Constance Helen Keefer, MD, is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She received a BA from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa., in 1965. She received her MD at the University of Pittsburgh, studying pediatric neurology wit Isabelle Rapin, MD, at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and child psychoanalysis at the Hampstead Clinic in London. After her residency, she studied and taught for six years in a child development fellowship with T. Berry Brazelton, MD, at Children's Hospital in Cleveland. Before her return to the Children's Hospital in 1991, she practiced pediatrics for 11 years in Boston, where she received the Joseph L. Dorsey award.
Keefer is a faculty member at Brigham and Women's Hospital and director of a newborn primary care curriculum for Children's Hospital pediatric residents. She is on the faculties of the Brazelton Institute and Brazelton Touchpoints Center. In addition, she directs the Healthy Connections Program at Children's Hospital, a perinatal intervention program.
Keefer's research has been on culture, parenting, child development, and newborn behavior. She has contributed textbook chapters on development, cultural issues in behavior and development, the shy child, and nursery care on the newborn.