Elizabeth Ann Rider MSW, MD, FAAP, FACH

Elizabeth A. Rider, MSW, MD, FAAP, FACH, pediatrician and medical educator, is founding Director, Boston Children’s Hospital / Harvard Medical School’s Interprofessional Leadership, and Humanism and Professionalism Faculty Fellowships. She directs the international course “Difficult Conversations in Healthcare: Teaching and Practice in an Interprofessional World” and teaches for the Harvard Macy Institute. Dr. Rider completed her MD degree at Harvard Medical School, MSW degree at Smith College, pediatric residency training at Boston Children’s Hospital, and fellowship in general academic pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital. She brings her experience as a physician and former child and family therapist to her leadership, teaching and clinical roles.

Dr. Rider has received various teaching and advocacy awards including the National Academies of Practice Nicholas Cummings Award, a national award for “extraordinary contributions to interprofessional healthcare education and practice”; the Platinum Medal for Excellence in Person-Centered Healthcare from the European Society for Person-Centered Healthcare; and the Community Pediatrician of the Year award from Boston Children’s Hospital. In 2014, she was appointed to the Global Compassion Council, an advisory body for the Charter for Compassion.

She is immediate past Vice President of Partnerships and Networking and former Chair of the Medicine Academy of the National Academies of Practice. Dr. Rider is a founder of the International Consortium for Communication in Healthcare, and of the Institute for Communication in Healthcare (Australia). She also leads the International Charter for Human Values in Healthcare initiative, an interprofessional collaborative effort to restore attention to core values in healthcare.

Dr. Rider has been an invited speaker and consultant in the US, Canada, UK, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Poland, Germany, Australia, Singapore, and elsewhere. Her work focuses on professionalism, communication skills, relationship-centered care, values and everyday ethics, medical / interprofessional education, and organizational culture change to mitigate burnout and enhance well-being. An Associate Editor for Patient Education and Counseling, she is lead author of A Practical Guide to Teaching and Assessing the ACGME Core Competencies.