Latest Comer School Development Program News

Yale Child Study Center Maurice Falk Professor James Comer, MD, MPH was selected as one of five scholars to receive an honorary degree from the University of Chicago in June.

YCSC Professor James Comer will receive the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Chicago in June 2023.

For more than 50 years, Comer’s pioneering work has revolutionized school systems and lifted up their most vulnerable children. The portrait honors his commitment to children, child development, and education, and also celebrates his position as the first African American tenured professor at the university.

At this year's APA meeting, James Comer, MD, MPH, was presented with an award recognizing him and the Black psychiatrists who disrupted a 1969 meeting of the APA Board to bring attention to the mental health concerns of African Americans.

The Comer School Development Program (SDP) at the Yale Child Study Center and its work to support the whole student are cited as an exemplary approach to supporting students’ social, emotional, and academic development in a report released by a prestigious national commission.

Educating the whole child, paying attention to students’ social needs, personal development and family issues, is widely accepted as a part of public schools’ mission today. Fifty years ago, that wasn’t the case. Then along came Dr. James Comer.

By emphasizing the importance of relationships, empowerment, and community, Dr. James Comer has helped shaped the "how" when it comes to making change happen in development and learning.

Eighty parents, grandparents, children, and community members gathered in the Cohen Auditorium at the Yale Child Study Center on February 28, 2018 to celebrate the first graduates of the Parents, Partners, and Peers (PPP) program sponsored by the Comer School Development Program (SDP) at the Yale Child Study Center.