Neil Boothby
Neil Boothby, Ed.D. is a professor and director of the Global Center for the Development of the Whole Child at the University of Notre Dame. He is an internationally recognized expert and advocate for children affected by war, displacement and abject poverty. As a senior representative of UNICEF, UNHCR, and Save the Children, he has worked for more than 25 years with children in adversity in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. He is the former director of the Program on Forced Migration and Health at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and his research focuses on ways to create pathways out of adversity for children and youth.
Boothby is also the recipient of several awards for his fieldwork, including the Red Cross Humanitarian of the Year Award, for his work with child soldiers, the Mickey Leyland Award, for his work on behalf of uprooted people, the United Nation's Golden Achievement Award, for excellence in social sector activities, and Duke University's Humanitarian Service Award.
Listen to Neil's Series on ThinkND, Raising Resilient Children
- Doctor of Education, Special Programs in Child Development and Social Policy, Harvard University
- B.A., History and English, University of California, Irvine
Education and Resilience in Crisis: Challenges & Opportunities in Sub-Saharan Africa (2024), Bristol University Press
Child-led resistance in the streets of the global south: Decolonial perspectives of violence against children outside of family care (2023), Child Abuse & Neglect, Volume 143
Leveraging community-based innovations during COVID-19 to strengthen the Haitian school system (2021), Perspectives in Education
What’s faith got to do with it? A scoping study on local faith communities supporting child development and learning (2021), International Journal of Educational Development
Causes of family separation and barriers to reunification: Syrian refugees in Jordan (2020), Journal of Refugee Studies
“What’s happening in Syria even affects the rocks”: a qualitative study of the Syrian refugee experience accessing noncommunicable disease services in Jordan (2019), Conflict and Health
Beyond Survival: The Case for Investing in Young Children Globally (2016), National Academy of Medicine
A World Turned Upside Down: Social Ecological Approaches to Children in War Zones (2006), Kumarian Press
