John Sargent, M.D. is the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center and Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine. Prior to assuming that position he was Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the Baylor College of Medicine and Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Ben Taub General Hospital in Houston, Texas. He also served as the Clinical Director of the System of Hope, a community system of care for seriously emotionally disturbed children in Houston. He is currently a member of the Massachusetts Children’s Behavioral Health Advisory Council which is responsible for monitoring and improving children’s behavioral health throughout the state. He has experience in all aspects of clinical child and adolescent psychiatry and special interest in developing clinical systems of care for poor and underserved children and adolescents with mental health problems. His other special interests include child and family responses to trauma and violence, eating disorders, adolescent suicide, family therapy and international child mental health program development. He has published over 70 articles and books on these topics.

Dr Sargent is a nationally known Family Therapist and has training and certification in General Psychiatry, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Pediatrics. Before joining the Baylor College of Medicine faculty in 2001, Dr. Sargent had been Director of Education and Research at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas and previously was Director of General and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Training at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also has served as Deputy Director of the Eastern European Child Abuse and Child Mental Health Project and has extensive experience in training mental health professionals throughout the world.

Dr. Sargent is President of the American Family Therapy Academy. He has served as Treasurer from 2007-2009 and edited the Winter 2007 issue of the AFTA Monograph. He was a member of the Kosovar Professional Education and Training Project sponsored by AFTA.