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Peter J. Smith, MD

Dr. Smith is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Chicago.  His educational roles including being the Associate Director for the Illinois LEND training program, which is a collaboration between the University of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago.  He is also an Associate in the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical ethics and Chair of the Committee on Bioethics for the Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.  He is an active clinician and is the Medical Director for the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School, for the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education, and Almost Home Kids respite and transition care center.

Prior to moving back to Chicago in 2002, Dr. Smith completed two fellowships at Boston Children’s Hospital, one (as a LEND fellow) in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities with Allen Crocker, and one in Advocacy with Judith Palfrey.  In 2002, he completed a Masters in Theology at Boston College.  He previously completed his pediatric residency training in 1998 at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after completing Medical School at Duke in 1995 and obtaining his undergraduate degree in Theology at the University of Notre Dame in 1990.  He was a Rotary International Ambassador to Scotland and student in the University of Edinburgh in the Faculty of Divinity in 1990-91 and has acquired a strong love for all things Scottish (and actually wears a kilt on occasion).

Dr. Smith joined AAIDD (nee AAMR) in 1999, and has felt since prior even to that time that the current medical care of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities is inadequate. Doctors are poorly trained in this area, with most completing many years of required training without ever having had formal education on the needs and nuances of this community. Dr. Smith believes that while this is tremendously disappointing, and he hopes to be part of the team that corrects this problem.