Perri Klass

Who is Perri Klass?

Perri Klass, MD, is a pediatrician and writer, who has published extensively about her medical training and pediatric practice. She is well known for her writing about the issues of women in medicine, about relationships between doctors and patients, and about children and literacy. She is the author of both fiction and nonfiction: novels, stories, essays, and journalism. Dr. Klass is Professor of Journalism and Pediatrics at New York University, and Medical Director of Reach Out and Read, a national childhood literacy program that works through doctors and nurses to encourage parents to read aloud to young children, and to give them the books they need to do it. She is a member of the National Advisory Council of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and has been nominated by the President of the United States to the Advisory Board of the National Institute For Literacy.

Dr. Klass was born in Trinidad, where her father, Morton Klass, was doing anthropological field work. She grew up in New York City and Leonia, New Jersey.