Bio
Debra W. Haffner, M.Div., M.P.H, has been a parenting educator for more than twenty-five years and has provided presentations to thousands of parent and professional groups, including the National School Boards Association, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, and public and private schools throughout the U.S. She speaks regularly about parenting issues, and is a contributor to The Huffington Post, has written for WebMD, iVillage, and DrSpock.com, and has been featured on Oprah, The View, Today, and in Time, Newsweek, USA Today, and U.S. News & World Report.
She is the author of six books, including From Diapers to Dating: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Children, Beyond the Big Talk: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Sexually Healthy Teens, and What Every 21st-Century Parent Needs to Know: Facing Today’s Challenges with Wisdom and Heart.
The recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, in 2000, Haffner holds a master’s in public health from the Yale University School of Medicine and a master of divinity from Union Theological Seminary. Currently the director of the Religious Institute, she is also an ordained minister with the Unitarian Church in Westport, Connecticut. She previously served for twelve years as president and CEO of SIECUS, the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.
She and her husband are the parents of two children, an adult daughter and a teenage son.
