Leslie S Kerzner, MD

Dr. Leslie Kerzner is a Staff Neonatologist at MGfC. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. She is the Director of the Newborn Developmental Follow-up Clinic, a multi-disciplinary clinic that provides evaluation for at risk infants after they are discharged from the hospital. Dr. Kerzner completed a 3-year post-graduate fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Women & Infants' Hospital at Brown University (1998-2001). She completed a 2-year residency in Pediatrics and a 1 year internship in Pediatrics/Adult & Child Psychiatry also at Brown University (1995-1998). She attended medical school at the University of Vermont (1995) and received a B.A. in psychology from Boston University (1988). She is board certified in both General Pediatrics and Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine. Dr. Kerzner is certified in the Neonatal Behavioral Observation system and has been a trainer at the Brazelton Institute at Children's Hospital, Boston.

Currently, Dr. Kerzner attends in the Newborn ICU, the Triage consultation & delivery service, and the Special Care Nursery at MGH. She regularly sees patients in the Newborn Developmental Follow-up Clinic in Boston and Danvers, and she provides night and weekend coverage in the Salem Hospital Special Care Nursery. Dr. Kerzner participates in a multi-disciplinary Substance Exposed Newborn Working Group to improve the care of families and infants affected by opioid use disorder (OUD) in pregnancy and Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome (NOWS). She provides consultation during pregnancy to women who have OUD and helped developed protocols for caring for the infants affected by NOWS. She has written an educational brochure for marijuana use in pregnancy and lactation and co-wrote the policy on marijuana in breastfeeding at MGH. Dr. Kerzner has participated in the Comfort and Support After Loss committee for over a dozen years, supporting families who have experienced neonatal loss. In 2022, she was appointed as the Newborn Division representative on the new, larger Pediatric Bereavement Committee, where she helps to organize additional events for parents.