Joshua Sparrow, MD, DFAACAP

Education:
MD, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut

Postdoctoral Training
Transitional Intern, Cambridge Hospital
General Psychiatry Resident, Cambridge Hospital
Child Psychiatry Fellow, McLean Hospital

BA, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut

Bio:

Child, adolescent, and general psychiatrist, Joshua Sparrow, MD, DFAACAP, is executive director of the Brazelton Touchpoints Center (BTC) in the Division of Development of Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he also holds an appointment in the Department of Psychiatry, and is associate professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, part time. Dr. Sparrow’s care in the 1990s for children hospitalized for severe psychiatric disturbances, often associated with physical and sexual abuse, and aggravated by societal abuse and neglect, prompted his interest in the social, economic, and racism-related determinants of health and mental health, and in community self-strengthening, community-based prevention and health promotion.

Co-founder with Tarajean Yazzie-Mintz, EdD, of the Indigenous Early Learning Collaborative at the Brazelton Touchpoints Center, Dr. Sparrow is a recipient of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Jeanne Spurlock, MD Award for Culture and Diversity. He has led numerous governmental and philanthropic research, training and technical assistance grants, and advised government agencies, nonprofits, academic centers, and philanthropies. He has given hundreds of lectures nationally and internationally, written numerous scholarly papers, as well as nine books translated into more than 20 languages, and hundreds of articles for the general public. Dr. Sparrow is also associate faculty at Ariadne Labs, T.H. Chan Harvard School of Public Health/Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and has served as visiting professor at the Shanghai Mental Health Center/Jiao Tong University School of Medicine and the School of Medicine of the University of Marseille, France.

Areas of Interest:
Culture and dynamic developmental systems theory in child, family, and community healing, recovery and development

Design, implementation, evaluation and adaptation of community-based preventive interventions based on culturally-grounded, developmental systems theory-informed approaches to child, family, and community development

Selected Publications:
Brazelton TB, Sparrow JD. Touchpoints Three to Six: Your Child’s Emotional and Behavioral Development. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books, 2001.

Sparrow JD, Brazelton, TB. A Developmental Approach to the Prevention of Common Behavioral Problems. In: McInerny TK, Adam HM, Campbell DE, Kamat DM, Kelleher KJ, eds. American Academy of Pediatrics Textbook of Pediatric Care 1st Ed. Elk Grove Village, IL: American Academy of Pediatrics; 2008.

Sparrow JD. Aligning Systems of Care with the Relational Imperative of Development: Building Community through Collaborative Consultation. In: Lester B, Sparrow JD, eds. Nurturing Young Children and Families: Building on the Legacy of T.B. Brazelton. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Scientific; 2010.

Lester B, Sparrow JD. eds. Nurturing Young Children and Families: Building on the Legacy of T.B. Brazelton. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Scientific; 2010

Sparrow JD, Brazelton TB. In: Zuckerman B, Parker S, Augustyn M, eds. Touchpoints for Anticipatory Guidance in Well Childcare Visits in the First Three Years. In: Handbook of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 3rd Edition. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2011.