Biography

Dr. Shonkoff is the Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and Professor of Child Health and Development at the Harvard School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a board-certified pediatrician whose professional interests focus on the intersection of science, policy and practice. Prior to his present position, Dr. Shonkoff was Dean of the Heller School for Social Policy and Management and the Samuel F. and Rose B. Gingold Professor of Human Development and Social Policy at Brandeis University. He is the Founding Chair of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, a multi-disciplinary collaboration comprising leading scholars in neuroscience, early childhood development, pediatrics, and economics. Its mission is to bring sound and accurate science to bear on public decision-making affecting the lives of young children. He served as Chair of the Committee on Integrating the Science of Early Childhood Development for the Institute of Medicine and the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences, which produced a landmark report entitled, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. Among his many honors, Dr. Shonkoff is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine and a recipient of the C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development from the American Academy of Pediatrics.He has authored more than 130 publications. He received his medical degree from New York University School of Medicine.

Biography

Dr. Kim is the François Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is Chief of the Division of Social Medicine and Health Inequalities at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Director of the François Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights and Chair of the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Kim has 20 years of experience in improving health in developing countries. Previously, he served as both Adviser to the Director General of the World Health Organization and Director of the WHO HIV/AIDS department. While at WHO, he focused on initiatives to help developing countries scale up their treatment, prevention and care programs, including the “3x5” initiative which aimed to put three million people on AIDS treatment by the end of 2005. An expert in tuberculosis, Dr. Kim has chaired or served on committees on international TB policy. Dr. Kim is a founding trustee and former executive director of Partners In Health, a nonprofit organization supporting health programs in poor communities in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, and the U.S. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University.

Biography

Dr. Brandt is the Amalie Moses Kass Professor of the History of Medicine at Harvard Medical School where he directs the Program in the History of Medicine and the Social Science Track of the M.D./Ph.D. Program. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University where he served as chair from 2000-06. His work focuses on social and ethical aspects of health, disease, and medical practices in the twentieth century United States. Brandt is the author of No Magic Bullet: A Social History of Venereal Disease in the United States since 1880 (1987); and co-editor of Morality and Health (1997). He has written on the social history of epidemic disease; the history of public health and health policy; and the history of human subject research among other topics. He has recently completed a new book on the social and cultural history of cigarette smoking in the U.S., The Cigarette Century (Basic Books, 2007). Brandt earned his a Ph.D. in American History from Columbia University.

Biography

Dr. Eisenberg is the Maude and Lillian Presley Professor of Social Medicine Emeritus at Harvard Medical School. After completing medical training, Dr. Eisenberg served two years as Captain in the Army Medical Corps, then did his psychiatry residency at the Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital (1952) and a Fellowship in Child Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital under Professor Leo Kanner (1954). After serving as Chief of Child Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, he moved to Harvard as chief of the same department at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Eisenberg's accomplishments are wide-ranging. He completed the first outcome study of autistic children in adolescence and recognized patterns of language use as the best predictor of prognosis. He introduced randomized controlled trials in psychopharmacology and showed that tranquilizing drugs were inferior to placebo in treating anxiety disorders, whereas stimulant drugs were effective in controlling hyperactivity. He has served as consultant to the Division of Mental Health at the World Health Organization since 1964 and has received many honorary degrees and awards, including a Distinguished Service Award from the American Psychiatric Association.

Biography

Dr. Fein is the Professor of Economics of Medicine Emeritus in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He received his BA and his Ph.D. at The Johns Hopkins University. Professor Fein came to Harvard in 1968 after serving on the Staff of President Truman’s Commission on the Health Needs of the Nation (1952), in positions at the University of North Carolina (1952-1951), on the staff of President Kennedy's Council of Economics Advisors (1961–1963), and with the Economics Program at the Brookings Institution (1963-1968). He is a charter member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and a founding member of the National Academy of Social Insurance. Professor Fein is the recipient of a number of awards, including the Martin Rehfuss Lectureship (Jefferson Medical College), Theobald Smith Lectureship (Albany Medical College); World Health Organization, Traveling Fellowship; John M. Russell Medal, (Markle Fund), and Adam Yarmolinsky Medal (IOM). His most recent book ( with Julius B. Richmond) is The Health Care Mess: How We Got Into It and What It Will Take To Get Out Of It. He is the author of seven books and monographs and numerous articles. His special field of interest is national health insurance.