Jack Shonkoff
Shonkoff is the former Dean of The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. From 1998 to 2000, he 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 groundbreaking report assessed the full breadth of scientific knowledge about how young children develop, and galvanized thinking on the application of that knowledge.
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, its 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. At Harvard, the Council's work will fall under a University-wide center on the developing child to be created.
"Jack's focus is to close the gap between what we know about early childhood development and what we do in terms of policy," said Dean Barry Bloom. "He possesses an uncommon ability to translate scientific research into terms that policymakers can appreciate and apply."
A pediatrician, Shonkoff received his MD 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 also served as a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Early Experience and Brain Development. 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.
Shonkoff will speak at the Richmond Symposium on child health and development on September 26.
Copyright, 2007, President and Fellows of Harvard College
