Perri klass biography of rory
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She is the author of both fiction and nonfiction: novels, stories, essays, and journalism. I continue to write about medicine, and to write in the voice of a doctor, writing, for example, parental advice articles. Writers and doctors, I would argue, have many overlapping traits—a fascination with the many stories out there in the world, an eagerness to probe for detail and complexity, a willingness to reformulate and retell.
In an essay on the program, she wrote, "When I think about children growing up in homes without books, I have the same visceral reaction as I have when I think of children in homes without milk or food or heat: It cannot be, it must not be. She is well known for her writingabout the issues of women in medicine, aboutrelationshipsbetweendoctors and patients, and aboutchildren and literacy.
Through my work as medical director of the National Center, I have thus been part of the growing incorporation of books and literacy-related advice into well-child care. Dr. Klass is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University, and MedicalDirector of Reach Out and Read, a nationalchildhoodliteracyprogram that worksthroughdoctors and nurses to encourageparents to read aloud to young children, and to give them the books they need to do it.
Through her work with Reach Out and Read, Perri has been able to integrate her commitment to the health care of young children with her love of the written word. Orah Platt and Dr. Jane Newberger, both at Children's Hospital Boston. Certainly, as ROR has grown, my career has shifted and opened to include new roles (national advocacy, running a non-profit organization...).
Klass was born in Trinidad, where her father, Morton Klass, was doinganthropologicalfield work. She attended Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, Boston.
Her book, The Best Medicine: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future, is an account of how victories over infant and child mortality have changed the world (originally published as A Good Time to Be Born).
How has your career evolved over time?
In many ways, I think my path has been pretty smooth—I have had great support, even when I chose to make my life complicated. Reach Out and Read is a national program which makes books and advice about reading to young children part of every well-child visit.
She has written extensively about medicine, children, literacy, and knitting. My career as a writer developed along with my medical career—I started writing about medical school while I was in medical school, and continued to write through residency. Her most recent book of medical journalism is Treatment Kind and Fair: Letters to a Young Doctor. Her medical journalism has appeared in a wide variety of publications, including Harpers, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New Yorker, The New England Journal of Medicine, and Harvard Medicine.
Perri Klass, MD
Perri Klass is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University where she directs the Medical Humanities minor. As a resident, I had excellent advisors and mentors—Dr. Her other nonfiction includes Every Mother is a Daughter: the Neverending Quest for Success, Inner Peace, and a Really Clean Kitchen, which she coauthored with her mother, Sheila Solomon Klass, and Quirky Kids: Understanding and Supporting Your Child With Developmental Differences, which she coauthored with Eileen Costello, M.D., the second edition of which was published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in February 2021.
Perri is the National Medical Director of Reach Out and Read, a national program which promotes early literacy through pediatric primary care, with guidance about reading aloud for parents and children’s books provided at routine well child visits.
As a fellow, I had the privilege of working with Dr. Jerome O. Klein, a phenomenal teacher and mentor for me and for many others in the field of pediatric infectious diseases.