DEVELOPING CHILD - Key Persons
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- Associate Professor of Global Health, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
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- Professor, Immunology, Virology, and Microbiology, the Rockefeller University
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- Advocacy Project Manager and Policy Lead
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- Event Manager
- Event Manager and Project Lead for ELP
- Event Manager and Project Lead for ELP Show Hide
Alison Driesch is the Event Manager at the Center on the Developing Child. She supports major meetings and events for all of the Center's projects and serves as the Project Lead for the Executive Leadership Program in Early Childhood Development. Previously, she worked for Enterprise Community Partners, organizing a broad range of meetings and national conferences. Alison received her B.S. in marketing from Roger Williams University.
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- Senior Project Manager, Social Entrepreneurship
Andres Garcia Lopez is the Senior Project Manager, Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation (aka Entrepreneur-in-Residence) at the Center. In his role, Andres supports early childhood entrepreneurs as they scale their ventures while maintaining impact. He brings 16 years of experience in startups and large corporations. Andres has founded two startups in the educational media industry, Merken Studios (Chile) and Kind Screen (US). The latter received the Harvard GSE Education Entrepreneurship Fellowship in 2018. Andres also worked as a consultant at Deloitte, and held positions in marketing, finance, and operations at American Express and Citi in New York. He holds an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, an MBA from the University of North Florida, and a B.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech.
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- Senior Fellow, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
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- Project Coordinator
- Center in 2019 As a Project Coordinator
- Project Coordinator Show Hide
Ayobami Olugbenga joined the Center in 2019 as a Project Coordinator providing technical and organizational support for Science X Design, IDEAS Impact Framework Workshops, and Porticus Grant workstreams. Prior to coming to the Center, Ayobami worked most recently with ERT Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital, and has vast experience in project and clinical research coordination. He earned a B.Sc. in Microbiology from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.
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- Associate Professor of Environmental Epigenetics, Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
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- Professor Emerita, Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Medical School, University of Michigan
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- Member of the National Scientific Council
It is with profound sadness that we share the news that Dr. Bruce McEwen, a longtime member of the National Scientific Council, died in January 2020. McEwen's ground-breaking research and wide-ranging knowledge has contributed enormously to the work of the Council and to the broader understanding of the effects of stress on lifelong development. He will be greatly missed.
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- Board Member, Atlanta Board of Education / CEO, Capacity Builders, Inc
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- Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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- Research Assistant
- Senior Fellow
- Senior Fellow Show Hide
Cerella Craig is a Research Assistant II at the SEICHE Center for Health and Justice at Yale School of Medicine. Cerella's role with the Transitions Clinic Network - Post Incarceration Addiction Treatment, Healthcare and Social Support (TCN PATHS) research team is a continuation of her commitment to supporting health equity among marginalized populations. She is a mother of two and considers herself a lifelong student and social justice advocate. In 2021, Cerella founded Onward and Upward Job and Career Services LLC, which provides resume writing, and job placement services. Cerella is an active member of the Pediatric Innovation Initiative's Community Leadership Council. She holds a BS in Health and Social Inequalities from the University of Connecticut, and an MPH from Southern Connecticut State University.
Job Titles:
- Senior Finance and Administration Coordinator
- Senior Finance and Administration Coordinator Show Hide
Cindy joined the Center in March 2013 and currently serves as a Senior Finance & Administration Coordinator. In her financial role, Cindy is the first point of contact for the Center's pre- and post-award contracts for both sub-agreements and service contracts as well as coordinator of all pre-award grant and gift management. In her administrative role, Cindy is the lead for all office management, handles IT and building issues, and coordinates staff events. Cindy attended Middlesex Community College, earning her A.S. in business management/hospitality.
Cindy Martell joined the Center in March 2013 and currently serves as the Financial and Administrative Coordinator. In her financial role, she coordinates the Center's contracts and agreements, ensuring all financial reports reflect up-to-date commitments. In her administrative role, Cindy is the first point of contact for all office management and ensures that the Center runs smoothly, which includes handling IT and building issues and coordinating staff events. Cindy formerly worked at the Appalachian Mountain Club's corporate headquarters coordinating volunteer management and events. Cindy earned her A.S. with honors in business management/hospitality from Middlesex Community College.
