Dr. Mel Levine
Dr. Mel Levine is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Dr. Levine is also the founder of All Kinds of Minds, a non-profit institute for the understanding of differences in learning. In addition, he serves as Co- Chairman of the Board of this Institute with the financier Charles Schwab. Dr. Levine's major research and clinical interests are focused on learning processes and the specific dysfunctions that impede the education of many children and adolescents. He advocates a non-labeling approach, one that pinpoints and manages students' specific breakdown points, strengths and affinities without stigmatizing or oversimplifying them.
Dr. Levine was the Medical Director of the Brookline Early Education Project and the Principal Investigator in the Middle Childhood Project, a research program to elucidate problems with academic productivity among older elementary and junior high school students. He initiated and is currently collaborating in Schools Attuned, a national project designed to enhance the capacity of teachers to deal with children and adolescents having academic difficulties. He also has been instrumental in establishing diagnostic and follow-up programs, called Student Success Centers that offer precise non-labeling assessments and management plans for students with learning differences. Dr. Levine is the author of numerous books and articles.
He is the author of A Mind at a Time, which was number one on the New York Times bestseller list and The Myth of Laziness, dealing with children who endure output problems. His recent book, Ready or Not, Here Life Comes, is about individuals with what he calls "work life unreadiness" and how we can prepare kids to become more productive and gratified adults. In addition he has completed work on a public television documentary and an extensive video library in conjunction with WGBH in Boston. Throughout his career Dr. Levine has been actively involved in the design and validation of new diagnostic procedures and training programs that integrate neurological, behavioral, developmental and health findings in children with learning difficulties. In 2005 he was named by Scholastic Press as the Most Admired Person in Education. During his leisure time, Dr. Levine is widely known for raising more than 30 varieties of domestic and wild geese, whose behavior and learning he studies and writes about.
