(Boston)—The Federation of Pediatric Organizations (FOPO) is pleased to announce that Robert (Bob) Vinci, MD, has been named the recipient of the 2026 FOPO Joseph W. St. Geme, Jr. Leadership Award.
This prestigious honor recognizes Vinci’s visionary leadership as a clinician, educator, mentor and institutional builder whose sustained system-level contributions have reshaped pediatric education, pediatric workforce policy and access to care for vulnerable populations. Vinci, professor of pediatrics at Boston University Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine and a member of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston Medical Center (BMC), is widely recognized as an innovative leader, educator and mentor who has guided hundreds of trainees over his over four-decade career.
Vinci has devoted his career to BMC and Boston University, anchoring his leadership in the mission of a premier safety-net health system. He began his career as a pediatric resident at Boston City Hospital (now BMC) in 1980. He went on to hold various leadership positions at BMC and the medical school before being named as chair and chief of pediatrics and the Joel and Barbara Alpert Professor of Pediatrics in 2013.
In the early 1980s, Vinci established the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, one of the earliest academic divisions of pediatric emergency medicine in the country and served as the director of both the Pediatric Emergency Department and its associated fellowship program. He was one of a group of leaders who developed the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program in Massachusetts, providing guidance that advanced prehospital care for children. Along with former Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and colleagues at the Boston Public Health Commission, Vinci helped establish Boston’s landmark window-fall prevention program, “Kids Can’t Fly.” Grounded in decades of work at a safety-net hospital, his leadership has consistently centered around equity and social justice. He co-founded the Kids Fund, Inc., which for nearly 40 years has supported innovative programs and the families of Boston’s most vulnerable children.
Vinci is widely regarded as one of the most influential clinician-educators of his generation. In 1996, along with Dr. Frederick H. Lovejoy, Jr, he co-founded the Boston Combined Residency Program (BCRP), an innovative pediatric residency program, uniting BMC and Boston Children’s Hospital. Equally impactful has been Vinci’s early and sustained advocacy for flexible and individualized training pathways, including part-time residency options that support trainees with caregiving responsibilities or non-traditional career trajectories. These innovations helped normalize flexibility in graduate medical education nationwide and advanced inclusion within the pediatric workforce.
The BCRP’s pioneering model—integrating quaternary subspecialty care with public health, primary care, and trauma-informed practice—has become a national exemplar and continues to train future leaders in pediatrics. Under his leadership, the residency program developed Health Equity Rounds, now a nationally disseminated model of resident-led equity education. Colleagues and trainees consistently describe Vinci as a mentor who makes every individual feel seen, valued, and capable of more than they imagined and he is celebrated for his warmth, humility, humor and unwavering belief in others.
Vinci’s leadership style is rooted in his fierce commitment to pediatric providers being part of the solutions that will improve patients’ lives. In his role as pediatric chair and chief, he was a passionate supporter of the many innovative programs and initiatives that his faculty developed, including the development of programs for families affected by substance use disorders, programs that integrated pediatric care with the Boston school system and the creation of StreetCred, a nationally recognized program whose mission is to build economic mobility and health equity. He was instrumental in the creation of BMC’s Center for the Urban Child and Healthy Family, which is a national leader in testing unique models of care that partner with the broader community and like-minded organizations to support children and families. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Vinci helped create BMC’s Curbside Care Program, bringing immunizations, screenings, and maternal-newborn care directly into the community, an innovation that continues to serve at-risk families today.
A natural mentor, Vinci is often cited by some of the most notable names in pediatrics as a person instrumental to their careers. His contributions to education have been recognized with the field’s highest honors. He is the only individual to receive both of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors’ top awards: the Robert S. Holm Leadership Award and the Walter W. Tunnessen, Jr., MD Award, and was also named Massachusetts AAP Mentor of the Year. He served as national faculty for the APPD Leadership in Educational Academic Development (LEAD) program and for several years as Associate Editor of Academic Pediatrics, shaping educational scholarship and mentoring authors across the country. His leadership has also had impact on multiple national organizations, reflecting service on the Board of Directors for the Association of Pediatric Program Directors, the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs, and the American Board of Pediatrics as well as participation on workforce committees for the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Pediatric Society, and the Society for Pediatric Research.
Vinci’s influence extends well beyond education to the national stage of pediatric workforce policy. As co-leader of the Association of Medical School Pediatric Department Chairs (AMSPDC) Pediatric Workforce Initiative with Laura Degnon, he has spearheaded the most comprehensive, collaborative effort in decades to address mounting threats to the pediatric and pediatric subspecialty workforce. Under his leadership, more than 200 stakeholders from over 30 organizations aligned around four strategic priorities: physician-scientist development, care delivery and practice collaboration, financial sustainability, and educational pathways. Vinci played a central role in the commission of a landmark National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) study on the future of the pediatric subspecialty workforce.
Over the course of his career, Vinci has demonstrated institutional stewardship building programs that endure, mentoring leaders who multiply impact, and sustaining innovation over decades. Hundreds of physicians who trained under his leadership now serve as department chairs, program directors, educators, researchers, and national leaders across pediatrics. His efforts to supporting and strengthening the pediatric workforce will have an enduring impact on child health in this country.