An emergency room physician, clinical epidemiologist and an alumna of the School of Public Health, Dr. Francesca Beaudoin, M.D., M.S., Ph.D.’17 is a national expert in addressing opioid use disorders and pain management as well as partnering with small businesses and state stakeholders to pioneer innovative solutions to key public health problems. She has called Brown home for nearly two decades, as an emergency physician, doctoral student, faculty member, department chair and academic dean.
Dr. Beaudoin has spent much of her career on the frontlines of the opioid crisis, advancing evidence-based and community-centered approaches to pain management, substance use and recovery. She was one of the first physicians in the nation to serve patients through a mobile drug recovery unit. Operated in partnership with CODAC Behavioral Healthcare, the mobile clinic delivers opioid use disorder treatment, medical care and counseling to individuals suffering from addiction in one of Rhode Island’s underserved communities.
Dr. Beaudoin has authored 190+ peer-reviewed articles, served as a member of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee and written and implemented practice management policies for health care systems on pain management and opioid prescribing. Dr. Beaudoin has served as a Senior Medical Advisor to the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review providing expert review of time sensitive treatments such as gene therapies and GLP-1 medications for obesity. She is principal investigator of multiple federal and private grants focused on improving how people are identified, treated and supported after opioid overdose and recovery.
As interim dean, Dr. Beaudoin leads the school’s strategy to advance its public health mission through education, research and policy translation. Prior to taking office as interim dean, Dr. Beaudoin served two years as academic dean overseeing the school’s academic departments, research centers, doctoral and master’s programs and undergraduate concentrations. She has also served as chair of the Department of Epidemiology and has held faculty and research appointments at Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School. Dr. Beaudoin continues to practice as a physician, holding appointments at Brown University Health and CODAC Behavioral Healthcare.
Dr. Beaudoin earned her bachelor’s and master’s in kinesiology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2000 and 2002, respectively, where she was an All-American in women’s rowing. In 2006, Dr. Beaudoin received her M.D. from the University of Massachusetts Medical School and completed her residency in Emergency Medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, followed by a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Brown University School of Public Health in 2017.