Lise Johnson is the new Director of the Brazelton Institute

Dr. Lise Johnson

It is with great pleasure and pride that we can announce that Lise Johnson will assume the position of Director of the Brazelton Institute here in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital on July 1st. 2022.  This is an historic moment for the Institute so that I would like to take this opportunity to tell you how pleased and honoured I am that Lise has accepted this position. Lise has been a wise and truly generous-spirited colleague and a dear friend for well over 20 years.  She is much admired and respected across the field for her formidable leadership qualities and her unswerving integrity and commitment, and is recognized by the families with whom she works as a devoted and compassionate doctor.  I believe that this appointment will ensure that the mission of the Brazelton Institute, which embraces Berry Brazelton’s vision for improving the health and well-being of infants everywhere – will grow and expand under Lise’s leadership and vision.

Lise brings over thirty years of experience in general pediatrics to her new role as Director, twenty-one of which have been devoted to newborn care at Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), where she was named a Distinguished Clinician in 2020. Lise served as BWH’s Medical Director of Well Newborn Care from 2001 to 2018 and has continued there as a newborn hospitalist, keeping her academic work grounded in the frontline experience of a clinician. Lise earned her undergraduate degree in Health and Society from Brown University, and her medical degree from Harvard Medical School, where she is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, teaching and supervising both students and residents. As you all know, Lise is an author of the Newborn Behavioral Observations (NBO) system Handbook and has been trained on the NBAS. She has served as the Principal Investigator in the just completed BABY AMOR study, a Health Resources and Services Administration-funded randomized controlled trial, examining the use of the NBO to support mothers of moderate and late preterm newborns.  Lise is also a staunch advocate for children and their families and serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of Health Learners, a nonprofit organization that collaborates with the Zambian Ministries of Health and Education to provide a novel model of school-based health care for primary school children in Zambia. 

While I am standing aside, I am very much looking forward to working alongside Lise, as Director Emeritus, and indeed to continue to work along with each of you, whose friendship and collegiality I value so much. I know that I speak for all of you when I say that at this important moment in our history, the Brazelton Institute is very fortunate that Lise is taking on this leadership role.  

I will end with a Danish greeting expressing our gratitude and best wishes to honour Lise’s heritage:  “Vi vil gerne give dig vores varmeste tak og ønsker dig al held og lykke i dit nye arbejde.”

Warmly,

Kevin

J. Kevin Nugent, Ph.D.