David L. Chadwick

David L. Chadwick, MD, was the Director Emeritus of the Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego. He engaged in clinical work with abused children starting in 1960. In 1961, along with C. Henry Kempe, Leon Eisenberg, and others, he attended a meeting at the Children’s Bureau in Washington drafting the first model child abuse reporting law. He created the Center for Child Protection at Children’s Hospital in San Diego – one of the first in the country – in 1976 and became its director in 1985. It was later renamed the Chadwick Center for Children and Families at Rady Children’s Hospital – San Diego. He also helped to found the San Diego Community Child Abuse Coordinating Council and was instrumental in developing a Committee on Child Abuse in the American Academy of Pediatrics. He was an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University, where he engaged in research on the epidemiology of physical abuse. Dr. Chadwick passed away in January 2020.