Job Titles:
- Chief Program Officer at the Center
Corey Zimmerman is Chief Program Officer at the Center on the Developing Child. She provides strategic leadership to the Center's work to help target audiences apply the science to their work and decision-making, including supporting ventures, programs, and systems to reach impact at scale for children and families facing adversity. Corey brings to this work extensive experience shaping social policy on behalf of young children and families from her prior work at United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, the MA Dept. of Early Education and Care, and at Nurtury, Inc. Corey holds an Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in Public Policy Analysis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
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- Associate Professor, Department of Behavioral Neuroscience and Psychiatry / Associate Scientist, Advanced Imaging Research Center, Oregon Health and Science University
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- Marie and Max Kargman Associate Professor in Human Development and Urban Education Advancement, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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- Department of Psychology
- Professor, Department of Psychology, Georgetown University
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- Digital Solutions Developer at the Center
- Digital Solutions Developer Show Hide
Dominic Mathurin is the Digital Solutions Developer at the Center. In his role, he is responsible for managing the Center's global web platforms and developing new functionality and enhancements. Prior to joining the Center, he worked as a Webmaster for the Hiphop Archive Research Institute at Harvard University. He also spent several years in New York working at Columbia University Medical Center where he served as one of the chief architects of a clinical trials recruitment website. Dominic received his M.A. in clinical psychology at Columbia University and a B.A. in psychology at St. John's University.
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- Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging Strategy
Dominique Lightsey-Joseph, EdD, MEd, serves as the Director of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) Strategy at the Center on the Developing Child. Dominique develops strategies and action plans to advance the Center's commitment to fostering equitable outcomes in early childhood development. She also leads the co-creation of an organizational culture where all staff feel respected, included, and able to do their best. Dominique works collaboratively with Center Leadership division heads to ensure the deep integration of EDIB principles into all workstreams and to develop, implement, assess, and adjust strategy as needed to establish a sustainable, Center-wide EDIB infrastructure.
Prior to joining the center, Dominique spent 16 years advancing educational equity and access for marginalized and underrepresented students through her work in college admissions. She has served on strategic planning committees and diversity task forces at public and private universities on both coasts. In service of Pasadena City College's retention efforts for marginalized first-year students, she taught courses and aided students as they built their foundation of self-efficacy, information literacy and critical thinking skills. She served as a principal committee member for the strategic plan to diversify the UCLA campus population between 2010-2016, created and conducted implicit and institutional bias trainings for University of Southern California (USC) faculty, staff, and students, and spearheaded diversity "think tank" working groups comprised of higher education faculty, alumni stakeholders, community-based organizations, K-12 district superintendents and community college senior-leaders.
Dominique is a two-time Trojan, having earned both an M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership from USC. There she acquired her skillset for financing and assessing colleges for equity and investigating the roles power, diversity and equity play in organizational change management. As part of her dissertation in practice, Dominique researched and reported on the significant impact microaggressions and invalidations of employees of color (specifically Black women) have on their career trajectory and advancement into senior-level leadership positions within historically white institutions. This ground-breaking exploration of the inequitable working conditions of Black women in the Ivory Tower highlighted the transformational resistance strategies communities of color employ for survival in the field. Her dissertation culminated in the creation of a national civic engagement society for Black women across industries centered around fulfilling their dreams, prospering economically and paying it forward. Dominique is a Miami, FL native and earned her B.A. in English from Florida State University (FSU).
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow
- Deputy Assistant Secretary, Local, State
- Senior Fellow Show Hide
Dr. Aaliyah Samuel, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Local, State and National Engagement at the U.S. Department of Education is a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Formerly, Aaliyah served as Executive Vice President of Government Affairs & Partnerships at NWEA. Aaliyah is a bilingual executive leader with expertise from early childhood through higher education. Her experience includes program evaluation and evidence-based programs; data collection and disaggregation; family and community engagement support strategies; and policy development and implementation at the local, state, and national level. Aaliyah has informed state policy agendas, assisted with developing cross systems approaches to develop policy solutions to support children and families and leading systems-level change. In her role at NWEA, she led a team working on driving a state and federal education agenda. Prior to NWEA, Dr. Samuel was the Director of Education at the National Governors Association (NGA). While at NGA, Aaliyah's work included business development, strategic planning, and supporting high-ranking state officials on the development of policies that impacted health, education, and workforce. Aaliyah has worked with diverse constituents, philanthropies, and national partners. Aaliyah holds an undergraduate degree from Tuskegee University, a Masters from University of South Florida, and a Specialist and Doctorate Degree from NOVA Southeastern.
