Margot Kaplan-Sanoff, Ed.D., retired as Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine/Boston Medical Center where she oversaw the child development residency rotation for the combined Boston pediatric residency programs at Boston Medical Center and Boston Children’s Hospital.  She also trained and supervised the pediatric fellows in the Developmental and Behavioral Fellowship program at Boston University School of Medicine. 

She was Founding Co-Director and subsequent National Director of Healthy Steps for Young Children, responsible for model development and the creation of the curriculum and parent materials, implementation review, and the on-going training and technical assistance for over 80 sites nationwide who were implementing the Healthy Steps Program in their pediatric practices; in 2016 she transferred the National Program office of Healthy Steps to ZERO TO THREE.  She also provided model development, training, and supervision in infant mental health and maternal addiction for both Project Dulce, funded by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, and Project Launch, funded by SAMHSA, both of which are based on Healthy Steps. 

She is a Fussy Baby Specialist and, for several years, she was the Infant Specialist for ACF Region 1 Early Head Start and Head Start. She previously taught at the University of Virginia School of Education and Beaver College (now Arcadia) where she developed the graduate program in early childhood/special education. She has served as Board Chair for Project Bread, a non-profit focused on feeding young children throughout Massachusetts, and Smart from the Start, a trauma-informed, multi-generational family support and community engagement organization with a mission to promote the healthy development of young children and families living in the most underserved communities in Boston and other cities.

Prior to her work at Boston University School of Medicine, she was Assistant Professor at Wheelock College (now Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development) teaching and supervising the graduate program in early childhood/preschool special education. She was Co-Director on several federal training and personnel preparation grants including the Birth-to-Seven Training grant.  

Dr. Kaplan-Sanoff has presented numerous keynote addresses, at national conference symposiums, and grand rounds and published frequently on such diverse topics as attachment, supporting women and their infants who were prenatally exposed to cocaine and heroin, and the integration of mental health in early childhood education and pediatric primary care.