Megan T. Sandel MED’96
Professor, Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine
Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
Co-Director, Grow Clinic for Children at Boston Medical Center
Principal Investigator, Boston Opportunity System Collaborative
Dr. Megan Sandel has been a staunch advocate for the health of children and underserved families beginning as a student at Dartmouth Medical School and continuing into her professional career as a researcher and innovator.
She serves as professor at the Boston University (BU) Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and a professor at the BU School of Public Health. She’s also the co-director of the Grow Clinic for Children at Boston Medical Center (BMC), which is a multispecialty clinic for children with failure to thrive. She is the principal investigator for the Boston Opportunity System Collaborative, which helps underserved Boston neighborhoods with employment and affordable housing opportunities. Megan advocates for place-based investing—focusing on specific, disinvested neighborhoods and ZIP codes to address health inequities. She’s also the co-lead principal investigator for Children’s HealthWatch at BMC, and the medical center’s lead of a $6.5-million housing and place-based community health initiative. She serves as a board member for a number of regional and national organizations.
Among her former leadership positions at Boston Medical Center, she was the medical director of the Child Protection Team and the medical director of the Family Advocacy Program (now the Medical Legal Partnership). She was also the strategic director of the SPARK Center for Children.
Dr. Sandel has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed papers and delivered testimony multiple times at both the state and federal level regarding children’s health, housing, and social determinants of health. As a resident at BMC, she co-wrote the DOC4Kids research report on how housing affects children’s health, which has been cited in over 300 papers.
As a medical student, Megan helped design and implement the Partners in Health Education program in which first- and second-year medical students worked with local K-12 teachers on age-appropriate, developmentally appropriate health education in schools. The program positively influenced the medical students’ communication skills with patients and their focus on preventive issues, and it also increased the student culture’s focus on service.
She earned a National Health Service Corp Scholarship during her first year at Dartmouth Medical School. Since then, she has earned multiple teaching awards and community service awards, including the CIBA-GEIGY Community Service Award and the Merck Award for Community Service, both from Dartmouth Medical School. Among her national awards, Dr. Sandel was the winner of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency award for Environmental Leadership in Environmental Management in Treatment in Asthma in 2009.
Dr. Sandel earned her MD from Dartmouth Medical School in 1996 and completed her residency and a pediatrics fellowship at Boston Medical Center. She also earned a Master of Public Health from Boston University School of Public Health in 2002.
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