Barry S. Zuckerman is Professor and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center. He started the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the Boston University School of Medicine and Boston City Hospital and was one of 12 founders of the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics. He was appointed chair of Pediatrics in 1993 and was asked to be First Medical Director of Boston Medical Center when Boston City Hospital merged with University Hospital. He is a co-founder of Reach Out and Read, a national childhood literacy program in the United States, founder of Medical-Legal Partnership, and co-founder of Health Leads, Healthy Steps, and the Nutrition & Fitness for Life pediatric obesity program, all of which have transformed pediatric care for low-income families. Most recently, along with colleagues, he developed a free app for pediatric primary care called "Small Moments, Big Impact" to promote the mother-infant relationship and emotional well-being for low-income mothers from birth through the first six months of their baby's life.

He is the author of over 250 scientific publications addressing the importance of mothers' health and well-being on child health and development, starting with pregnancy. He is the co-editor of numerous books including 4 editions of “The Zuckerman Parker Handbook of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics for Primary Care." He was appointed by Senator Ted Kennedy to serve on the National Commission on Children (1989-1992) and later the Carnegie Commission on Young Children. He served on the advisory board of Massachusetts Department of Public Health. He has consulted globally for UNICEF in Turkey and Bangladesh as well as universities in Serbia, Poland, Singapore, Norway and Taiwan.

Background

Barry was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1946 to Anne and Leo Zuckerman. His father graduated Brooklyn College with a major in biochemistry by attending classes for 8 years at night while working during the day. While working at Ortho Pharmaceutical, he was integrally involved in production and quality control of the drug "RhoGam", which has saved millions of babies worldwide from dying from hemolytic disease. Barry's mother Anne graduated high school at age 16 and did not attend college because she had to work during the war to help her family, including her three children, Barry, Elliot, and Diana. Elliot has significant intellectual disability likely related problems from birth. Back then public schools did not accept students with such disabilities and his parents were sting local advocates for improved services for such children. These personal experiences shaped Barry's professional career in his mission to advocate and care for children and families, primarily low income and minority children who needed more help and resources. Barry married his medical school classmate Pam, a wonderful and caring clinician with special expertise in caring for children, especially those complex medical problems. She retired in 2019. They have two Children, Jake and Katherine, and two grandchildren, Julian and Greta. He credits his training in the first primary care training program, followed by a fellowship in child development at Harvard under T. Berry Brazelton, MD, as important sentinel career experiences. Other important training experiences occurred during sabbaticals, including: Hospital for Sick Children in London (1985), Fellowship in Health Policy at Brigham and Woman's Hospital (1992), UCLA and California Endowment (2003), and Fellowship at Stanford's Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Science (2016–17).

Education

• Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, BA (1968)^[1]
• Georgetown University, Washington D.C., MD (1972)
• Pediatric Residency at Boston City Hospital, Boston MA (1972–74)
• Fellow in Primary Care and Child Development, Department of Pediatrics, Boston City Hospital / Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (1974–75)
• Fellow in Child Development at Boston Children's Hospital / Harvard University, Boston, MA (1975–77)

Awards and honors

• Honorary Degree in Education (Ed.D.) and Commencement Speaker at Wheelock College (1996)
• Sunny Days Award, Children's Television Network (1998)
• Edna W. Smith Pioneer in Community Health Care Award (1999)
• The Ambulatory Pediatric Association Public Policy and Advocacy Award (2003)
• Voted Best Doctor by Best Doctors, Inc. (2007)^[2]
• The C. Anderson Aldrich Award, American Academy of Pediatrics (2008)
• Robert F. Kennedy Embracing the Legacy Award for Medical-Legal Partnership (2008)
• Ashoka Fellow (2010)
• APA Health Care Delivery Award to the Department of Pediatrics (2014)
• The Joseph St. Geme Jr. Award for Outstanding Leadership in Academic Pediatrics from Federation of Pediatric Organizations (2015)
• Center for Advanced Study of Behavioral Science at Stanford (2016–17)

Selected bibliography

References