Suzanne Graca
Clinical Instructor

Suzanne Graca is a clinical instructor in the Child Life & Family-Centered Care Program at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. A certified child life specialist, she has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses for many years. She has also supervised students during their internship, after having worked first as a staff member in the reference department of the Wheelock Library in 1989.
Ms. Graca is a senior level III child life specialist at Boston Children’s Hospital. At Boston Children’s, she has had extensive contact with Wheelock students, since her role also includes acting as student internship coordinator. She is an active member of the Child Life Council, the professional organization of the child life profession. She has been elected to the executive board twice, first as a member at large, and then as an executive committee member serving in the position of secretary.
Ms. Graca has also worked on several committees and task forces, including the Executive Director Search Committee, Conference Planning, Education and Certification Exam Assembly Committees, as well as Program Standard and Internship Task Forces. Currently, she is working on the Organization Bylaws Subcommittee. Additionally, at the annual national conference, she has been a consistent presenter, which has included intensives on student supervision. When these conferences were held here in Boston, she served as conference co-chair with fellow Wheelock faculty member Claire White.
Education
MS, Child Life, Wheelock College
BA, Biology/Pre-Med, College of the Holy Cross
Research
Her areas of interests are: pain assessment and management, research, chronic illness, interdisciplinary collaboration, supervision, and multicultural issues.
Visit Suzanne Graca's Faculty ProfileSelected Publications
Jeong, S., Logan, D., Goodwin, M., Graca, S., O'Connell, B., Goodenough, H., Anderson, L., Stenquist, N., Fizpatrick, K., Zisook, M., Plummer, L., Breazeal, C., & Weinstock, P. (2015). A Social Robot to Mitigate Stress, Anxiety, and Pain in Hospital Pediatric Care. In Adams, J. A., & Smart, W. (Eds.), 2015. Proceedings of the Tenth Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction Extended Abstracts. ACM, New York, NY, USA.
Graca, S., Fowler, K. & Rosenstock, A. (2009). Play - An Educational Tool in Health Care. In, Lowenstein, A.J., Foord-May, L. & Romano, J.C. (Eds.) Teaching strategies for health education and health promotion: working with patients, families, and communities (pp. 179 - 196).
Einis, S., Fortin, J., Graca, S. & Rogers, J. (2006). The "Know-It-All Kids" series: a medicine patient services education initiative. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 21(2), 134.
Selected Presentations
"PAIN, FEAR AND THE HOSPITALIZED CHILD", Co-presenter, Pediatric Pain Management:State of the Art and Science, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School Pain Conference, Boston, MA.
"SUPERVISION AND LEADERSHIP" - Presenter, Wheelock College Spring Alumni Symposium, Boston, MA.
"THE MAGIC GLOVE: A PARADIGM FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEEDLE PAIN" - Presenter, Pediatric Pain Management: State of the Art and Science, Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education Program, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA.
"INTERN SUPERVISION: USING THE STRENGTH OF OUR CLINICAL SKILLS IN SUPERVISORY PRACTICE" - Co-Presenter, Full-Day Intensive, 30th Annual Child Life Council Conference on Professional Issues, Washington, D.C.
"SPIRITIUAL GENERALIST TRAINING" - Co-presenter, Full-day Children's Hospital Boston Workshop, Wheelock College Campus, Boston, MA.