Who we are
Before you dive into teaching, research, or your first committee meeting, take a moment to understand the community you've joined. HMS is guided by a clear mission, a set of shared values, and an ambitious strategic direction — knowing these will help you find your place in it.
Mission
Harvard Medical School exists to improve health and well-being for all through excellence and leadership in teaching and learning, discovery and scholarship, and service and care.
This isn't just an institutional statement. It's the shared purpose that connects 12,000+ faculty across hundreds of disciplines, from basic science to clinical care to public health. Whatever your role at HMS, this mission is the thread that runs through it.
Read the full mission and vision →Community Values
Five values define how we work, teach, and lead together at HMS. They shape everything from how we run a lab meeting to how we handle a difficult faculty conversation.
Strategic Plan 2025 — BEACON
HMS's 2025 strategic plan sets six bold priorities for the future of science and medicine. BEACON is both a framework and a signal — it tells you where HMS is investing its energy and where your work has the opportunity to connect with institution-wide momentum.
Academic Leadership
HMS academic leadership is organized across several offices, each responsible for a distinct part of the faculty experience.
Your first 30 days
Before you can teach, research, or contribute to HMS, you need to get set up. The steps that apply to you depend on your appointment type — specifically, who pays you. Select your faculty type below to see your personalized checklist.
First — what type of faculty appointment do you have?
Your HarvardKey is your HMS credential. It unlocks library access, the CV Generator, HMS systems, and other academic resources — even though you are paid by your affiliate hospital.
Steps- Check your hospital or personal email for a HarvardKey activation notice
- If you have a prior Harvard affiliation, look up your existing account at key.harvard.edu
- Complete two-factor authentication setup
- Contact the HUIT Help Desk if you have not received an activation notice within your first week
Your Harvard ID card gives you physical access to HMS buildings, Countway Library, and athletic facilities. It is separate from your affiliate hospital badge — you will need both.
Steps- Confirm your HMS appointment is active before visiting
- Bring a government-issued photo ID in person
- Visit Harvard ID Services (Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge)
- Your affiliate hospital badge is obtained separately through your hospital security office
Your HMS department administrator is your primary contact for HMS-side logistics — separate from your hospital administrator.
What to discuss- Which HMS systems and resources you have access to
- Any HMS-required compliance trainings
- How your HMS appointment interacts with your affiliate role
- Access to HMS buildings or shared spaces you may need
Benefits enrollment is time-limited — typically 30 days from your start date. As an affiliate-paid faculty member, you enroll through your hospital HR office, not Harvard HR.
Steps- Contact your affiliate hospital HR office for enrollment materials
- Review plan options and deadlines
- Add any dependents during this same window
- Confirm your enrollment is complete before the deadline
Your payroll is managed entirely by your affiliate hospital. Direct deposit, tax withholding, and pay stub access are all handled through your hospital's HR system.
Steps- Complete direct deposit setup through your affiliate hospital HR portal
- Submit W-4 federal and state tax withholding forms to your hospital HR
- Ask your HMS department administrator about any supplemental HMS-administered funds
Your affiliate hospital has its own onboarding process that runs parallel to your HMS appointment. Credentialing for clinical privileges can take several weeks — start early.
Steps- Contact your affiliate hospital's Faculty Affairs or HR office
- Submit credentialing and privileging applications if you have clinical responsibilities
- Complete the hospital's required compliance and safety trainings
- Obtain your hospital badge and building access
The HMS CV Generator is the standard tool for maintaining your Faculty of Medicine CV — used in your appointment, reappointment, and promotion review.
Steps- Log in to the CV Generator using your HarvardKey credentials
- Import an existing CV in HMS format or start from scratch
- Review the Faculty of Medicine CV Guidelines
- Plan to update your CV at minimum once per year
Your HarvardKey is your master credential for every HMS and Harvard system. Nothing else on this list works without it — activate it on day one.
Steps- Check your email for a HarvardKey activation notice
- If you have a prior Harvard affiliation, look up your existing account at key.harvard.edu
- Set up two-factor authentication
- Contact the HUIT Help Desk if activation hasn't arrived within two days
You receive an @hms.harvard.edu email address — your official channel for all HMS communication. The HMS VPN is required for library databases and internal systems off-campus.
