Denise Dowd discusses pediatric emergency medicine including her work to develop a national Center for Trauma Informed Pediatrics. Dowd is an MD with a masters in public health. She specializes  in pediatric emergency medicine. For the past 27 years, she has worked in the Division of Emergency Medicine of Children’s Mercy Hospital. She is also  a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and University of Kansas. She now works as a leadership coach  at Children's Mercy. For over 25 years, she has worked to develop new approaches to preventing and mitigating violence and injury among youth. Her recent work centers on building collaborations within Kansas City to address the impact of early childhood adversity and poverty. 

Dr. Dowd has worked extensively with the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), including serving as the lead author on the AAP’s firearm injury prevention policy statement. She has received numerous honors including Mayor’s declarations from the cities of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Kansas City, Missouri. She has received a Communicator of the Year Award. The AAP has honored her with a Michael Shannon Humanitarian Award and their Gold Foundation Humanism Award.

She says that the most important thing in the impact of trauma on children is whether they have an adult in their lives, who is providing a safe, stable, and nurturing relationship. No doctor can provide that. Who's crazy about that kid? When you talk to Holocaust survivors, people that have been through genocides, and you ask "What helped you pull through?" They will name a person, not necessarily a parent, who was there consistently providing a safe and stable, emotionally nurturing environment for that kid. This is how you help create resilience in children.