Deborah Frank

director, The Grow Clinic, BMC

Deborah Frank was born in Washington, DC, and graduated from Radcliffe College summa cum laude in 1970. She worked as a social work assistant and research assistant from 1970 to 1972. In 1976, she graduated from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at Childrens Orthopedic Hospital in Seattle, Washington. Strongly interested in child development, she served as a fellow at Childrens Hospital Medical Center in the Developmental Pediatrics Program and later as the staff physician on the Failure to Thrive Team. In 1981, in response to a growing number of Failure to Thrive (FTT) families, she founded the Failure to Thrive Program at Boston City Hospital (now Boston Medical Center) in Boston. Franks' FTT Program, now called the Grow Clinic for Children, at Boston Medical Center, is a national model for treating FTT. The program is a comprehensive treatment plan that provides medical care, nutritional counseling and social outreach in an effort to empower parents to help their children grow. The program also operates a food pantry and clothing room for FTT patients and their families. Over 90 percent of the children who are seen in the clinic improve and ultimately graduate from the program.