Dr. Erin C. Dunn is a social and psychiatric epidemiologist with expertise in genetics and epigenetics. Her research laboratory uses interdisciplinary approaches to better understand the social and biological factors that influence the etiology of depression among women, children, and adolescents. The goal of her work is to identify the causal mechanisms underlying risk for depression, translate that knowledge to population-based strategies for prevention, and target those strategies to "sensitive periods" in development. Sensitive periods are high-risk/high-reward stages in the course of the lifespan when experience, whether exposure to adversity on the one hand or health-promoting interventions on the other, can have lasting impacts on brain health. Through her efforts to determine when these sensitive periods occur, her goal is to design interventions that not only promote brain health across the lifespan, but are also uniquely timed to minimize the consequences of stress exposure, prevent depression before it onsets, and make the most efficient use of limited public health dollars. Dr. Dunn is currently an Associate Professor at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School and is affiliated with the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard, and the Henry and Allison McCance Center for Brain Health at MGH.
Job Titles:
- Fellow at the Center
- Fellow Show Hide
Dr. Holly Schindler, a Fellow at the Center, is an Assistant Professor in the areas of Early Childhood and Family Studies and Educational Psychology at the University of Washington. Prior to her time at the University of Washington, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Center. Dr. Schindler's current research program focuses on how interventions and policies can best target family and school contexts during early childhood to prevent behavior problems and promote mental health in vulnerable populations of families. As part of her work in this area, she conducts meta-analyses using a comprehensive database housing program evaluations of early childhood education, family support, and health-based interventions conducted over the past 5 decades. In a complementary line of research, Dr. Schindler examines how family relationships during early childhood contribute to child and parent mental health and behavior, with an emphasis on the roles of fathers.
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- Junior Fellow at the Center
- Junior Fellow Show Hide
Dr. Laura K. Noll, a Junior Fellow at the Center, is an Assistant Professor in the areas of Clinical Psychology and Human Neuroscience in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Northern Arizona University (NAU), where she is also an affiliated faculty member of the Southwest Health Equity Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Ph.D. Program. As a prevention scientist working at the intersection of translational neuroscience and developmental psychology, Dr. Noll's program of research focuses on utilizing multi-modal assessment strategies to delineate the pathways by which parents' own history of childhood adversity impacts parental function; identifying new intervention targets that may be most sensitive to change; and translating such findings from basic science into effective intervention strategies and novel research tools to forward our ability to support at-risk families. In her role as Junior Fellow, Dr. Noll provides support for program evaluation with the Center's Frontiers of Innovation R&D platform.
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- Junior Fellow at the Center
- Junior Fellow Show Hide
Dr. Leslie E. Roos, a Junior Fellow at the Center, is an Assistant Professor in the areas of Clinical Psychology, School Psychology, and Pediatrics at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Roos aims to support families facing chronic stress by developing targeted programs that build maternal mental health and responsive parenting capacities. Her research uses a multi-modal approach across epidemiological, stress neurobiology, and parent-child observation methods to identify opportunities for intervention. Community-led partnerships are also a focus of her work, including collaborations with local school districts and social service agencies. Dr. Roos consults on program evaluation with the Frontiers of Innovation at the Center on the Developing Child, is Chair of the Academic Research Committee at the Until the Last Child Foundation, and is an Affiliated Researcher with the Children's Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba.
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- Project Manager for the Frontiers of Innovation
- Project Manager Show Hide
Evan Roth-Howe joined the Center in April 2015 as Project Manager for the Frontiers of Innovation (FOI) initiative, and supports the initiative's Latin American portfolio. He previously worked with a variety of development and educational organizations to design and implement early childhood development interventions in India, Rwanda, and the U.S. Evan is a licensed Early Intervention Specialist and holds M.A. degrees in child development from Tufts University and international development from The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.
