A native of North Carolina, Dr. J. Jacques Carter grew up in Washington, D.C. He earned degrees from Howard University and George Washington University. After a five-year stint as a sanitarian and program manager with the D.C. Department of Public Health, he left to pursue medical studies at Georgetown. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, followed by graduate work at the Harvard School of Public Health and a clinical fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Carter currently serves as an attending physician on the medical service at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Carter has been active in many civic and community organizations. He recently served on the Board of Directors of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Carter has a long history of volunteer leadership: he was previously the chairman of the Brookline Advisory Council on Public Health; president of the Board of Trustees of Family Service of Greater Boston; member of the Board of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; co-founder and former president of the Friends of Public Health; president of the Harvard School of Public Health Alumni Association; director of the Harvard Alumni Association; and a founding member of Georgetown’s African American Advisory Board.

Carter lectures on medical and public health topics and serves as a medical consultant and resource for the media. He received the 2010 Harvard Medical School/Harvard School of Dental Medicine Community Service Lifetime Achievement Award, the Georgetown University Alumni Association’s 2020 Founders Alumni Award and the Harvard Alumni Association’s 2020 HAA Award. Carter was chair and FDR Honoree of the 2021 March of Dimes Black Ties for Babies Gala.

He is married to Luella Ferrill. They have two sons, Jacques Andre and Richard Ferrill.