Pamela Cantor, M.D.

Pamela Cantor, M.D. is a physician, author, and thought leader on human potential, the science of learning and development, and educational equity. Dr. Cantor practiced child and adolescent psychiatry for nearly two decades, specializing in trauma. She foundedTurnaround for Children in 2002 after co-authoring a study that assessed the impact of the 9/11 attacks on New York City school children. In schools located in neighborhoods grappling with ongoing adversity and poverty, Dr. Cantor saw student potential everywhere. But she also saw students acting out and having trouble focusing, teachers struggling to meet the variable and often intense needs of their students, and principals scrambling to build environments that were safe and supportive. She recognized that the research on adversity, the developing brain, learning and health that she had studied in medical school had not been translated and shared with the systems and people that educate children. Science tells an optimistic story about what young people are capable of when the environments and relationships in their lives are designed intentionally to reveal their talents and skills. More