Judith Swann Palfrey ( Sullivan; born 1945) is an American pediatrician and author. She is the T. Berry Brazelton Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the author of Community Child Health: An Action Plan for Today (1995) and Child Health In America: Making A Difference Through Advocacy (2006), and co-editor of Global Child Health Advocacy (2014) and the Disney Encyclopedia of Baby and Childcare (1995). She is also the former Faculty Dean of Adams House at Harvard University along with her husband Sean Palfrey who is also a pediatrician in Boston.
Early life
Judith "Judy" Swann Sullivan was born in Texas in 1945 and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a daughter of Dr. Maurice Sullivan, who was a professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University, She is a granddaughter of Dr. Patrick James Sullivan and St. Clair Adams, all of New Orleans, Louisiana. at Boston Children's Hospital.
Personal life
In September 1967 Judith was married in Baltimore to Dr. John "Sean" Gorham Palfrey Jr., a son of John Gorham Palfrey, the Dean of Columbia College from 1958 to 1962, and Clochette ( Roosevelt) Palfrey, a granddaughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and a daughter of Kermit Roosevelt. Together, they are the parents of:
- John Palfrey (b. 1972), previously a professor and Vice Dean of Harvard Law School before becoming Head of School at Phillips Academy, is now President of the MacArthur Foundation.
- Quentin Palfrey (b. 1974), who ran for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and is the former Executive Director of J-PAL.
- Katy Palfrey, is the CEO of Conservation Centers for Species Survival (C2S2).
Major publications
- Palfrey J.S. (1995) Community Child Health: An Action Plan for Today
- Katz S.L., New M.I., Palfrey J.S. and Schulman I. (1995) The Disney Encyclopedia of Baby and Child Care
- Palfrey J.S. (2006) Child Health in America. Making a Difference Through Advocacy
- Palfrey, J.S. (editor) (2014) Global Child Health Advocacy