Steps- Log into your @hms.harvard.edu account using HarvardKey
- Configure email on your preferred device
- Download and install the HMS VPN client (Cisco AnyConnect)
- Test VPN connectivity before your first remote workday
Your Harvard ID card provides physical access to HMS buildings, Countway Library, athletic facilities, and dining. You must appear in person.
Steps- Confirm your HMS appointment is active before visiting
- Bring a government-issued photo ID in person
- Visit Harvard ID Services (Smith Campus Center, 1350 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge)
Your department administrator manages day-to-day logistics — office space, keys, compliance training, expense setup, and connecting you to departmental resources.
What to discuss- Office space, keys, and building access
- Required compliance trainings and deadlines
- Travel and expense reimbursement process
- Shared resources: printers, conference rooms, lab access
Benefits enrollment is time-limited — typically 30 days from your start date.
Steps- Log into PeopleSoft HR Self-Service using HarvardKey
- Review available health, dental, and vision plan options
- Make selections and add dependents before the 30-day deadline
- Enroll in Harvard's 403(b) — even a small contribution takes advantage of matching
Your salary is paid by Harvard University and managed through PeopleSoft HR. Direct deposit, tax withholding, and pay stub access are all configured here.
Steps- Log into PeopleSoft HR Self-Service and navigate to payroll
- Enter your bank information for direct deposit
- Complete federal and Massachusetts state W-4 forms
- Confirm your first pay date with your department administrator
The HMS CV Generator is the standard tool for maintaining your Faculty of Medicine CV. Starting early, even with a sparse record, builds the habit that pays off at promotion time.
Steps- Log in using your HarvardKey credentials
- Import an existing CV in HMS format or start a new one
- Review the Faculty of Medicine CV Guidelines
- Plan to update your CV at minimum once per year
Your role and rights
Being part of the HMS faculty comes with both significant freedoms and real responsibilities. This module isn't about rules for the sake of rules — it's about giving you the foundation to do your best work with confidence, and to protect yourself and your institution when difficult situations arise.
You don't need to memorize everything here. What matters is knowing that these frameworks exist, what they cover, and where to turn when something comes up.
Faculty of Medicine HandbookReference
The Faculty Handbook is your single most important reference document as an HMS faculty member. Read the parts that apply to your situation now — and know where to find the rest when you need it.
The Faculty of Medicine Handbook governs the terms of your appointment — how it is made, renewed, and ended — as well as your rights within the HMS community, the standards expected of you, and the processes that apply when disputes or concerns arise.
Academic FreedomRight
Academic freedom is not an abstract principle at HMS — it is a protected right that governs how you teach, what you investigate, and what you publish.
HMS is committed to the principle that faculty members have the freedom to pursue research wherever it leads, to teach their subject as they see fit, and to speak and publish their findings without institutional interference. Academic freedom also carries responsibilities: the freedom to pursue inquiry is paired with the obligation to conduct that inquiry honestly, rigorously, and in accordance with professional and ethical standards.
- You have the right to pursue research questions independently of institutional or commercial pressure
- You have the right to teach your subject according to your scholarly judgment
- You have the right to publish findings and speak publicly on your areas of expertise
- These rights are protected but not unlimited — they exist within the bounds of professional conduct and research integrity
Professional ConductResponsibility
How you engage with colleagues, trainees, and students is as much a part of your faculty role as your research or clinical work.
HMS expects all faculty to uphold standards of professional conduct that reflect the institution's community values: respect, integrity, and the well-being of everyone in the community. Concerns about professional conduct — whether you are raising a concern or are the subject of one — are handled through OCAA and, where appropriate, the Harvard Ombuds Office.
Research IntegrityDuty
Research integrity is not an optional standard at HMS — it is the foundation on which the institution's credibility, and your own, rests.
HMS faculty are expected to conduct research in accordance with the highest ethical and professional standards: designing studies rigorously, handling data honestly, attributing credit accurately, and disclosing any factors that could affect the objectivity of their work.
Conflict of InterestDuty
Having a conflict of interest is not itself a violation — failing to disclose one is. Disclosure is the mechanism that protects both you and HMS.
Harvard and HMS require faculty to disclose financial relationships and outside activities that could influence — or be perceived to influence — their research, teaching, or clinical decisions. This includes consulting arrangements, equity stakes, sponsored research, and significant outside roles.
