Campus & Community

Shonkoff named professor at HSPH, GSE

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Jack Shonkoff, the former dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, has been appointed professor of child health and development at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and at the Graduate School of Education (GSE). From 1998 to 2000, Shonkoff chaired a committee of the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council that produced “From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development.” This report assessed the full breadth of scientific knowledge about how young children develop.

“From Neurons to Neighborhoods” led to the creation of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, which involves neuroscientists, economists, psychologists, pediatricians, and communication researchers from a host of institutions. With Shonkoff as founding chair, the council’s members are working to translate science for policymakers and civic leaders to build new leadership for informed policy in both the public and private sectors.

A pediatrician, Shonkoff received his M.D. from New York University School of Medicine. Through the National Academies, he chaired the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, and served as a member of the Panel on Child Care Policy, the Committee on Assessment of Family Violence Interventions, and the Roundtable on Head Start Research. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the American Pediatric Society and was appointed a National Associate of the National Academies for his contributions to the National Academy of Sciences. He received the C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development from the American Academy of Pediatrics.