Wayne Yankus, M.D., F.A.A.P.

 I have the fortune to be interviewed in the local newspaper today and they have run the article on-line.  I appreciate the coverage.

Our FluMist arrived last week, which starts the annual ritual of vaccinating patients for the coming influenza season. Of course, we don’t always know who will pay and what they will pay.

I am a New Jersey native who graduated from Boston University. After teaching at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut for five years, I graduated from the Autonomous University of Guadalajara in Mexico from which I received my medical degree. I interned at the hospitals of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and did my pediatric training at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center.

I am the chair of the New Jersey Chapter's Committee on School Health and founder of its "Critical Issues in School Health" program. I am the past president of the New Jersey Chapter, a former member of the national AAP Executive Board of the Section on School Health, and was the liaison member to the Committee on School Health. In 2003, I received the Milton J. Senn award for contributions to national school health from the American Academy of Pediatrics.  I represented the Academy on the Pediatric Task Force of the United States Pharmacopoeia and was a vice president of the Chapter Forum Committee for which I received a citation for outstanding service. I am also currently active with legislative duties for the NJAAP on its government affairs committee.  I was recently awarded the American Academy of Pediatrics, New Jersey chapter, Recognition award.

I represented District III of the AAP on the CATCH (Community Access to Child Health) Committee. CATCH is a program of the AAP which gives grants to residents and pediatricians who can develop solutions to community problems by creating access to community resources. Like most advocacy programs, it touches the heart of community medicine and medical homes for underserved children.   I serve as a medical expert panelist for Education.com of Redwood City, CA which is a national website dedicated to leadership in education information for parents.

I am in the private practice of pediatrics with my partner, Dr. Deborah Ungerleider, in Midland Park, New Jersey. I am the medical liaison to the local Board of Education and consult to several school systems.  I am an honorary member of the Board of Children's Aid and Family Services, a former Trustee of the Greater Bergen County YWCA and was awarded their Outstanding Volunteer award in 2000 and in 2004 their honor for commitment to the mission of the YWCA and Outstanding Role Model in the Community.  I am a former member of the Healthy Pathways Committee of the Valley Hospital bringing physicians and the community together by a grant to identify children in need of early intervention services.

I live in Ridgewood, New Jersey with my wife, Pat, who was a member of the National Board of the YWCA, and a founder of a community service agency serving the needs of the urban indigent with housing, food, and literacy services.  We have three sons, Willard, Alexander and Bradford.  You can find me here at wayneyankusmd.com, and on Twitter, Facebook, and my practice website.

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