David J Schonfeld, MD, FAAP established and directs the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement (www.schoolcrisiscenter.org), located at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.  He is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Keck School of Medicine.  Prior faculty positions have been in the Department of Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine; Head of the Section of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center; and Pediatrician-in-Chief at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children and Chair of Pediatrics at Drexel University School of Medicine.

For 35 years, he's supported schools/communities after crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, shootings/stabbings in Winder, GA, 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 Helene (TN), Maria (San Juan), Sandy (NYC/NJ), Katrina (New Orleans), & Ike (Galveston); tornadoes in Joplin, MO & Alabama; wildfires in Maui, HI, Butte & Sonoma Counties, CA, Sevierville, TN; & the earthquake in Sichuan, China.

Dr. Schonfeld frequently speaks on the topics of crisis and loss and has authored more than 150 scholarly articles, book chapters, and books (including the Grieving Student: A Guide for Schools (2nd edition)).  He has conducted school-based research (funded by NICHD, NIMH, NIDA, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, William T Grant Foundation, and other foundations) involving children's understanding of and adjustment to serious illness and death and school-based interventions to promote adjustment and risk prevention.  Dr. Schonfeld is Chair of the National Advisory Committee on Children and Disasters and a member of the Executive Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Children and Disasters.  He served as a Commissioner for both the National Commission on Children and Disasters and the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission in CT and was a member of the National Biodefense Science Board.  Dr. Schonfeld served as President of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics from 2006-7.