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- Managing Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University
Gillian Najarian is Managing Director of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University and was among the Center's founders in July 2006. She is Chief Operating Officer for the Center, responsible for overseeing and coordinating Center-wide governance issues, including resource assessment and strategic planning around all new initiatives as well as fundraising and donor relations, board management, faculty development, partnership development, and staff deployment and development.
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- Distinguished Professor, Department of Education, University of California, Irvine
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- Center Director
- Director
- Selected Publications by Center Director
- Senior Fellows
Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., is the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital; Research Staff at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Director of the university-wide Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. He currently chairs the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, whose mission is to bring credible science to bear on public policy affecting children and families, and The JPB Research Network on Toxic Stress, which is developing new measures of stress effects and resilience in young children.
Under the auspices of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Shonkoff served as Chair of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families from 1997 to 2000, and led a blue-ribbon committee that produced the landmark report in 2000, From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development. In 2011, he launched Frontiers of Innovation, a multi-sectoral, science-based R&D platform committed to achieving breakthrough outcomes at scale for young children facing adversity.
Dr. Shonkoff has received multiple professional honors, including elected membership in the National Academy of Medicine, the C. Anderson Aldrich Award in Child Development from the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Distinguished Contributions to Social Policy Award from the Society for Research in Child Development. He has authored more than 150 publications and has been a visiting professor or delivered named lectureships at more than 35 universities in the United States and around the world.
Dr. Shonkoff completed his undergraduate studies at Cornell University, medical education at New York University School of Medicine, pediatric training at Bronx Municipal Hospital Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and fellowship in developmental pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital. Prior to assuming his current position, he was the Samuel F. and Rose B. Gingold Professor of Human Development and Social Policy and Dean of The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.
Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff authored this article in the Winter 2011 issue of Pathways, a publication from the Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality. In the article, Shonkoff describes how poverty harms the cognitive development of children and impairs the biological "memories" created by gene-environment interactions, and discusses what can be done to break this entrenched cycle.
Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff writes, "It is time for policymakers to strengthen efforts to equalize opportunities for all young children by leveraging the science of child development and its underlying neurobiology to create the framework for a new era of innovation in early childhood policy and practice." This article appears in the Fall 2009 edition of Issues in Science and Technology from the National Academy of Sciences.
Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., is the Julius B. Richmond FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children's Hospital; Research Staff at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Founding Director of the university-wide Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University.
Center Director Jack P. Shonkoff, M.D., describes the mission of the Center on the Developing Child and its vision for using science to innovate in the early childhood field and fundamentally change the lives of children facing adversity.
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- Members of the National Scientific Council
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- Senior Director for Strategic Engagements
James Cairns is Senior Director for Strategic Engagements and Organizational Learning. He leads Center-wide efforts focused on understanding the early childhood ecosystem and the Center's role in it, including developing strategic collaborations and partnerships and leading efforts to understand and measure the impact of our work. He also continues to provide strategic guidance to the Center's international portfolio and partnerships.
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- Senior Fellow
- Senior Fellow Show Hide
James M. Radner, M.Phil., a Senior Fellow at the Center, is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Toronto (Canada), where he is the executive director and co-founder of The Boreal Institute for Civil Society. He is also a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, where he directs the International Program on Social Entrepreneurship and Civil Society. Since 2009, Jamie has worked closely with the Center on the Developing Child as part of the Frontiers of Innovation initiative. His teaching and action research concern issues of domestic and international social and economic development, and uses of quantitative and qualitative tools to improve the effectiveness of social institutions. He has wide experience in civil society and development, including positions at community health, education, and economic development organizations, as well as program and management work at Amnesty International U.S.A., and consulting assignments for governments, aid institutions, businesses, and civic organizations. Previously, Jamie was a senior advisor at Hogan & Hartson LLP in Washington, DC. He earned a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and completed the P.M.D. at Harvard Business School.
Jessica Nelson, M.A., Senior Project Manager; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Show Hide
As Senior Project Manager; Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), Jessica works closely with the Director of Administration and Culture to advance DEIB initiatives at the Center. This includes leading staff capacity-building efforts, monitoring and assessing their impact, and identifying opportunities to strengthen DEIB in the Center's science generation, communication, and application processes. She also contributes to the Center's measurement and evaluation team and innovator supports initiatives.