- Annual disclosure is required of all HMS faculty, regardless of whether you believe you have a conflict
- New relationships must be disclosed promptly — do not wait for the annual cycle
- Industry consulting, advisory boards, equity holdings, and sponsored research are all disclosable
- HMS has a management process for conflicts that cannot be eliminated — disclosure enables that process to work
Outside Activities & ConsultingResponsibility
Faculty are permitted — and often encouraged — to engage with industry, government, and other institutions. But outside activities require advance approval and ongoing disclosure.
HMS recognizes that faculty involvement in external organizations advances the translation of academic work into real-world impact. These activities are permitted within defined limits and subject to approval to ensure they do not interfere with your primary obligations to HMS, your students, or your research.
Raising a ConcernProtected
If something feels wrong — in your lab, your department, or your institution — you have multiple protected pathways to raise it. Knowing these pathways before you need them matters.
HMS has formal and informal processes for faculty who need to raise concerns about misconduct, policy violations, harassment, discrimination, or other serious matters. Using these processes is protected — retaliation against faculty who raise good-faith concerns is a violation of HMS policy.
Building your academic identity
You've sorted the logistics and grounded yourself in the policies. Now comes the deeper work: understanding what your appointment actually means for your path, establishing the relationships and presence that will carry you forward, and integrating into the department and institution in a way that feels intentional rather than accidental.
This module is less about completing tasks and more about asking the right questions early — before the pace of clinical and research work makes it harder to step back and think.
Your appointment type is not just a title — it defines your trajectory, your promotion timeline, and the kind of work HMS expects you to emphasize. HMS faculty appointments fall into two broad tracks, determined primarily by who pays your salary.
- Promotion is milestone-driven, not time-based
- Advance when your record demonstrates readiness
- Three areas: investigation, teaching, clinical
- No mandatory review timeline
- Strong clinical and teaching records can carry promotion
- Promotion is tenure-driven with defined timelines
- Independent research program is central
- Tenure clock applies at Instructor and Assistant levels
- External funding and scholarly output are primary criteria
- Mandatory review periods — know your timeline from day one
The most consistent predictor of faculty success at academic medical centers is not productivity or funding — it is having meaningful mentorship. And the faculty who benefit most are those who pursue it deliberately.
HMS does not automatically assign mentors. Mentorship is something you build — often with more than one person. Many successful faculty have two or three mentors who serve different functions.
Your CV and online presence are not administrative overhead — they are how colleagues find you, how students choose you, and how promotion committees evaluate you.
- HMS CV Generator — The standard format. Updated annually. Used in every appointment, reappointment, and promotion review.
- HMS Faculty Directory profile — How you appear to students, trainees, and colleagues. Updated through PeopleSoft.
- ORCID iD — A persistent researcher identifier connecting your publications across platforms. Free. Increasingly required.
- Google Scholar or PubMed profile — How your publications are discovered. Verify attribution.
- Affiliate hospital profile — Often where patients and referring clinicians find you.
Many HMS faculty effectively have two institutional homes: their department and their affiliate hospital. The faculty who navigate this most successfully invest deliberately in both relationships.
There is no formal universal first-year review at HMS, but that does not mean your first year goes unobserved.
- Your HMS CV should be active and current in the CV Generator
- You should have identified at least one mentor and a regular cadence of meetings
- You should understand your promotion track and timeline
- You should have clarity on how your protected academic time is defined
- You should know the three or four people in your department whose support matters most
Teaching & mentoring
For most new HMS faculty, teaching is the first active contribution they make to the institution — often before a research program is established, a grant is funded, or a promotion feels relevant. This module helps you understand what you're walking into, how to do it well from the start, and how to document it in a way that serves you later.
Mentoring deserves equal attention. As a faculty member you are simultaneously a mentee — still building your own career — and increasingly a mentor to students, residents, and trainees who are looking to you for the same kind of support you are seeking.
The HMS MD curriculum is divided into pre-clinical and clinical phases. Pre-clinical teaching happens primarily through case-based learning, small group facilitation, and lecture, while clinical teaching occurs through clerkships at HMS-affiliated hospitals.
Graduate teaching at HMS is among the most intellectually demanding — and most personally rewarding — teaching roles available to faculty. It also carries some of the most significant responsibilities for student welfare and career development.
