John Herman

John Herman, MD serves as Associate Chief of the Department of Psychiatry and Distinguished Scholar for Medical Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), while holding the position of Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He also directs the Partners HealthCare Employee Assistance Program, which he co-founded in 1990 and expanded in 1996 to serve 80,000 employees across the Partners HealthCare system.

His educational background includes:

• Medical degree from University of Wisconsin Medical School (1980)
• Medical internship at Brown University Medical School
• Psychiatry residency at Massachusetts General Hospital

Dr. Herman's career centers on improving mental health access, particularly for addiction treatment, and developing practical approaches for primary care clinicians managing psychiatric conditions. His work bridges clinical psychiatry and general medicine through extensive educational initiatives and program development.

His publications focus on translating psychiatric expertise into primary care settings and board certification preparation, emphasizing actionable clinical guidance over theoretical frameworks. This reflects his commitment to making psychiatric knowledge accessible to non-specialists.

His professional recognition includes:

• Distinguished Scholar for Medical Psychiatry at MGH
• Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association

In academic leadership, Dr. Herman directed MGH's postgraduate education division for 14 years and served as Director of Adult Psychiatry Residency Training (1991-2000). He chaired the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Medicine overseeing 39,000 physicians and 200 hospitals, and remains active through national lecturing and professional society leadership including past presidency of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatry Residency Training.

He maintains operational leadership as Medical Director of the Partners HealthCare Employee Assistance Program, which evolved from his 1990 MGH initiative into a major employee mental health service spanning the healthcare system.