Alan L. Mendelsohn, MD

Alan Mendelsohn, MD is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician who is Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Population Health at New York University School of Medicine and Bellevue Hospital Center. Dr. Mendelsohn is Director of Research for the Divisions of General and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics and Co-Director of Biostatistical Analysis Coursework for the NYU Clinical and Translational Science Institute - Masters of Science Program in Clinical Investigation. Dr. Mendelsohn is a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Early Childhood, the Academic Pediatric Association Child Poverty Task Force and the NIH/NICHD Biobehavioral and Behavioral Sciences Subcommittee. He has received national recognition for his work as a Zero to Three Leaders for the 21st Century Harris Fellow. Dr. Mendelsohn's research has focused on poverty-related disparities in critical child outcomes including child development, obesity and chronic disease. He has investigated the role of environmental factors, both psychosocial (parent-child interactions, electronic media exposure, maternal depression, maternal literacy/health literacy, feeding practices) and biologic (lead), in relation to these outcomes. Dr. Mendelsohn's studies have demonstrated the potential role for the pediatric primary care setting as a universal platform for promotion of school readiness through enhanced parenting, through interventions such as Reach out and Read and the Video Interaction Project. Dr. Mendelsohn has been the recipient of NIH/NICHD R01 funding as a Principal Investigator since 2005. Dr. Mendelsohn is also a co-author of an instrument (StimQ) that can be used to assess the cognitive home environment in low income households.