Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) Faculty Directory

David M. Almeida
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations: Center for Healthy Aging
Research Interests:

Daily stress processes; adult development; family factors in mental health; work and family linkages; work place interventions; Biological markers of health and well-being.

dalmeida@psu.edu

Mayra Bamaca-Colbert
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Adolescent development and adjustment among ethnic minority youth, with an emphasis on Latino adolescents living in the U.S.  

myb12@psu.edu

Timothy Brick
Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Methodology
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Methodology; Structural Equation Modeling; Affect across the lifespan; Dynamics of conversational interaction; Computer vision; Interactive avatars; Use and management of scientific data; Data mining in the social sciences.

tbrick@psu.edu

Sy-Miin Chow
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Methodology
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Development and adaptation of modeling and analysis tools that are suited to evaluating linear and nonlinear dynamical systems models, including longitudinal structural equation models and state-space modeling techniques.

symiin@psu.edu

H. Harrington (Bo) Cleveland
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

I study both adolescent risk behaviors in community samples and adolescents who experience enhanced environmental risk. Risk behaviors I study include drinking and smoking, as well as other externalizing behaviors. Part of this work considers how individuals’ characteristics, such as genes, can change the impact of social experiences. I also study homeless adolescents and substance use addicts, the daily challenges they encounter, and why some overcome these challenges.

 

hhc10@psu.edu

Linda M. Collins
Distinguished Professor, Human Development and Family Studies and Statistics; Director, Methodology Center
Areas: Domains of Health and Behavior, Methodology
Center Affiliations: Methodology Center
Research Interests:

Research methods; experimental and non-experimental design, particularly for building and evaluating behavioral interventions; models for longitudinal data; latent class analysis.

LMCollins@psu.edu

Christian Connell
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family; Associate Director, Child Maltreatment Solutions Network
Areas: Domains of Health and Behavior, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

• Individual Development (Childhood and Adolescence): effects of maltreatment, trauma, and other adverse experiences on child and adolescent behavioral health outcomes; effects of services, supports, and system involvement on behavioral health outcomes; social-ecological and contextual influences on child and adolescent wellbeing; development of risky behaviors in childhood and adolescence
• Prevention and Intervention Research: effects of community-based services and interventions on behavioral health outcomes for at-risk child and adolescent populations (e.g., child protection and child welfare populations; juvenile justice-involved youth); system-level research and evaluation to improve system-level outcomes and reduce system contact for at-risk populations

cmc128@psu.edu

Shannon Corkery
Director of HDFS World Campus Programs
Areas: Human Development
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:
sac301@psu.edu

Sherry Corneal
Associate Professor of Human Development
Areas: Methodology
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Family systems theory and family therapy; individual counseling; methodologies to study the individual in depth.  

ccc3@psu.edu

Molly Countermine
Associate Teaching Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Infant sleep patterns and behaviors; parenting.

msc7@psu.edu

Jennifer L. Crissman Ishler
Associate Professor of Teaching in Human Development and Family Studies
Areas:
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

First year seminars, assessment in student affairs, gender issues.  

jxc51@psu.edu

Ann C. Crouter
Raymond E. and Erin Stuart Schultz Dean, College of Health and Human Development and Professor of Human Development
Areas: Human Development, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Inter-relationships of parents' employment situations, family processes, and children's and adolescent's social development; gender socialization in middle childhood and adolescence.  

ac1@psu.edu

Daniel Max Crowley
Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas:
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

I am studying the economics of investing in healthy development. I direct the Prevention Economic Planning and Research Labs within the Department of Human Development & Family Studies. Our work is generally focused on preventing illness and criminal behavior through evidence-based investments in childhood and adolescence. This includes utilizing advanced analytic designs, administrative data and technological solutions to optimize preventive strategies.

dmc397@psu.edu

Diana Fishbein
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, Director of the Program for Translational Research on Adversity and Neurodevelopment, and President of the National Prevention Science Coalition to Improve Lives
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

Behavioral neuroscience; goals are to translate scientific findings to practice and policies designed to prevent mental health, emotional, and behavioral problems.

dvf5211@psu.edu

Gregory M. Fosco
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies; Karl R. and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career Professor for the Study of Families
Areas:
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Two foci:
1) Family systems influences on adolescent social-emotional development, psychopathology and substance use risk, and positive well-being; with emphasis on interparental family-level, and parent-adolescent relationships.
2) Family-centered preventive interventions for youth emotional and behavioral problems; with emphasis on family change processes during interventions, optimization of intervention effectiveness, translation of interventions to real-world settings.

gmf19@psu.edu

Steffany J. Fredman
Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies; Karl R. and Diane Wendle Fink Early Career Professor for the Study of Families Pennsylvania State University
Areas: Domains of Health and Behavior, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

PTSD and other mental health conditions within a couple/family context; military couples and families; couple-based interventions for PTSD

sjf23@psu.edu

Alyssa Gamaldo
Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Domains of Health and Behavior, Contexts and Social Institutions, Populations of Special Interest
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Lifespan development; cognitive aging; health disparities; minority aging; influence of sleep on cognitive functioning, health, and well-being; socio-demographic and environmental influences on health; within-person changes in cognition and health; identify early signs of cognitive impairment.

