James P. Comer, M.D.
Founder and Chairman, School Development Program, Yale University School of Medicine's Child Study Center
Dr. James P. Comer is the founder and chairman of the School Development Program at the Yale University School of Medicine's Child Study Center. Since 1976, he has been the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine. He developed the Comer Process – a system of education focused on child development in inner-city schools. His School Development Program has been utilized in more than 600 schools in eighty-two school districts across twenty-six states. Founded in 1968, the Comer School Development Program promotes the collaboration of parents, educators and community resources to improve social, emotional and academic outcomes for children, which in turn, helps them to achieve success in school.
Dr. Comer was born on September 25, 1934 in East Chicago, Indiana. After earning his A.B. degree from Indiana University, he went on to earn his M.D. form Howard University College of Medicine in 1960 and a M.P.H. from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 1964. After completing his M.P.H., Comer completed his training at the Yale School of Medicine, the Yale Child Study Center and the Hillcrest Children's Center in Washington, D.C. He also participated in the military, completing his service in 1968 with the rank of Surgeon (Lt. Colonel) in the U.S. Public Health Service.
In addition to lecturing and consulting widely across the United States at colleges and universities, medical schools, scientific associations and public school districts, Dr. Comer has lectured, observed and discussed child care and school conditions and reform around the world, in places such as London, Paris, Tokyo, Dakar, Senegal and Sydney, Australia. A prolific writer, Comer has authored ten books including Beyond Black and White (1972); Black Child Care (with Dr. Alvin Poussaint, 1975); Raising Black Children (1992); School Power: Implications of an Intervention Project (1980); and most recently, Leave No Child Behind: Preparing Today's Youth for Tomorrow's World (2004). Between 1978 and 1994, Comer also wrote more than 150 articles for Parent's Magazine and more than 300 syndicated articles on children's health and development and race relations.
Board Service: Co-founder, Black Psychiatrists of America; Co-chair, an NCATE National Expert Panel on Increasing the Application of Knowledge About Child and Adolescent Development in Educator Preparation Programs.
