Benard P. Dreyer, M.D., FAAP, of New York, who served as AAP president in 2016 and received the Joseph W. St. Geme Jr., leadership award last year, died Jan. 1 at age 78.
Dr. Dreyer served as an academic general pediatrician and developmental-behavioral pediatrician. He led the primary care program at Bellevue Hospital in New York for more than 40 years, including co-located mental and oral health services and clinics in homeless shelters. Throughout his career, he had a major impact on health equity, child poverty, diversity and inclusion, early brain and child development, and the promotion of pediatric research.
As AAP president, Dr. Dreyer visited the U.S.-Mexico border and shepherded the policy statement Poverty and Child Health in the United States. Prior to his death, he was overseeing an update to the policy.
“Dr. Dreyer was the quintessential gentle giant,” said AAP President Susan J. Kressly, M.D., FAAP. “His calm and gracious manner invited collaboration with many different people. His underlying fierce advocacy for children, especially those in greatest need, was unmatched. If success is measured by one’s impact on others, there are very few who match what he has accomplished. The world is definitely a better place for children because of the legacy of Dr. Dreyer’s work.”
In 2018, Dr. Dreyer was named AAP medical director of policies, clinical and technical reports and clinical practice guidelines and served on several committees, councils and sections.
“Benard Dreyer was a wonderful human being and a visionary president for the AAP,” said James M. Perrin, M.D., FAAP, AAP past president (2014). “Rich, thoughtful, inspiring, committed, passionate and articulate, he transformed our work at the AAP to build a strong base for efforts in child poverty, children at the border and immigration, racism and other key issues in improving child health and well-being.”
Dr. Dreyer was a past president of the Academic Pediatric Association (APA) and served on the boards of the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) and Federation of Pediatric Organizations. Within PAS, he served on the Program Committee, Executive Committee, Strategic Planning Committee and the inaugural Board of Directors.
He was part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Committee that produced the 2009 report Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. The report led the Biden administration to adopt the reformed child tax credit in 2021, which reduced the child poverty rate by 40%-50%.
“Dr. Benard Dreyer was an influential leader, cherished colleague and most of all a dear, dear friend,” said AAP Chief Health Equity Officer and Senior Vice President Joseph L. Wright, M.D., M.P.H., FAAP. “I have been blessed to learn from his inimitable authenticity, wit and wisdom; his voice will be sorely missed. Among the innumerable gifts Benard leaves behind is his foundational guidance in charting the equity journey for all of organized pediatrics. Dr. Dreyer’s enduring legacy will be most appropriately characterized by honoring his deep and unwavering commitment to justice while always remembering to channel our best inner-Benard when faced with adversity and challenge.”
Dr. Dreyer attended medical school at New York University (NYU) School of Medicine and completed residency training and a chief residency in pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He returned to NYU in 1976 to lead ambulatory pediatrics at Bellevue Hospital, where he remained the rest of his career.
After serving as director of pediatrics at Bellevue Hospital, he was promoted to associate professor in 1978 and served as professor of pediatrics for more than two decades. Dr. Dreyer also served as chair of pediatrics from 1997-2004. In 2019, he was named vice chair for diversity, equity and inclusion.
He also co-chaired the NYU School of Medicine Curriculum Committee from 2001-’07 and was named chair in 2007.
Throughout his professional life, he received numerous awards, including the AAP Clifford C. Grulee Award in 2019, the APA Armstrong Lectureship Award in 2019, the New York University Distinguished Teaching Award in 2017 and the APA Public Policy and Advocacy Award in 2014.
“What a privilege it is to be a pediatrician,” Dr. Dreyer said as he accepted the St. Geme leadership award. “Often, I feel I have made a positive difference in the lives of children living in poverty. Frequently, I feel I’m helping them on their pathway to success. Once in a great while, I have actually saved a child’s life with my own hands or stayed with them when they needed someone to care about them or comforted them in times near the end of their lives or mourned for them with their families. Those times are burned in my memory and my soul.”
Dr. Dreyer is survived by his children Derek and Dimitra. He is predeceased by his wife Constance, who died in 2015.
