Deborah A. Frank, MD
Professor in Child Health and Well-Being, Pediatrics
Biography
Deborah A. Frank serves as BUSM professor of Pediatrics; director, Grow Clinic for Children at Boston Medical Center (BMC); and founder and principal investigator of Children’s HealthWatch, a network of pediatric and public health researchers working to improve child health. A highly respected national authority, she has testified before both the United States and Massachusetts legislatures on the growing national problem of hunger and its effects on children. Frank also leads research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse on the effects of intrauterine exposure to cocaine and other substances on children’s long term development. She advocates at hearings and in the media against criminalizing addicted mothers or stigmatizing their children.
Frank has served on numerous committees and advisory boards including the Mayor’s Hunger Commission, the Massachusetts Child Hunger Initiative and the Physicians Task Force on Childhood Hunger in Massachusetts. She has received awards in recognition for her work including the 2004 Standing Ovation Award, Massachusetts Human Services Coalition; 2007 Woman of Valor Award, Jewish Funds for Justice; 2008 Woman of Justice Award, Boston Lawyer’s Weekly, and more recently in 2010 Dr. Frank received the Massachusetts Health Council Outstanding Leadership Award and the Physician Advocacy Merit Award from the Institute on Medicine as a Profession at Columbia University. Frank is the author of more than 50 papers and articles.
Other Positions
- Assistant Professor, Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health
Education
- Harvard Medical School, MD
- Radcliffe College, BA
Publications
- Published on 4/7/2023
Lê-Scherban F, Ettinger de Cuba S, Bovell-Ammon A, Coleman S, Rateau L, Cutts D, Black M, Heeren T, Frank DA. Association Between Material Hardship in Families With Young Children and Federal Relief Program Participation by Race and Ethnicity and Maternal Nativity. JAMA Health Forum. 2023 Apr 07; 4(4):e230508. PMID: 37083823.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/7/2023
Parker MG, de Cuba SE, Rateau LJ, Shea M, Sandel MT, Frank DA, Cutts DB, Heeren T, Lê-Scherban F, Black MM, Ochoa ER, Rose-Jacobs R, Garg A. Associations of household unmet basic needs and health outcomes among very low birth weight children. J Perinatol. 2023 Mar; 43(3):364-370. PMID: 36750715.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/5/2022
Bovell-Ammon A, Ettinger de Cuba S, Lê-Scherban F, Rateau L, Heeren T, Cantave C, Green KA, Frank DA, Cutts D, Ochoa E, Sandel M. Changes in Economic Hardships Arising During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Differences by Nativity and Race. J Immigr Minor Health. 2023 Apr; 25(2):483-488. PMID: 36334182.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/1/2022
Cutts DB, Ettinger de Cuba S, Bovell-Ammon A, Wellington C, Coleman SM, Frank DA, Black MM, Ochoa E, Chilton M, Lê-Scherban F, Heeren T, Rateau LJ, Sandel M. Eviction and Household Health and Hardships in Families With Very Young Children. Pediatrics. 2022 Oct 01; 150(4). PMID: 36120757.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/10/2022
Ettinger de Cuba S, Mbamalu M, Bovell-Ammon A, Black MM, Cutts DB, Lê-Scherban F, Coleman SM, Ochoa ER, Heeren TC, Poblacion A, Sandel M, Bruce C, Rateau LJ, Frank DA. Prenatal WIC Is Associated with Increased Birth Weight of Infants Born in the United States with Immigrant Mothers. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2022 Aug; 122(8):1514-1524.e4. PMID: 35151905.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 1/31/2022
Parker MG, de Cuba SE, Rateau LJ, Sandel MT, Frank DA, Cutts DB, Heeren TC, Lê-Scherban F, Black MM, Ochoa ER, Garg A. Household unmet basic needs in the first 1000 days and preterm birth status. J Perinatol. 2022 03; 42(3):389-396. PMID: 35102255.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 11/1/2021
Tang MN, Adolphe S, Rogers SR, Frank DA. Failure to Thrive or Growth Faltering: Medical, Developmental/Behavioral, Nutritional, and Social Dimensions. Pediatr Rev. 2021 Nov; 42(11):590-603. PMID: 34725219.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/1/2020
Frank DA, Bruce C, Ochoa E. SNAP Is Medicine for Food Insecurity. Pediatrics. 2020 09; 146(3). PMID: 32826338.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/1/2019
Ettinger de Cuba SA, Bovell-Ammon AR, Cook JT, Coleman SM, Black MM, Chilton MM, Casey PH, Cutts DB, Heeren TC, Sandel MT, Sheward R, Frank DA. SNAP, Young Children's Health, and Family Food Security and Healthcare Access. Am J Prev Med. 2019 10; 57(4):525-532. PMID: 31542130.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/18/2019
Tang MN, Ettinger de Cuba S, Coleman SM, Heeren T, Sandel M, Chilton M, Frank DA, Huh SY. Maternal Place of Birth, Socioeconomic Characteristics, and Child Health in US-Born Latinx Children in Boston. Acad Pediatr. 2020 03; 20(2):225-233. PMID: 31541703.
Read at: PubMed
View 180 more publications: View full profile at BUMC