North Hill Board & Senior Management

Dr. Julia Ragland


Dr. Julia Ragland currently serves as the Director of Palliative Care Education at Newton-Wellesley Hospital (NWH). She received her medical degree from New York University School of Medicine and completed her residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She began her career as a primary care physician before transitioning to hospital medicine in 2000. She joined the Hospitalist Service at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in 2002 and served as Chief of the Hospitalist Service from 2005-2009.

In 2009 she became the founding Director of the Newton-Wellesley Hospital Palliative Care Service, a position she held until October 2017. Since that time Dr. Ragland has remained an active member of the Division of palliative care with a focus on education and clinical care. In mid-June 2022, Dr. Ragland will be transitioning to a new position as the Medical Director of Palliative Care for Commonwealth Care Alliance, a not-for-profit, integrated health care system that serves people with significant needs. She plans to remain an active member of the Division of Palliative Care at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Dr. Ragland is board certified in Internal Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She has served on the expert panel for the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM)-Hastings Center collaboration on Improving End-of-Life Care in the Hospital. She is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine and her academic interests are focused on teaching palliative care, with an emphasis on communication in serious illness. She was named a Howland Master Clinician at Newton-Wellesley Hospital which provides an annual endowment to support her work in palliative care education.

Dr. Ragland lives in Needham with her husband Bill Paulson and they have 3 grown daughters, Katie, Sarah and Ellen.