Samantha P. Bento, PhD

Dr. Samantha Bento is an attending pediatric psychologist at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Instructor at Harvard Medical School. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology, specializing in behavioral medicine and pediatric psychology, from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). Dr. Bento completed her psychology residency at Duke University Medical Center and post-doctoral fellowship in pediatric pain at Boston Children’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School. She specializes in providing psychosocial care to patients and families presenting to the Pediatric Neuro-Oncology program and works closely with multidisciplinary teams to ensure that patients and families receive comprehensive care. Her research interests include pediatric pain management (with a specific interest in cancer pain), psychoneuroimmunology, and understanding how novel psychological factors, cognitive processes, and neurobiological mechanisms contribute to risk and resilience in the context of pediatric chronic illness.