Dr. Ken Ginsburg

Dr. Ken Ginsburg is a pediatrician specializing in Adolescent Medicine at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He also serves as Director of Health Services at Covenant House Pennsylvania, an agency that serves Philadelphia’s youth experiencing homelessness.

In Dr. Ginsburg’s adolescent medicine practice, he cares for a wide variety of medical conditions while simultaneously addressing adolescent behavioral issues. He practices social adolescent medicine—medicine with special attention to prevention and the recognition that social context and stressors affect both physical and emotional health. At Covenant House Pennsylvania, the clinic addresses clients’ risks by first acknowledging that most worrisome behaviors stem from an individual’s reaction to stress. Then, it guides each young person to build upon their existing strengths to address behaviors that could undermine their progress.

His research over the last 35 years has focused on facilitating youth to develop their own solutions to social problems and teaching clinicians how to better serve them.

He co-developed the Teen-Centered Method, a mixed qualitative/quantitative methodology that enables youth to generate, prioritize, and explain their own ideas. Dr. Ginsburg has more than 200 publications, including 46 original research articles, clinical practice articles, nine parenting books, and a multimedia toolkit for professionals.

Dr. Ginsburg has received over 60 awards recognizing his research, clinical skills, writing, or advocacy efforts. These include The Young Investigator Award and a visiting professorship from The Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, The Lindback Award for distinguished teaching from the University of Pennsylvania, and The Humanism in Medicine Award given to the Penn faculty member who “demonstrates the highest standards of compassion and empathy in the delivery of care to patients.” He has been named one of Philadelphia magazine’s “Top Docs” twelve times.

The theme that ties together his clinical practice, teaching, research, and advocacy efforts is building on the strength of teenagers by fostering their internal resilience.

He works to translate the best of what is known from research and practice into practical approaches parents, professionals, and communities can use to build resilience. To advocate for parents’ critical role in raising resilient children and teens, he has appeared on CNN, NPR, The Today Show, Good Morning America, The CBS Morning Show, FOX & Friends, and ABC, NBC, and CBS Nightly News programs.

Dr. Ginsburg lectures widely to national and international parent and professional audiences.

His most recent books are “Lighthouse Parenting: Raising Your Child With Loving Guidance for a Lifelong Bond,” “Congrats, You’re Having a Teen: Strengthen Your Family and Raise a Good Person,” and “Building Resilience in Children and Teens: Giving Kids Roots and Wings (4th edition),” all published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). The AAP has also published a multimedia toolkit, “Reaching Teens: Strength-Based, Trauma-Sensitive, Resilience-Building Communication Strategies Rooted in Positive Youth Development,” which offers up to 95 continuing education credits for youth-serving professionals.

He has been honored to work with Boys and Girls Clubs of America as an external resilience expert. He has been humbled to work on behalf of those who serve our nation with the Military Child Education Coalition to build resilience strategies for the nation’s nearly 2 million military-affiliated children.

He remains privileged to work with Covenant House International to solidify and magnify their practice model rooted in the healing power of loving and respectful adult connections with youth.