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Warren Ferguson, MD, is the recipient of the American Academy of Family Physicians’ 2019 Public Health Award. The Public Health Award recognizes the important contributions that family physicians make to advancing the health of the public at the national, state or local levels.
Dr. Ferguson is vice chair and professor of family medicine & community health and director of academic programs for Commonwealth Medicine’s Health and Criminal Justice Program.
Ferguson was instrumental in creating the Health and Criminal Justice Program in 2003 to provide health services for the Massachusetts Department of Correction, and making UMMS the first medical school in the country with a mandatory correctional health course. In 2012, he co-founded the Academic Consortium on Criminal Justice Health, a national membership organization that advances health research, training and care for justice-involved populations.
Ferguson has also focused on community re-entry strategies for individuals released from jails and prisons, with a focus on providing medication-assisted treatment for those with opioid use disorder.
Ferguson’s numerous honors include the 2017 Armond Start Award for Excellence in Correctional Medicine from the American College of Correctional Physicians; the 2016 Community Clinician of the Year award from the Worcester District Medical Society; the 2014 Andy Nichols Award for Social Justice from the National Area Health Education Centers Organization; and the inaugural UMass Medical School Chancellor’s Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence in Diversity in 2010. Most recently he received the 2019 Innovative Program Award for championing the role of academic medicine in correctional health care from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine.
Related stories on UMassMedNow:
Warren Ferguson in STAT and Boston Globe: Prisons and jails need support to fight opioid addiction
NPR’s Here & Now: UMass Medical School studying substance abuse treatment programs in prisons and jails
UMass Medical School announces Warren J. Ferguson Scholarship
Warren Ferguson named 2016 Community Clinician of the Year
