Dr. Nancy Rappaport is a graduate of Princeton University and Tufts University School of Medicine. A board-certified child and adolescent psychiatrist, Rappaport is currently a part-time associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Her research, teaching, and clinical expertise focus on the collaboration between education and psychiatry. After graduating from Princeton, Rappaport worked as a science teacher at an innovative elementary school in Harlem, New York where she advocated for support for struggling families. Her life-altering experiences in Harlem inspired her to enter medical school and would help launch a robust career. Graduating from Tufts School of Medicine in 1988, Rappaport completed an internship in pediatrics and a residency in adult psychiatry, both at Massachusetts General Hospital, before completing a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at Cambridge Hospital. It was during this fellowship that Rappaport forged a longstanding relationship with the Cambridge Public Schools.
Dr. Rappaport received the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry's Sidney Berman Award for the School-Based Study and Treatment of Learning Disorders and Mental Illness in 2012. She also received Cambridge Health Alliance’s Art of Healing Award in 2013 – an award given to one who “transcends boundaries, joyfully embraces humanity, and profoundly inspires the healing of body and spirit.” Rappaport is the author of the memoir In Her Wake: A Child Psychiatrist Explores the Mystery of Her Mother's Suicide (Basic Books, September 2009), winner of the Boston Authors Club's 2010 Julia Ward Howe Prize. In a starred review, Publisher’s Weekly called the book “Fearless … a stunning narrative of perspective, profound sadness and unrelenting hope.” She is also the author of The Behavior Code: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Teaching the Most Challenging Students (Harvard Education Press, April 2012), written with behavioral analyst Jessica Minahan.