HMS nano-courses are short, intensive elective modules — typically two to five sessions — that faculty propose and lead on topics of their choosing. They are open to medical students, graduate students, and in some cases residents and fellows.
You are both a mentee and a mentor at the same time — and the quality of both relationships shapes your career more than almost any other factor in academic medicine.
Teaching is one of the three Areas of Excellence in HMS promotion — but it only counts if it is documented. The faculty who struggle most at promotion time are not those who taught too little, but those who taught a great deal and recorded almost none of it.
| What to document | What to record | Where it appears |
|---|---|---|
| Course and lecture teaching | Course name, program, students, role, dates | HMS CV — Teaching |
| Thesis advising | Student name, degree, role, thesis title, completion | HMS CV — Mentoring |
| Informal mentoring | Names, roles, duration, outcomes | Promotion narrative |
| Teaching evaluations | Save copies as you receive them | Supporting materials |
| Curriculum development | Any course you designed or revised | Teaching Area |
Research, resources & funding
Whether you are establishing your first independent research program or expanding a mature one, HMS and its affiliate network offer an unusually rich set of tools, infrastructure, and funding mechanisms. The challenge is not access — it is knowing what exists and when to use it.
This module is organized by where you are in your career, not by resource type. Use the filter below to surface what is most relevant to you right now.
Quick access — most-used resources
Harvard Catalyst is one of the most valuable and underused resources available to HMS faculty. If you do research that involves humans, data, or the translation of basic science into clinical application, it almost certainly has something that can help you.
It is the Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, funded by the NIH to support research across Harvard and its 30+ affiliated institutions. Most of it is free to HMS faculty.
Internal funding is not a consolation prize for faculty who haven't won federal grants yet. It is the strategic foundation on which competitive federal applications are built.
A funded research program is not just a collection of grants — it is a coherent scientific story. Mid-career faculty who manage their portfolio strategically sustain their programs through funding gaps; those who don't often face crises that feel sudden but were years in the making.
One of the most underappreciated advantages of being at HMS is access to shared research infrastructure that would be prohibitively expensive to replicate independently.
Countway is not just a place to borrow books — it is a full-service research support infrastructure with specialists who can meaningfully improve the quality and efficiency of your scholarship.
Compliance is not the enemy of good research — it is the infrastructure that allows your research to be trusted, published, and funded.
Promotion & career advancement
Promotion at HMS is not something that happens to you — it is something you build toward, deliberately, over years. The faculty who navigate it most successfully are those who understand their track early, document their work consistently, and ask the right questions before they feel ready to submit.
This module begins by helping you identify which track applies to you. Everything that follows depends on that answer.
Which track are you on?
Affiliate-paid pathwayMilestone-driven
Affiliate-track faculty appointments span four ranks. Unlike the Quad track, there is no mandatory timeline between ranks — advancement happens when the record is ready.
The affiliate promotion process is initiated by the faculty member in consultation with their department chair.
Affiliate-track promotion is evaluated across three Areas of Excellence: Investigation, Teaching, and Clinical Care. You do not need to be exceptional in all three — meaningful contribution in at least two, with depth in one. The single most common reason strong faculty are not promoted on their first submission is insufficient documentation, not insufficient achievement.
HMS Quad pathwayTenure-driven
Quad-track faculty appointments are governed by a tenure system with defined timelines. The tenure clock begins on your appointment start date.
The Quad promotion process is initiated by the institution when the tenure clock review period arrives. The preparation is entirely your responsibility.
Tenure review at HMS is an evaluation of independence and impact — whether you have established a research program that is distinctly yours, and whether the field would be measurably different without your contributions.
Three Areas of Excellence
Every HMS promotion case — regardless of track — is evaluated against three Areas of Excellence. You do not need to be exceptional in all three, but you need to make a clear case for meaningful contribution in at least two, with depth in one.
Significant Supporting Activities (SSAs)
SSAs are often the most underdocumented part of a promotion case — and for many faculty, they represent years of genuine institutional contribution that simply never made it into a CV section.