Prior to joining the Center in September 2014, Jessica worked for 10 years as a bilingual early childhood educator, focusing on anti-bias education, in Boston (Eliot Pearson Children's School), Seattle (El Centro de la Raza), and Itauguá, Paraguay (El Centro del Desarrollo de la Niñez). She also coordinated the Shanti volunteer program, which provided emotional support to people living with HIV/AIDS. Jessica has experience as a grassroots organizer with the Boston Dyke March, an event focusing on intersecting oppressions in the LGBTQIA+ community. And at College of the Holy Cross, she helped organize the Multicultural Peer Educator program, focused on consciousness raising, building an inclusive community, and working for social justice. Currently, her activist work centers around the intersection of mindfulness and social justice in her Buddhist community. Jessica received her B.A. in Spanish from College of the Holy Cross and her M.A. in child development from Tufts University.
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- Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology / Director of Outreach, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh
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- FAMRI Professor of Child Health and Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Graduate School of Education
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- Project Manager at the Center
- Project Manager Show Hide
Katie Sherman is a Project Manager at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. Katie has been at the Center since 2017, and over her tenure has developed an increasingly diverse portfolio of work supporting both the Center's measurement development work as well as internal standards for staff management, namely in the areas of project management and equitable hiring practices. As part of the measurement development work, Katie oversees the Health's Early Roots & Origins (HERO) Study, managing a cohort of more than 15 sites investigating children's biological and behavioral responses to stress. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and a B.A. in Environmental Studies from the University of Rochester.
Job Titles:
- Senior Project Coordinator Show Hide
Lauren joined the Center in December 2019 and serves as a Senior Project Coordinator. In this role she provides administrative, logistical, and project support to several pediatric-facing initiatives that aim to promote the healthy development of all young children through empowerment of caregivers and pediatricians. Previously, Lauren worked at Boston Children's Hospital as a Certified Child Life Specialist. Lauren holds an M.S. in child life and family centered care from Wheelock College (now Boston University) and a B.A. in public policy from the University of Delaware.
Licong Liu is the Center's Director of Finance. He is responsible for guiding financial planning, policy, and processes at the Center, and for management and oversight of its budgets, contracts, and sponsored awards.
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- Project Manager, Leadership Programs and Initiatives Show Hide
Lisa Haidar joined the Center in August 2012. As a Project Manager, she provides leadership for meaningful interdisciplinary and collaborative student learning opportunities. Lisa has worked in publishing, state government, and alumnae relations, and has extensive experience in volunteer leadership and training. She holds a B.A. in English from Bates College, and an M.S. in mass communication from Boston University.
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- Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor / Institute of Child Development
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- Senior Specialist, Innovator Supports Show Hide
As Senior Specialist, Innovator Supports at the Center on the Developing Child, Melanie oversees the ongoing development of the Center's innovator support content and offerings including the IDEAS Impact Framework TM, Science X Design, and Transition to Scalability. She also directs efforts to build the capacity of Center staff and our external partners to engage innovators around that content. Melanie brings extensive experience in the design, implementation and evaluation of programs to support young children and families facing adversity, and she's passionate about helping innovators in the early childhood field use information and data to achieve better outcomes. Melanie was formerly the Director of Innovation Strategies at the Center on the Developing Child. In that role she provided strategic leadership around the incubation of promising new programs within the Center's Frontiers of Innovation (FOI) initiative. She holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium.
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- Assistant Director, Innovation Strategies Show Hide
As the Assistant Director, Innovation Strategies, Melissa is responsible for strategically directing and overseeing implementation of the Center's efforts around building and delivering innovator supports, and leads several of the Center's larger innovation initiatives. Melissa joined the Center in December 2015, bringing extensive experience in program design and qualitative research, and a passion for supporting shared learning and co-creation among diverse stakeholders. Previously, she worked at Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education across a number of educational research initiatives, including a long-term collaboration between early childhood educators in Reggio Emilia and researchers and educators from the U.S. Melissa holds an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. from the University of Minnesota.
