How has the world been transformed as we have come to look at childhood death as preventable, even "unnatural," rather than an inevitable part of parenthood and of pediatric practice? Dr. Klass will trace the dramatic improvements in infant and child mortality over the past 150 years, looking at the ways that these victories represent so many different campaigns in science, public health, medicine, and advocacy. Dr. Klass will elevate the ethical issues raised by this history, including how the movement to reduce infant mortality intersected with eugenics, issues of parental choice and autonomy, and the persistent racial disparities in infant and child mortality.

Dr. Perri Klass is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University and Co-Director of NYU Florence. She attended Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital, Boston. 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. She has written extensively about medicine, children, literacy, and knitting.

Dr. Klass 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. The program now reaches 4.2 million children a year, many of whom are growing up in poverty. In April 2021, Dr. Klass was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.