- Committee and governance service — Faculty Council, departmental committees, search committees
- DEI work — Pipeline programs, mentoring underrepresented students, diversity committee leadership
- National professional service — Society leadership, journal editorial boards, study sections
- Public engagement and advocacy — Science communication, media, legislative testimony
- Administrative and program leadership — Program directorships, course directorships, training grant leadership
Your HMS CV and promotion profile
Your HMS CV and promotion profile are not the same document. One is a running record you maintain throughout your career. The other is a curated argument you make at a specific moment.
Mid-career: sustaining & leading
The early years of a faculty career have a kind of forward momentum built in — new roles, new grants, new milestones to reach. Mid-career is different. The scaffolding of "getting started" is gone, the finish line isn't visible yet, and the work of sustaining yourself through a long career becomes genuinely demanding.
This module is different from the others. It isn't about completing tasks or meeting requirements. It's about the questions that mid-career faculty most often find themselves asking — and the resources HMS offers to help answer them.
Which of these resonates with where you are?
The filter is a guide — every section is worth reading.
Burnout among academic physicians and scientists is not a personal failing — it is a predictable consequence of sustained high demand in environments that rarely build in recovery.
Studies consistently find that academic medical faculty experience burnout at rates significantly higher than the general workforce. The mid-career period is a particular inflection point.
The Ombuds Office appears in the HMS navigation but is rarely explained in faculty orientation. Most faculty learn what it does only after something has already gone wrong.
The Harvard Ombuds Office is an independent, confidential, neutral, and informal resource for all Harvard community members. An Ombudsperson is not an advocate for any party — they are a neutral resource who helps you think through a situation.
At some point in mid-career, the balance shifts: you are no longer primarily a mentee seeking guidance, and you are increasingly a mentor shaping someone else's path. That transition is rarely marked by any formal moment.
Leadership in academic medicine is rarely taught — it is expected to emerge from clinical and research excellence. The faculty who lead most effectively are those who seek out the skills explicitly.
Committee service and administrative roles are where mid-career faculty shape the institution — and where careers are most easily derailed by taking on too much of the wrong things.
Changing direction in mid-career is not failure — it is often the most intellectually honest response to what you have learned about yourself and your work over the preceding decade.
Shaping HMS: community, service & belonging
Every faculty member who teaches a student, mentors a trainee, serves on a committee, or shows up for a colleague is contributing to the culture of this institution — whether or not they think of it that way. This module is about doing that intentionally.
HMS is shaped by its faculty more than by any policy or program. The community you experience here is largely the one that faculty before you built. This module is an invitation to think about what you want to contribute to the community that the faculty who come after you will inherit.
Where do you want to contribute?
The Better Together PlanBelonging
Belonging at HMS is not a passive state that the institution grants — it is something that faculty, staff, and students build together through deliberate choices about how we work, teach, and treat one another.
The HMS Better Together plan is the institution's framework, organized around four commitments: creating a welcoming environment, building inclusive excellence in research and education, advancing community partnerships, and supporting well-being.
For faculty, Better Together is not primarily a set of programs to attend — it is a call to examine everyday choices: how you structure your lab or team, who you invite to collaborate, how you mentor across difference.
Faculty Council & Committee ParticipationGovernance
Faculty governance at HMS is not ceremonial. The committees and councils that faculty serve on shape curriculum, promotion criteria, appointment standards, and institutional policy.
HMS Faculty Council is the primary representative body for all Faculty of Medicine appointees. Council membership is a meaningful form of institutional participation — and, as a Significant Supporting Activity, it is visible in promotion cases.
The Faculty Council meets regularly throughout the academic year. All Faculty of Medicine appointees are eligible to attend open sessions. Elected representatives serve defined terms and participate in standing committees on education, research policy, faculty affairs, and institutional governance.
If you are interested in serving as an elected representative, speak with your department chair or contact the Faculty Council office directly. Elections are held annually, and candidacy does not require prior committee experience.
HMS committee opportunities include: curriculum and educational policy committees, appointments and promotions committees, search committees, research ethics and oversight committees, and ad hoc working groups convened by the Dean's office.
Most committee appointments are made through departments or the Dean's office. Expressing interest to your department chair is the most direct path.
Pipeline Teaching & Public EducationOutreach
One of the most direct ways a faculty member shapes who enters medicine and science is by teaching young people who have not yet decided whether a career in these fields is possible for them.