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- Chief Executive Officer at the FrameWorks Institute
- Senior Fellow Show Hide
Nat Kendall-Taylor, Ph.D., is chief executive officer at the FrameWorks Institute, a communications think tank in Washington, DC. As CEO, he leads a multi-disciplinary team of social scientists and communications practitioners who investigate ways to apply innovative framing research methods to social issues and train nonprofit organizations to put the findings into practice. An expert in psychological anthropology and communications science, Nat publishes widely in the popular and professional press and lectures frequently in the United States and abroad. His work has appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as Science Communication, Human Organization, Applied Communications Research, Child Abuse and Neglect, and the Annals of Anthropological Practice. He is a senior fellow at the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, a visiting professor at the Child Study Center at Yale School of Medicine, and a fellow at the British-American Project.
Nathan A. Fox is Distinguished University Professor, Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, Program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science at the University of Maryland College Park. He has completed research on the biological bases of social and emotional behavior, developing methods for assessing brain activity in infants and young children during tasks designed to elicit a range of emotions. His work on the temperamental antecedents of anxiety is funded by the National Institutes of Health, where he was awarded a MERIT award for excellence of his research program. He is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Psychological Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Recently, he received the Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award from the Society for Research in Child Development and the Distinguished Mentor Award and the G. Stanley Hall Award for Lifelong Achievement in Developmental Science from Division 7 of the American Psychological Association. He is a founding member of the National Scientific Council for the Developing Child and is currently co-Scientific Director of this group. He is one of three Principal Investigators on the Bucharest Early Intervention Project.
Nathaniel Foote, J.D., M.B.A., a Senior Fellow at the Center, is a director of the TruePoint Center for Higher Ambition Leadership. A co-author of the recent book, Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value, he has helped clients in a wide range of settings to build more effective institutions that achieve objectives for accelerated growth, increased innovation, and improved performance for all stakeholders. Since 2009, Nathaniel has worked closely with the Center on the Developing Child as part of the Frontiers of Innovation Initiative. Nathaniel was with McKinsey & Company for 19 years, where he was a partner and leader of McKinsey's Organization Design practice, and had global responsibility for the effectiveness of McKinsey's communities of practice. He received an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude. He attended the University of Cambridge as the Fiske Scholar, after receiving his B.A. degree from Harvard.
Job Titles:
- Science Director of the National Scientific Council
- Senior Fellow Show Hide
- Vice President and Director, the Saban Research Institute Simms / Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics, Institute for the Developing Mind, Children 's Hospital Los Angeles
Pat Levitt, Ph.D., a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, is also the Science Co-Director of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, an initiative of the Center. He is the Chief Scientific Officer, Vice President and Director of The Saban Research Institute of Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA). He is the Simms/Mann Chair in Developmental Neurogenetics at CHLA, and the W.M. Keck Provost Professor of Neurogenetics at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He received his B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of Chicago; Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego; and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale University. Dr. Levitt has held leadership positions at the University of Pittsburgh, Vanderbilt University, the University of Southern California, and CHLA. Dr. Levitt has served as a member of the U.S. National Advisory Mental Health Council for the National Institute of Mental Health, and is a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine Committee Report "Vibrant and Healthy Kids: Aligning Science, Practice and Policy." He is also on the editorial boards of 10 scientific journals, including his current role as Editor-in Chief of "Mind, Brain and Education." He is an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, and an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives. In his capacity as Science Co-Director of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, Dr. Levitt has spoken to groups of policymakers, service providers, and business leaders about making wise decisions regarding child brain and physical health program investments in 42 states, Mexico, and Canada.
Dr. Levitt has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health and numerous private foundations since 1982. His laboratory does both translational and clinical research. The program focuses on identifying the factors that assure healthy development of brain architecture, which controls learning, emotional, and social behavior. His clinical research studies address how toxic stress responses in infants and toddlers may be detected as early as possible in order to develop best practices for promoting resilience and better prevention and intervention. He also engages families in research who have a child with autism spectrum disorder and co-occurring medical conditions, such as gastrointestinal disorders. He has published over 300 scientific papers.
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- Patricia Albjerg Graham Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
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- Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
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- Senior Fellow
- Senior Fellow Show Hide
Philip A. Fisher, Ph.D., Senior Fellow, is also a member of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child and the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs. He is Philip H. Knight Chair and Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon, where he directs the Center for Translational Neuroscience. Philip's work on children in foster care and the child welfare system includes (a) basic research characterizing the effects of early stress on neurobiological systems such as the HPA axis and areas of the prefrontal cortex involved in executive functioning; (b) the development of preventive interventions, including the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care Program for Preschoolers (MTFC-P) and the Kids in Transition to School Program (KITS); and (c) the dissemination of evidence-based practice in community settings. His work has been funded by a number of institutes of the National Institutes of Health, including NIDA, NIMH, and NICHD, as well as the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. He serves on a number of national advisory groups related to prevention science and community based research. He is the recipient of the 2012 Society for Prevention Research Translational Science Award.
