Dr Petti completed his MD at Case-Western Reserve University, general psychiatry training at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, child and adolescent psychiatry training at Bellevue-New York University, and MPH at the University of Pittsburgh. He is Professor of Psychiatry and has had numerous leadership positions in academia and professional organizations. He is widely published with varied research interests that evolved around, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and service delivery of the most severe pediatric psychiatric disorders, particularly depression in which he was among the earliest proponents of its existence in children, ADHD, coping styles, and language/communication disorders