CHANGING THE FUTURE OF PEDIATRIC MEDICINE
The Charles H. Hood Foundation is focused on turning a single vision into reality: improving the health and quality of life for all children. By identifying innovative pediatric advancements and providing funding in the key stages of development, the Foundation allows high-impact projects to both begin and succeed earlier. The Foundation has proven many times over that supporting brilliant minds early in their careers helps position promising researchers to leverage long-term funding from other private and government sources. We have a three-pronged approach consisting of Child Health Research Awards, Major Grants, and Program Related Investments. The Child Health Research Awards Program helps young investigators succeed in new, independent roles by giving them opportunities to demonstrate creativity in their field that lead to both career advancement and additional research funding. In the end, this kind of support at critical phases of both scientific research and career path development helps propel the pediatric research community ahead to uncover transformative breakthroughs that impact the health and well-being of children and families in New England and around the world.
Mission
Since 1942, the Hood Foundation has carried on the legacy of Charles H. Hood by funding groundbreaking and innovative pediatric research in the New England area. The Foundation makes meaningful change possible by filling the gaps in the medical research and innovation funding marketplace that springboard the next generation of cutting-edge scientific leaders and advancements in pediatric health. Our future is driving the research that improves the care and well-being for all children.
A Brief History of the Foundation
A New England pioneer of the 1800s dairy industry, Charles H. Hood did not set out to change lives. But, his drive to improve sanitary production and distribution of the milk he sold revolutionized the industry — and dramatically increased the survival rate for infants in the region. Those early innovations sparked a lifelong dedication to science, education and discovery that the Hood Foundation strives to continue today. In 1942, his son, Harvey P. Hood II, expanded the vision by formally incorporating the Charles H. Hood Foundation, which has since been entirely supported by private contributions from Hood family members.
Harvey P. Hood II dedicated the Foundation to improving the health and quality of life for children through grant support of pediatric research within New England–based institutions. He worked to create an effective way of selecting and supporting projects that could accelerate the development of high-impact scientific breakthroughs that may not have been possible otherwise.
Today, the Hood spirit lives on as the Foundation continues to select and support innovative pediatric medical research that results in transforming the health and quality of life for children and families in New England and beyond.
Charles H. Hood
Harvey P. Hood II
Scientific Review Committee
The Hood Foundation’s Scientific Review Committee is tasked with reviewing grant applicants and approving the most promising projects for funding, with particular consideration toward excellence in scientific research methods and innovative, high impact projects that might not be funded otherwise.
While the selection of grant recipients using a peer review process is the norm among today’s philanthropic medical institutions, in 1942, the Hood Foundation was one of the first to establish peer review as the basis for its decisions — four years before the National Institutes of Health. H. P. Hood II created a membership rotation system, which continues today, designed to benefit from members’ expertise without overtaxing them. This was purposefully designed to ensure that the Foundation would continue to draw upon the knowledge and passion of New England’s leading child health experts for years to come. Over the many decades of the Foundation’s existence, diversity in expertise has been added to the Scientific Review Committee to reflect the growth and breakthroughs of pediatric research in genetics, oncology, epidemiology, and other important disciplines.
2023 Committee Members
Belinda Borrelli, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Behavioral Science Research
Director, BU Mobile & Electronic Health-ARC
Professor, Department of Health Policy & Health Services Research, Boston University
Visiting Professor, University of Manchester, UK
Daniel Dickstein, M.D., FAAP
Chief, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Director, PediMIND Program, McLean Hospital
Hall-Mercer Endowed Chair in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Elazer R. Edelman, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, and Edward J. Poitras Professor in Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Senior Attending Physician, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Nitya Jain, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Assistant Immunologist, Pediatrics, MGH
The Mucosal Immunology & Biology Research Centre
The Center for Computational & Integrative Biology
Julie E. Goodwin, M.D.
Division Chief, Section of Pediatric Nephrology
Fellowship Program Director
Yale University School of Medicine
Judy Liu, M.D., Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neurology
Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology,
Cell Biology and Biochemistry
Brown University
Juliette C. Madan, M.D., M.S.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Epidemiology
Division of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital at Dartmouth
Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Kristin Moffitt, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Associate Physician in Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital
Christopher M. Sassetti, Ph.D.
Professor, Microbiology & Physiological Systems
University of Massachusetts Medical School
Paola Sebastiani, Ph.D.
Project Director, Center for Quantitative Methods and Data Sciences at the Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies
Director of Tufts CTSI Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) Center, Tufts Medical Center
Adjunct Professor, Biostatistics, BU School of Public Health
Veronika Shabanova, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Biostatistician
Department of Pediatrics,
Yale University School of Medicine
Department of Biostatistics,
Yale School of Public Health
MaryAnn Volpe, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Public Health
Vice Chair, Tufts University Institutional Review Board
Neonatologist, Floating Hospital for Children
Staff
Robert Sege, M.D., Ph.D., FAAP
Senior Scientific Advisor
[email protected]
Charlene Mancusi, Director
Tel: 617-279-2230
[email protected]