described what that could look like in practice: a university where workforce planning and education are connected closely enough to develop new pathways before shortages become crises, where learning and practice stay connected across an entire career, and where the distance between discovery and practice is shorter. As technology and artificial intelligence expand what is possible, she said, the University will prepare professionals “to become even better at what technology cannot replace: judgment, empathy, creativity, connection, and trust.”

Jones also returned to the interprofessional foundation that has defined the institution since its founding, where future nurses, therapists, physician assistants, and scientists learn side by side and train in teams. “People do not experience their health one specialty at a time,” she said. “They experience it as a whole person, with needs that often cross many parts of the health care system. Those needs cross boundaries. Our response must cross them too.”

Jones closed with the founders, who nearly fifty years ago invested in a future they could not fully see, and imagined those who, nearly fifty years from now, may gather to reflect on what the University chose to do in this moment while facing challenges no one can yet imagine and technologies no one can yet predict.

“But I hope they will be able to say something about us,” she said. “That when the world changed, we were willing to change with it. That when health care needed new solutions, we helped create them. That when workforce needs shifted, we helped anticipate them. That when knowledge could improve lives, we helped move it more quickly into practice. That when technology changed what was possible, we never lost sight of what makes care human. And that when boundaries stood in the way of progress, we crossed them.

“If we do that well, the evidence will not simply be found in rankings, buildings, degrees, or publications. It will be found where it matters most: in a stronger workforce, in better care, in knowledge reaching practice faster, and in healthier communities. That is the promise of a health professions university built for health-system impact. Not simply an excellent university within a great health system. But a university capable of helping shape the future of health and health care. That is an ambition worthy of our history. It is an opportunity worthy of this moment. And it is work worthy of all of us.”