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- Chairman and Professor of Psychology, University of Oregon
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- Assistant Director, Innovation Partnerships and Business Development Show Hide
As the Assistant Director, Innovation Partnerships and Business Development, Priscila is responsible for the strategic direction and the implementation of the Center's partnership and business development efforts for building innovator supports. Prior to joining the Center, Priscila worked at several education-focused nonprofits across the United States and Puerto Rico, and early in her career, she was a Peace Corps volunteer in Nicaragua. Priscila holds a master's degree in education policy and management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a bachelor's degree in psychology from Saint Joseph University.
As of April 2022, Rebecca Hansen serves as the Center's Director of Communications. Rebecca leads the Center's work to develop and implement innovative, impactful strategies for reaching target audiences in new ways through the Center's widely respected, global platform for the effective communication of the translated science of child development. Rebecca brings to this work more than 15 years of experience in the science communications realm.
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- Distinguished Professor, Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis
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- Senior Project Manager at the Center
- Senior Project Manager Show Hide
Sally Pfitzer is a Senior Project Manager at the Center. She provides leadership in developing and executing program strategy for catalyzing innovative practice change in pediatrics by leveraging new measurement capacity. Sally also contributes to the Center's strategy for engaging key stakeholders in the global ECD field, particularly around the science of play. She manages relationships with key stakeholders, including funders, faculty, community organizations, clinical practices, and international relief and development organizations. Sally has experience as a research assistant in neuropsychology labs and science museums, and as an educator working with young children, both domestically and internationally. Sally holds a master's degree in child development from Tufts University and a B.A. in psychology from Boston University.
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- Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Job Titles:
- Professor, Department of Psychology & Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley
Steve Cohen, M.P.A., a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, is also a Senior Fellow at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, where he leads CSSP's partnership with the Center, with a particular focus on helping public systems take up emerging knowledge about child development to improve policy and practice. Steve was previously vice president and chief program officer of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where he worked to reform child welfare systems facing class action litigation. Earlier in his career, Steve served as associate executive director of the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services, a large human services agency in New York City. He also held senior positions in child welfare and juvenile justice in New York City government. Steve has a master's degree in public affairs from the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, and a bachelor's degree from Cornell University.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager for the Frontiers of Innovation
- Senior Project Manager Show Hide
Susan Crowley joined the Center in April 2011 as Project Manager for the Frontiers of Innovation (FOI) initiative, bringing extensive management experience in health care, early education, and university settings. She works with the FOI team and its partners to develop and test innovative strategies aimed at decreasing barriers to learning, particularly focusing on managing the FOI-sponsored working groups, the Innovation by Design process, and links to policy work. She earned a B.S. in nursing from Boston University and an M.P.A. from Harvard Kennedy School.
Job Titles:
- Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child / President, FrameWorks Institute
- Senior Fellow Show Hide
Susan Nall Bales, M.A., a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, is president of the nonprofit FrameWorks Institute, which conducts communications research on social issues. Her work with scholars from the social and cognitive sciences has led to the development of Strategic Frame Analysis™, a multi-method, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding public thinking. She has commissioned, written, and published numerous reports on how Americans view diverse issues such as child development, the environment, and foreign policy. A veteran communications strategist and issues campaigner, she has more than 30 years of experience researching, designing, implementing, and critiquing campaigns on social issues. She has served as a lecturer at Pitzer College and as a visiting scholar at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, she earned an M.A. in literature and language from Middlebury College.
Job Titles:
- Deputy Director and Chief Strategy Officer at the Center
Tassy Warren is Deputy Director and Chief Strategy Officer at the Center on the Developing Child. She is responsible for leading the Center's strategy development and ongoing refinement as well as working in collaboration with Center staff to implement our strategies effectively.
Job Titles:
- Professor in Neurogenetics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California
Job Titles:
- Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral Health, Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus, Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign