Dr. Jack Shonkoff: Leveraging Advances in Science to Strengthen the Early Foundations of Both Learning and Health

PRINT

On September 15, 2020, the Policy Impact Center released the first Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap at the inaugural National Prenatal-to-3 Research to Policy Summit. The Roadmap translates the science of the developing child during the earliest years and the evidence on policy effectiveness to help state leaders create the environments infants and toddlers need to thrive.

Jack Shonkoff, M.D.Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff, founding director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and Policy Impact Center National Advisory Council member, provided an excellent keynote presentation at the Summit that provides an overview of the biology of adversity and resilience during the foundational years of the developing brain and body.

You can go directly to his 21 minute talk from the Summit below (22:41 – 43:39) and download his presentation: Leveraging Advances in Science to Strengthen the Early Foundations of Both Learning and Health (PDF).

More about Dr. Shonkoff:

Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff is the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and Research Staff at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Director of the university-wide Center on the Developing Child at Harvard. He currently chairs the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, whose mission is to bring credible science to bear on public policy affecting children and families, and The JPB Research Network on Toxic Stress, which is developing new measures of stress effects and resilience in young children. Under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, Shonkoff served as Chair of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families and led a blue-ribbon committee that produced the landmark report, “From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development.” He currently leads Frontiers of Innovation, a multi-sectoral, science-based, R&D platform committed to achieving breakthrough outcomes at scale for young children and families facing adversity. He has authored more than 150 publications and has been a visiting professor or delivered named lectureships at more than 35 universities in the United States and around the world.

Related

Learn how statewide paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs are financed through payroll contributions from workers and employers. This policy brief explores key decisions for funding PFML programs, including start-up funding, premium contributions, rate determination, and wage coverage.
Learn how statewide paid family and medical leave (PFML) programs are financed through payroll contributions from workers and employers. This policy brief explores key decisions for funding PFML programs, including start-up funding, premium contributions, rate determination, and wage coverage.
Access to high-quality child care is essential for a family’s active workforce participation and children’s healthy development. Child care is not just a service—it is crucial infrastructure that supports economic stability and growth both for
 Paid family and medical leave (PFML) is one of 12 evidence-based policies in our 2024 Prenatal-to-3 State Policy Roadmap, which details states’ progress toward adopting and implementing policies that effectively improve child and family wellbeing.