, MD, is the Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Chair of the  (DCAPBS) at  (CHOP). She specializes in treating children from underserved urban communities and works with the entire family or support system to improve the lives of children and adolescents.
Her extensive expertise includes pediatric mood and anxiety disorders, ethnically diverse children, health services research, psychiatric aspects of chronic medical illness, psychopharmacology, medical and psychiatric conditions, adolescent medicine, neuroimmunology and mood disorders, eating disorders, psychosomatic disorders, and suicide prevention.
Benton is dedicated to eliminating disparities among minority and underserved populations and developing leadership for a diverse child psychiatry workforce with a mission to prepare the next generation of diverse physician leaders. She also creates partnerships between communities and academic centers.
Benton is also the Site Director for CHOP’s  and the . Her research focuses primarily on pediatric mood and anxiety disorders, sickle cell disease and psychiatric conditions, HIV and psychiatric conditions, neuroimmunology and mood disorders, health services research, eating disorders, and ethnically diverse children.
She serves as President of the  (AACAP) and is a Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the .
She has received numerous honors throughout her career. Recent awards include the Humanitarian Award from the , the Shelley Leaphart-Williams Community Outreach Award from the , the McGavin Award (Agnes Purcell) for Prevention, the Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry from the , the Council on Concerns of Women Physicians (CCWP) Service Award from the  (NMA), the David M. Ellis, M.D., Lifetime Achievement Award and the Philadelphia Business Journal .