Heidelise Als

Heidelise Als, PhD. Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School; Director, Neurobehavioral Infant and Child Studies, Boston Children’s Hospital; Boston MA, USA.

Heidelise Als received her University degree summa cum laude in 1963 from the Universities of Würzburg and Eichstätt, Germany following which she worked for two years as a classroom teacher in Nürnberg, Germany. She began post-graduate training at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, US earning a Master’s degree in Education and a Ph.D. in Educational and Developmental Psychology with an emphasis in physical anthropology and statistics. Subsequently she studied human ethology at the University of London.

She is the originator of the Newborn Individualized Developmental Care and Assessment Program (NIDCAP) for the care of preterm infants and their families in Newborn Intensive Care Units (NICUs), as well as the Assessment of Preterm Infants’ Behavior (APIB), a comprehensive neurodevelopmental assessment of preterm and high-risk newborns. NIDCAP has greatly influenced the design, staff education and care delivery in NICUs internationally. Dr. Als is the past President of the NIDCAP Federation International (NFI), which she founded in 2001 and directed for twelve years. Today twenty-four NIDCAP Training Centers prepare institutions and professionals around the world in the provision of individualized, developmentally supportive, relationship-based, family centered care.

In 1984, Dr. Als created the Neurobehavioral Infant and Child Studies program in the Department of Psychiatry at Children’s Hospital Boston, Harvard Medical School. She continues to direct its research program on premature infants, how early experiences and care affect brain and emotional development from early infancy into adolescence, and how newborn infants in turn influence their environments and the care they receive and actively construct their own development.

Dr. Als is internationally recognized leader in the developmental assessment and care of preterm and high-risk infants. She is a much sought-after speaker, teacher, and consultant, and has published extensively. She has conducted numerous large-scale research projects funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education.