Dr. Michael Rich Joins BAM Radio Network Board of Advisors

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) March 26, 2008 -- Today, the BAM Radio Network (www.bodymindandchild.com), a project aimed at shattering parenting myths and bringing moms and dads the best, integrated, scientifically supported advice on the development of a child's mind and body, announced that Michael Rich, MD, MPH has joined the advisory board. Dr. Rich is founder and director of the Center on Media and Child Health (www.cmch.tv) at Children's Hospital Boston, an organization committed to pursuing research, developing interventions on negative health effects of media, and creating health-positive media. He is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, Assistant Professor in Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard School of Public Health, and practices adolescent medicine at Children's Hospital Boston. Dr. Rich will help the network ensure that it is delivering the latest insights to parents and educators on the impact of media on our children's minds and bodies.

"Media is an increasingly powerful force in our children's lives and knowing how to manage our children's interaction with an explosion of new media choices has become one of the big parental challenges of our time," said Rae Pica, co-founder of the BAM Radio Network. "It's an immeasurable honor to have Dr. Rich on our advisory board."

Dr. Rich states, "Because there is growing evidence linking media exposure with the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in young people, it must be seen as one of today's critical environmental health influences. Since children and teens now spend the majority of their waking hours using media, I am dedicated to understanding and communicating ways to use these media that enhance their development. I will be happy to do what I can to help BAM get the word out about how children and families can live with media in ways that promote their physical, mental, and social health."

About Dr. Michael Rich:

Dr. Rich is a former filmmaker and writer who worked in the film industry for 12 years, including two years in Japan as assistant director to Akira Kurosawa on Kagemusha, before attending medical school at Harvard.

Aware of the potency of the image and of the primacy of electronic media as a source of information and influence for young people, Dr. Rich has focused on media as a force that affects health and behavior and as a tool for medical research, education, health care policy, and advocacy. Dr. Rich has been honored by the Society for Adolescent Medicine with their New Investigator Award for developing Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA), which explores the illness experience through patient-created visual illness narratives. He received the prestigious Holroyd-Sherry Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics for his contributions to children, adolescents and the media.

Dr. Rich has been a national leader on the positive and negative effects of media on children's health for a decade. He has served as the national spokesman for the Center on Media and Child Health and for the American Academy of Pediatrics, for whom he reviewed the scientific research and authored four policy statements. Routinely contacted by policymakers and media outlets to serve as an expert on the subject, Dr. Rich has testified before city councils, state legislatures, and both the United States Senate and House of Representatives about the influence of media on child and adolescent health and development. Dr. Rich was a contributing author of the Children and Media Research Advancement (CAMRA) bill introduced by Senators Hillary Clinton, Sam Brownback, and Joe Lieberman and currently making its way through both Houses of Congress. Recently, Dr. Rich has received coverage on CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, PBS, USA Today, the BBC, NPR, the New York Times Magazine, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe and the San Francisco Chronicle. He has been asked to serve as a visiting professor at a number of America's leading universities and on editorial boards of both Pediatrics, the leading child health journal, and Parents, a top parenting magazine. Married to another pediatrician, he is a parent of four children.

About BAM Radio Network:

The BAM Radio Network was launched to address the severe imbalance in parenting practices caused by the "commercialization of parenting" and the emphasis on intellectual development that excludes the critical role of the mind/body connection in early childhood. Created by leading early childhood experts, the programming challenges the popular genre of parenting notions that has given rise to commercial products like Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby and lapware, all of which claim to accelerate a child's mental development in the face of science that suggests otherwise. The network is a joint venture between New Hampshire-based Moving & Learning and Los Angeles-based Jackstreet Media Ventures LLC. The program is distributed through the Affiliate Nanocasting Network.

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