David J Schonfeld, MD, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician, founded the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (www.schoolcrisiscenter.org) at CHLA. For 30 years, he’s supported schools/communities after crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, shootings in Parkland, FL, Santa Clarita, CA, Newtown, CT, Marysville, WA, Floresville, TX (Baptist church shooting in Sutherland Springs), Townville, SC, Las Vegas, NV, Aurora, CO, & Osaka, Japan; hurricanes Maria (San Juan), Sandy (NYC/NJ), Katrina (New Orleans), & Ike (Galveston); tornadoes in Joplin, MO & Alabama; wildfires in Maui; Butte & Sonoma Counties, CA, Sevierville, TN; & Sichuan, China earthquake. His school-based research (e.g., funded by NICHD, NIMH, NIDA, MCHB, WT Grant) involves children’s understanding of and adjustment to serious illness and death and school-based interventions to promote adjustment and risk prevention. He is Chair of National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and former Commissioner for the National Commission on Children and Disasters and Sandy Hook Advisory Commission.

He will be talking about how to support grieving children and families.