Perri Klass, MD is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University where she directs the Medical Humanities minor. She attended Harvard Medical School and completed her residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital Boston. Klass is the author of The Best Medicine: How Science and Public Health Gave Children a Future, A Not Entirely Benign Procedure: Four Years as a Medical Student, and Baby Doctor: A Pediatrician’s Training. Her other books include four novels, and she writes regularly about children’s issues for many publications. Klass is the longtime National Medical Director of Reach Out and Read and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

(Photo credit: Paolo Cagnacci)