Creating Positive Relationships with Kids to Build Resilience

Dr. Michael Yogman has been in pediatric practice in Cambridge for 30 years as CEO of Yogman Pediatrics.

Currently, he is Chair of the Advisory Board and Immediate Past Board Chair of the Boston Children’s Museum, Chair of the Massachusetts American Academy of Pediatrics Child Mental Health Task Force and Immediate Past Chair of the national American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Psychosocial Aspects of Child and Family Health where he has authored policy statements on fathers role with children, perinatal depression, the power of play, trauma, toxic stress and resilience and addressing early childhood behavioral problems. He serves as a legislative appointee to the Massachusetts Advisory Board on Child Mental Health and a gubernatorial appointee to the Massachusetts Special Commission Relative to Postpartum Depression.  He is a trustee of the Franciscan Children’s Hospital, the Post-Partum Depression Foundation, Boston Basics, Playful Learning Landscapes, Vice Board Chair of the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, a member of the advisory board of Fathers Uplift, and on the Board of Advisers of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard. He serves on the steering committee of Playful Learning Landscapes at the Brookings Institute.

He is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School where he teaches and does research on the father-child relationship, developmental interventions including the RWJ randomized intervention of home visiting and center-based care for LBW preterm infants, nutrition and behavior, playful learning and behavioral health integration in primary care. He has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics since 1973 and was one of the first pediatricians to be board certified in Developmental Behavioral pediatrics in 2002.

Previously, he has been Associate Chief of the Division of Child Development with Dr T. Berry Brazelton and Director of the Infant Health and Development Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.  He is the editor of several books (In Support of Families, published by Harvard University Press; Affective Development in Infancy; and a biennial series Theory and Research in Behavioral Pediatrics) and author of numerous articles and chapters on the father-infant relationship, infant diet and sleep, and parent infant play.

He received the outstanding children’s museum award on behalf of the Boston Children’s Museum at the White House in 2013. He was awarded the Simms Mann Foundation National Whole Child Award in 2015 and the AAP Senior Child Health Advocacy Award  at the 2016 AAP  NCE for his work on  post-partum depression and  the Richmond/Coleman award at the AAP in September of 2017 for outstanding contributions to the  field of child  development and behavior through advocacy, public service, scientific endeavors and literature.

Dr Yogman received his undergraduate degree from Williams College and his medical degree from Yale University.  He holds a M.Sc. degree in Maternal and Child Health from Harvard School of Public Health. He is married to Dr. Elizabeth Ascher, has two grown daughters and four dogs.