Nurturing Children and Families

Barry M. Lester, PhD is Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Professor of Pediatrics and founding Director of the Center for the Study of Children at Risk, Brown University Alpert Medical School and Women and Infants Hospital. His research has addressed processes of development in children at risk due to biological and social factors. His research has been continuously funded by the NIH for over 25 years. Dr. Lester was a member of the Council at the NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse. He directs the Infant and Child Mental Health Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Program at Brown University and is past President of the International Association for Infant Mental Health. He is the author of several hundred peer-reviewed publications and 16 books, including Why is My Baby Crying? Joshua D. Sparrow, MD is Director of Special Initiatives at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Childrens Hospital, Boston, and Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. He has co-authored eight books with Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, and revised with him the second edition of Touchpoints Birth to Three: Your Childs Emotional and Behavioral Development. His work focuses on the social determinants of development and health, and culturally informed adaptations of interventions that catalyze community healing and self-strengthening processes.