Pamela High, MS, MD is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP), as well as the Program Director for both the Fellowship in Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics and the Rhode Island Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (RI LEND). She is recent Past President of the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and Past Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption and Dependent Care. She is an Appointee to the DBP SubBoard of American Board of Pediatrics.
Dr. High’s primary focus has been medical education in the field of DBP for parents, students, residents, fellows and faculty and interdisciplinary collaboration. Dr. High has experience in pediatric medical education dating from 1979 when she became the first woman Pediatric Chief Resident at University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), coordinating faculty and resident input into reorganizing the entire pediatric residency curriculum.
Dr. High received her medical degree from the University of Florida, completed her residency at Stanford University, and completed her DBP fellowship at the University of California San Francisco. She went on to become the Practice Director of one of UCSF’s two busy pediatric faculty/resident/nurse practitioner group practices while co-Directing the Primary Care Pediatric Residency and serving as Medical Director of the Early Childhood Clinic in the Division of DBP. She received lifetime certification from by the American Board of Pediatrics in 1984. In 1992, Dr. High joined the MCH funded Behavioral Pediatric Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Children’s Seashore House (CHS). In 1993, Dr. High joined the faculty at Brown Medical School. She was certified in DBP at the first examination given in 2002 and has maintained that certification.
Dr. High is past president of Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics (SDBP). She also represents DBP on the Council for Pediatric Sub-specialties, is an appointee to the American Board of Pediatrics Sub-board in DBP, and has been the Book Review Editor for the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics since 2001. Dr. High is also Medical Director of the Behavior, Cry and Sleep Program at the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk at Women & Infants' Hospital and Professor (Clinical) of Pediatrics at Brown Medical School. She serves on the Steering Committee of DBPNet, HRSA’s DBP research training network and on the SPIN Research Network of researchers in pediatrics subspecialty education.
Dr. High’s clinical and research interests include infant behavioral issues such as colic, sleep problems, and feeding problems and the impact of these conditions on families, anticipatory guidance including literacy promotion in primary care, and the interrelationship of medical and psychological problems in childhood. Clinically she co-attends in the Children’s Neurodevelopment Center at Hasbro Children’s Hospital and the Brown Center for the Study of Children at Risk. Her local advocacy efforts include serving on the board of RI Reach Out and Read and on RI’s Early Learning Council.
