The Author

Dr. Joanna Breyer

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Joanna Breyer was educated at Oxford and Harvard where she got her psychology doctoral degree in 1983.  As a psychologist she worked with children with cancer and their families for over 25 years at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) and Children’s Hospital Boston. She worked in the David B. Perini Quality of Life Clinic for Survivors of Childhood Cancer for over 10 years. Dr. Breyer was on the DFCI Ethics Committee for three years and was a founding member of the Pediatric Advanced Care Team (PACT) to improve the quality of end of life care for pediatric patients.  She supervised and taught in yearlong seminars on health psychology and continues to present at local and national conferences and workshops on psychosocial issues relating to serious childhood conditions.  Dr. Breyer co-authored a chapter on bereavement in a comprehensive handbook on pediatric oncology.  (Brown RT.  Ed, OUP. 2006) and wrote a chapter on Communication in 'Pediatric Psycho-Oncology' OUP 2nd edition 2015). Her book for parents of children with cancer and other serious conditions was published in June 2018. She is on the Board of Advisors of the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in Washington DC and on the Riverside Community Council in Massachusetts.