Dana Suskind

Co-Director of the TMW Centre for Early Learning + Public Health; Professor of Surgery, University of Chicago; Director of the Paediatric Cochlear Implant Program; Founder and Director of Thirty Million Words

Dana Suskind, MD, author of Thirty Million Words: Building A Child’s Brain, (Dutton, September 2015), is Co-Director of the TMW Centre for Early Learning + Public Health, Professor of Surgery at the University of Chicago, Director of the Paediatric Cochlear Implant Program, and Founder and Director of Thirty Million Words.  Based on scientific research that shows the critical importance of early language exposure on the developing child, Thirty Million Words helps parents, caregivers and practitioners harness the power of their language to build children’s brains and shape their futures. In the 9 years since its inception, TMW has reached over 3000 families in Chicago alone, with many more cities and municipalities requesting to launch TMW’s suite of interventions community-wide. This widespread interest led Dr. Suskind to partner with Dr. John List, Chair of the Economics Department at the University of Chicago, to establish the TMW Centre for Early Learning + Public Health. The TMW Centre aspires to create a population-level shift in knowledge and behaviour of parents and caregivers to optimize the foundational brain development in children, birth to five years of age, particularly those born into poverty. Dr. Suskind’s ultimate goal, and that of her dedicated team, is to help all children reach their full potentials and to close the ever-widening achievement gap.

To know more, please visit: Center for Early Learning and Public Health