02 FN: James P. Comer

James P. Comer, M.D., M.P.H., the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry and founder of the School Development Program, has been appointed to the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Comer and 14 other members will advise President Obama and the secretary of education on ways to advance federal programs that improve educational opportunities for African Americans, increase participation of the African-American community in federal agency programs, and engage stakeholders in a national dialogue on the mission.

Comer joined the Yale faculty and founded the Comer School Development Program in 1968. The program is designed to improve scholastic performance of children from lower-income and ethnic minority backgrounds. In 2006, Comer chaired the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Roundtable on Child and Adolescent Development Research and Teacher Education. He served as a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s Commission on the Whole Child in 2006.