Clyde Hertzman
clyde.hertzman@ubc.ca
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Director, Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) |
Dr. Hertzman is Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), the College for Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC; Canada Research Chair in Population Health and Human Development; and Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC.
Under Dr. Hertzman’s leadership, HELP (est. 2001) has developed into an internationally recognized and unique research network that integrates the behavioural and social sciences with biomedical sciences to study life course development, with a particular focus on early child development. HELP's core partnership comprises over 200 faculty, graduate students and researchers from BC's six universities. Funded in part by the BC Ministry of Children & Family Development, HELP works closely with government and communities to understand how different environments contribute to different developmental outcomes for children.
Dr. Hertzman serves as Principal Investigator of the Provincial Early Child Development (ECD) Mapping Unit, the Child & Youth Developmental Trajectories Research Unit, and the Population Health and Learning Observatory. In 2005, HELP was designated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the Knowledge Hub on Early Child Development, and Dr. Hertzman is Team Leader of the Knowledge Hub and the global Knowledge Network.
Nationally, Dr. Hertzman is a fellow of the Experience-based Brain and Biological Development Programme and the Successful Societies Programs of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIAR).
Dr. Hertzman has been involved with many scholarly committees and consultancies. He serves as an Advisory Board Member, Institute of Population and Public Health, Canadian Institute for Health Research; Governing Council Member and Team Leader, Measurement and Monitoring, Centre of Excellence in Early Child Development; Member, BC Provincial Child Care Council; and Advisor, BC Minister of State for Child Care. He holds an honorary appointment at the Institute for Child Health, University College, London.
Dr. Hertzman's early research with CIAR has been fundamental to the development of the early child development strategy for Canada. Through his work with CIAR, Dr. Hertzman played a central role in developing the conceptual framework for the determinants of health as well as elucidating the special role of early childhood development as a determinant of health.
Dr. Hertzman has led the development of the provincial implementation of the Early Development Instrument, which measures children’s state of development at kindergarten along five domains of development: physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity, language and cognitive development, and communication and general knowledge. As a result, BC is now the first jurisdiction in the world that has maps of early development that can illuminate the relationships between vulnerability patterns and socioeconomic conditions for every neighbourhood and school district in the province.
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