Biography

Seth Pollak is the Letters and Science Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Professor of Pediatrics, Anthropology, Neuroscience, and Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He earned dual Ph.D.s from the University of Rochester in brain & cognitive sciences and in child clinical psychology. Seth’s research focuses on social risk factors on children’s brain and behavioral development, with particular focus on children’s emotions, early learning, and health. Seth is a recipient of the Boyd-McCandless Award for Distinguished Contributions to Child Development, the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Early Career Award in Developmental Psychology, as well as the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award from the University of Wisconsin. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Psychological Science, as well as a member of SRCD’s Governing Council. His most recent projects focus on the biobehavioral affects of family poverty on children’s development, the effects of stress exposure on the emergence of children’s learning abilities, and the role of emotion perception on children’s stress regulation.

Nim Tottenham, PhD is an associate professor of Psychology at Columbia University and director of the Developmental Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. Her research examines the development of the neurobiology associated with emotional behavior in humans. Her research has highlighted fundamental changes in amygdala-prefrontal cortex circuitry across childhood and adolescence and the powerful role of early experiences, such as caregiving and stress. Her research uses fMRI, behavioral, and physiological methods to examine human limbic-cortical development in children and adolescents as well as their parents. She has authored over 70 journal articles and book chapters. She is a frequent lecturer both nationally and internationally on human brain development and emotional development and a recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health Biobehavioral Research Awards for Innovative New Scientists (BRAINS) Award, the American Psychological Association’s Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology, and the Developmental Science Early Career Researcher Prize.

Frances A. Champagne, PhD. is an Associate Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Psychology at Columbia University, a faculty member of the Columbia Population Research Center (CPRC), and a Sackler Scientist within the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology. Dr. Champagne’s research integrates molecular, neurobiological and behavioral approaches toward an understanding of how a broad range of environmental exposures can lead to long-term biological and behavioral outcomes. In particular, her work is examining the epigenetic origins of variation in mental health and the transmission of these epigenetic effects across generations.

Philip A. Fisher, Ph.D., is a Philip Knight Endowed Professor of Psychology and Research Scientist at the Prevention Science Institute Center for Translational Neuroscience at the University of Oregon. He is Science Director for the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs and a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, both based at Harvard University. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Dr. Fisher’s work on disadvantaged and maltreated children includes (a) studies to understand the effects of early stress on the developing brain; (b) the development of two-generation prevention and treatment programs to improve high-risk children’s (and their caregiver’s) well-being and brain functioning; and (c) advocacy for science-based policy and practice to improve early learning and healthy development in high-risk children. He is the recipient of the 2012 Society for Prevention Research Translational Science Award.

W. Thomas Boyce is the Lisa and John Pritzker Distinguished Professor of Developmental and Behavioral Health in the Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco; he heads the Division of Developmental Medicine within the Department of Pediatrics. Previously, he was Professor of Pediatrics and the Sunny Hill Health Centre-BC Leadership Chair in Child Development at the University of British Columbia, in the Human Early Learning Partnership, and at the Child and Family Research Institute of BC Children’s Hospital. Dr. Boyce has served as a member of Harvard University’s National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, UC Berkeley’s Institute of Human Development, as well as a founding co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program at Berkeley and UCSF. He co-directs the Child and Brain Development Program for the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, serves on the Board on Children, Youth and Families of the National Academies, and was elected in 2011 to the National Academy of Medicine. Dr. Boyce's research addresses individual differences in children’s biological sensitivity to social contexts, such as the family, classroom and community. His work, which has generated nearly 200 scientific publications, demonstrates that a subset of children (“orchid children”) show exceptional biological susceptibility to their social conditions and bear higher risks of illness and developmental disorders in settings of adversity and stress. Taken together, findings from his research suggest that the supportiveness of early environments have important effects on children’s health and well being.

1-102 - Children's Exposure to Early Adversity and its Impact on Brain Development

Session Type: Invited SRCD Salon

Sub Unit

• Invited Program on Neuroscience & Child Development

Moderator

• Seth Pollak, University of Wisconsin

Panelists

• Nim Tottenham, Columbia University

• Frances A. Champagne, Columbia University

• Philip A. Fisher, University of Oregon

• W. Thomas Boyce, UCSF Departments of Pediatrics and Psychiatry