EdCircuit Staff

Pamela Cantor, M.D., of Turnaround for Children, a nonprofit organization that connects the dots between science, adversity and school performance to catalyze healthy student development and academic achievement. Dr. Cantor practiced child psychiatry for nearly two decades, specializing in trauma. She founded Turnaround after co-authoring a study on the impact of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City schoolchildren. In high-poverty schools, she saw students traumatized by the circumstances in their lives, teachers struggling to meet the intense needs of their students and principals unable to build an environment that is physically and emotionally safe or supportive. Specifically, she recognized that the scientific research on stress and the developing brain that she had learned in medical school should be translated into practices to help children and schools challenged by with the effects of unrelenting adversity. Dr. Cantor started Turnaround to help schools understand the impact of adversity on learning and to put children on a healthier developmental trajectory so they can live the lives they choose.

Today, Dr. Cantor’s organization applies tools and strategies, grounded in science, to equip a diverse set of educators – from teachers and principals working in high-poverty schools, to district, charter and state leaders. In 2016, Turnaround published Building Blocks for Learning, a framework for comprehensive student development, grounded in science, in service of equity. The paper explores the roots of higher-order skills and mindsets, such as agency, perseverance and academic tenacity that all children need to flourish, and suggests a path to acquire them.