Dr. Diane Shannon (Boston, MA) is a former primary care physician and has been a Peer Coach with VITAL WorkLife since 2020. She received her medical degree from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and completed training in an internal medicine residency program at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston. She earned her International Coach Federation credential as an Associated Certified Coach and is a member of the International Coach Federation, the Physician Coaching Alliance, and Boston Executive Coaches. Dr. Shannon also holds a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University.

Dr. Shannon knows personally the challenges and realities of working in the health care system. As a clinician who experienced burnout, she also knows what it’s like to have a calling to practice medicine and to love connecting with patients, then find yourself exhausted, demoralized, and overwhelmed.

Today, as a professional coach, Diane helps busy women physicians rediscover their WHY, improve work-life integration, and accomplish their personal and professional goals. She also works with organizations to identify and mitigate the system problems that drive attrition and burnout among women physicians.

As an award-winning health care writer she has crafted expert reports, focused white papers, and case studies for national foundations, policymakers, and professional advocacy groups that are working to improve the health care system. Dr. Shannon is co-author with Paul DeChant, MD of the book Preventing Physician Burnout: Curing the Chaos and Returning Joy to the Practice of Medicine and has spoken in various forums across the country on the topic of physician burnout.