Mira Irons steps down as head of the College of Physicians and the Mütter Museum

Pediatrician and geneticist Mira Irons, CEO and president of the College of Physicians, resigned from her position on Wednesday. Appointed by the board of the college in 2021, she oversaw the college, the Mütter Museum, and the Historical Medical Library. Irons was the first woman to serve as college president since the private society of doctors was established in 1787.

Irons will return to Boston’s Children’s Hospital, the primary teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School where she worked as a physician for 15 years, to serve as the Park Gerald Chair in Genetics & Genomics, and become the Associate Chief of Genetics and Genomics.

During her brief tenure at the College of Physicians, Irons oversaw the institution’s efforts to recover pandemic losses while also leading efforts to expand the college’s footprint on 22nd Street with the $9.3 million purchase of two nearby historic buildings intended to host college programs in the future.

She and the College of Physicians board of trustees hired Kate Quinn as the Mütter’s first dedicated executive director in 2022 and together they have spearheaded a significant direction shift for the medical history museum, which showcases rare anatomical specimens like President Grover Cleveland’s jaw tumor and slides of Albert Einstein’s brain.

The Mütter’s identity crisis is rooted in the debate over the ethical use and display of human remains in its collection. Most of its specimens were acquired in the 1800s and 1900s, with some cases of unethical acquisitions, like grave robbing, and other cases with little information available regarding provenance. Irons and Quinn have also questioned whether the museum offers enough educational information surrounding its human remains on display, such as the fetuses in the teratology exhibit, which includes donations from parents who consented to the exhibit.

Amid these changes, critics have accused Irons and Quinn of deconstructing the museum, which they have denied. But they have kick-started major plans to revamp the Mütter, which Quinn has said should focus on health and well-being, not death.

The museum recently announced a listening tour, inviting public feedback on the future of its human remains collection, including town hall meetings, a forthcoming exhibit, and other events to discuss the fact that only a small percentage of specimens come from people who gave informed and enthusiastic consent to be on display, according to Quinn. The first town hall event is Oct. 17 and preregistration is required.

“Dr. Irons arrived at a time of great change for our organization …[she] embraced the challenge to collaboratively reenvision the College’s future, including the complex and sensitive ethical issues confronting the Mütter Museum and museums all over the world concerning best practices and the respectful display of human remains,” said Julia Haller, chair of the College of Physicians board, in a statement.

In the interim, three College Fellows will take over Irons’ job until the board hires a replacement: Carolyn Asbury, a medical drug policy researcher and an adjunct senior fellow at Penn’s Institute of Health Economics; Daniel Dempsey, an emeritus surgery professor at Penn; and Sankey Williams, an emeritus professor in internal medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and in health care management at Penn’s Wharton School.