Author name: Susan Swedo

I’m a semi-retired pediatrician with specialty training and experience in adolescent medicine and developmental and behavioral pediatrics. After a six years of general pediatrics/adolescent medicine in Chicago & Evanston IL, I moved to the Washington DC area and did a clinical research fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). I stayed there for the rest of my career, retiring in 2019 after spending more than three decades conducting clinical investigations of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), autism spectrum disorder and other childhood neuropsychiatric conditions. Going forward, I would like to use my skills and experience to serve children and adolescents in under-resourced areas. I am taking this course to learn/relearn the diseases of poverty and become more knowledgeable about diagnosis and treatment of these disorders. I’m also very interested in learning more about community-wide health promotion and disease/death prevention. After completing the course, I hope to have a better understanding of my role in caring for impoverished youth — whether it’s in the field as a hands-on healthcare provider, as a domestic/international medical educator, or as part of a policy group that designs and implements programs and policies that will improve recognition and treatment of pediatric mental illnesses in under-resourced areas. Wherever I’m called, I hope to be able to serve in Christ’s name and am looking forward to gaining new knowledge and skills to serve Him with excellence.