Judith Palfrey

Judith Palfrey (born 1945) is the T. Berry Brazelton Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the author of Community Child Health: An Action Plan for Today (1995) and Child Health In America: Making A Difference Through Advocacy (2006), and co-editor of Global Child Health Advocacy (2014) and the Disney Encyclopedia of Baby and Childcare (1995). She is also Housemaster of Adams House at Harvard University along with her husband Sean Palfrey who is also a pediatrician in Boston.

Palfrey is a 1967 graduate of Radcliffe (now part of Harvard) College. She received her MD in 1971 from the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. She completed an internship and residency in pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a fellowship in community child health at Children's Hospital Boston. She was chief of the Division of General Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Boston for 22 years. In 2008 she was named President-Elect of the American Academy of Pediatrics for 2009-2010. From September to December 2011, Palfrey was executive director of Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative. Currently, she is the director of the Global Pediatrics Program at Boston Children's Hospital.

One son is John Palfrey, previously a professor of law at Harvard Law School, is now Head of School at Phillips Academy, in Andover, Massachusetts. One son is Quentin Palfrey, Senior Counsel to the Secretary for Policy and Technology Policy Operations, Massachusetts Department of Transportation. Her daughter Katy Palfrey is attending Babson Business School.

Major publications

• Palfrey J.S. (1995) Community Child Health: An Action Plan for Today ISBN 0275946967
• Katz S.L., New M.I., Palfrey J.S. and Schulman I. (1995) The Disney Encyclopedia of Baby and Child Care ISBN 078688004X
• Palfrey JS. (2006)Child Health in America. Making a Difference Through Advocacy ISBN 0801884527
• Palfrey, J.S. (editor) (2014) Global Child Health Advocacy ISBN 1581107803