HMS faculty have a long tradition of teaching in K–12 schools, community colleges, and pre-college programs across Greater Boston. These programs range from single-session classroom visits to sustained curriculum partnerships, and they are designed to be accessible to faculty with modest time available.
Community-Engaged ScholarshipResearch
Research done with communities rather than on them produces different questions, stronger methods, and findings that are more likely to be used. It also reflects a set of values about whose knowledge counts and who benefits from academic work.
Community-engaged scholarship spans community-based participatory research, patient-engaged clinical trials, health equity research, and public health partnerships. What these approaches share is an orientation toward affected communities as genuine partners, not just as subjects.
Arts & Humanities at HMSCulture
Medicine is a human practice before it is a technical one, and HMS takes seriously the idea that literature, art, music, and the humanities are not decoration around the edges of medical education — they are central to it.
The Program in Medical Education at HMS has long incorporated arts and humanities, and a community of faculty practice and research at the intersection of medicine and the arts. This community is informal and welcoming.
Retirement & transitions
A career at HMS can span thirty, forty, or fifty years. How it ends — and how that ending transitions into what comes next — matters as much as how it begins. This module exists to make that transition visible from the start, and navigable when the time comes.
Whether you are reading this as a new faculty member encountering this page for the first time, or as someone actively planning a transition, the goal is the same: to help you make this passage on your own terms, with full awareness of your options.
Typical transition planning timeline
Phased Retirement OptionsPlanning
Retirement at HMS does not have to be a single moment. Phased retirement allows faculty to reduce their responsibilities gradually, on a timeline that reflects their circumstances rather than an arbitrary date.
For affiliate-paid faculty, phased retirement is negotiated with the affiliate hospital, not with Harvard directly. The terms available depend on your hospital's faculty policies.
Harvard's phased retirement program for tenured faculty allows for a reduction of effort to 50% over a period negotiated with the Provost's office and the Dean. During the phased period, faculty typically maintain health benefits and continue to accrue retirement benefits on a pro-rated basis.
Eligibility typically requires a minimum age and years of service. Contact OFA well in advance — ideally three to five years before your intended transition.
Phased retirement for affiliate-paid faculty is governed by your affiliate hospital's policies, which vary across institutions. Most HMS-affiliated hospitals have developed faculty retirement transition programs in recent years. Begin by contacting your affiliate hospital's Faculty Affairs office.
Even if your salary and retirement benefits are managed by your affiliate, your HMS appointment status — and any transition to emeritus status — is handled through OFA. These two processes run in parallel and need to be coordinated.
Emeritus AppointmentProcess
An emeritus appointment is not a farewell — it is a recognition of sustained contribution and a continuation of your relationship with HMS in a different form. For many faculty it is one of the most meaningful appointments of their career.
The title of Professor Emeritus (or the equivalent at other ranks) is conferred upon eligible faculty who retire in good standing after a significant career at HMS. It is an honorary appointment that carries real privileges.
Benefits Continuation & MedicareBenefits
The financial and benefits dimensions of retirement require careful planning and coordination across multiple systems. Starting this process late is one of the most common and most avoidable sources of stress in the transition.
What happens to your benefits at retirement depends on your payroll source, age, years of service, and Medicare eligibility. For Harvard-paid faculty the primary contact is Harvard Benefits; for affiliate-paid, your hospital's HR office.
Legacy & GivingLegacy
A career at HMS is built on the contributions of those who came before — the endowed professorships, named lectureships, student fellowships, and research funds that earlier faculty created. Legacy giving is how the next generation of faculty inherits the same foundation.
Many faculty approaching retirement find that philanthropy is one of the most meaningful ways to extend the impact of their career beyond their active years. Gifts can be structured in many ways — from outright donations to planned giving arrangements that provide income during life.
Staying Connected After RetirementEngagement
Retirement from a faculty position does not have to mean retirement from the institution, the field, or the relationships that have defined a career. The faculty who find most satisfaction in this transition are those who approach it as a change in form, not an ending.
The end of a career is also a kind of beginning.
Whatever stage you are at in your HMS career — first appointment, mid-career, or approaching transition — the Office for Faculty Affairs is here to support you through it. There is no question too early, no situation too complicated, and no transition too far off to begin thinking about.
Office for Faculty Affairs
OFA@hms.harvard.edu