aag46@psu.edu

Lisa Gatzke-Kopp
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies; Professor-in-Charge of the Graduate Program
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Developmental neuroscience of psychopathology, with a particular focus on how children develop behavior problems such as aggression, hyperactivity, and substance abuse. Research has shown that such problems likely evolve when innate vulnerability interacts with environmental stressors. Understanding the neurobiological dysfunction that contributes to this vulnerability informs the identification of experiential and environmental factors that exacerbate or ameliorate risk. Identification of these factors positions researchers, and eventually policy makers, to implement changes in the environment that may alter these trajectories and improve developmental outcomes.  

lmk18@psu.edu

Charles F. Geier
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Developmental cognitive neuroscience, with particular focus on reward processing, basic cognitive control abilities, and their interaction; understanding the relationship between adolescent neurodevelopment and risk taking behavior; nicotine dependence in adolescent and young adult smokers.

cfg2@psu.edu

Scott D. Gest
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies, and Professor-in-Charge of the HDFS Undergraduate Program
Areas: Human Development, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

Peer relations in school contexts from preK-12, with a focus on elementary grades; peer influences on academic adjustment, self-concept, and problem behavior; teacher influences on classroom social dynamics; school-based preventive interventions; applications of social network analysis to study these issues.

gest@psu.edu

Mark T. Greenberg
Edna Peterson Bennett Endowed Chair in Prevention Research, Professor of Human Development and Psychology
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

Intervening in the developmental processes in risk and non-risk populations with a specific emphasis on aggression, violence, and externalizing disorders; promoting healthy social and emotional development; school-based prevention.  

mxg47@psu.edu

Rukmalie Jayakody
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and Sociology
Areas: Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

International population health, community randomized trials, the impacts of developent on culture change, social change and families, mixed methods research, the impacts of poverty on child development.

jayakody@psu.edu

Sarah Kollat
Associate Teaching Professor in Human Development and Family Studies
Areas:
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Interrelations between family climate, children's self-views, and children's peer relationships; behavioral therapy in the treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders. 

sxh345@psu.edu

Jennifer L. Maggs
Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior, Methodology
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Adolescent social development and health; transition to adulthood; risk behaviors, particularly alcohol use; prevention science; research methods.  

jmaggs@psu.edu

Lynn M. Martire
Professor, Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations: Center for Healthy Aging
Research Interests:

Family relationships and management of chronic illness in adulthood; couple-oriented interventions; chronic pain; late-life depression 

lmm51@psu.edu

Marc McCann
Internship Director
Areas: Human Development
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:
mhm137@psu.edu

Susan M. McHale
Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and Professor of Demography Director, Social Science Research Institute Associate Director, Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Areas: Human Development, Contexts and Social Institutions, Populations of Special Interest
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Family relationships and family roles (particularly gender roles) of siblings in the child, adolescent, and young adult; sociocultural contexts of family relationships.

mchale@psu.edu

Peter Molenaar
Distinguished Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Methodology
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Single-subject time series analysis, optimal guidance of developmenal processes, optimal control of disease processes, structural equation modeling, dynamic factor analysis and P-technique.  

pxm21@psu.edu

Jennie Noll
Professor of Human Development and Family Studies; and Director, Network on Child Protection and Wellbeing
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

Bio-psycho-social consequences of child maltreatment, including sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect; pathways to teen pregnancy and high-risk sexual behaviors for abused and neglected youth; the long-term adverse health outcomes for victims of sexual abuse; midlife reversibility of neurocognitive deficits in stress-exposed populations; the propensity for abused and neglected teens to engage in high-risk internet and social media behaviors; policies and programs for the prevention of child maltreatment.

jgn3@psu.edu

Zita Oravecz
Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Methodology
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Research interest in studying individual differences from a process modeling perspective. The general goal is to develop and apply state-of-the-art statistical approaches to particular areas of substantive research (in my case emotion and cognition) that would be difficult or impossible to study without novel methods of analysis.

zita@psu.edu

Nilam Ram
Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, and Psychology
Areas: Human Development, Methodology
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Changes in the psychological processes of emotion, personality, and cognition, how they develop over the course of the lifespan, and how intraindividual change and variability study designs can contribute to our understanding of human behavior.  

nur5@psu.edu

Robert Roeser
Bennett Pierce Professor of Caring and Compassion and Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

Contemplative practices (e.g., mindfulness, compassion) in education for staff and students; Schools as central cultural contexts for child and adolescent academic and social-emotional development; School reform and professional development; India, globalization and adolescent development.

rwr15@psu.edu

Lesley A. Ross
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations: Center for Healthy Aging, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

My research goal is to maintain and improve the everyday functioning of older adults through: (1) The investigation of contributing factors to trajectories of change in everyday functioning, and (2) The translation of these factors into evidence-based interventions to maintain everyday functioning. My background includes epidemiological studies of health and aging, Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs), everyday functional abilities assessment, driving/mobility, cognitive development and aging, human factors, and longitudinal research design and analyses.

lross@psu.edu

Chad E. Shenk
Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

Longitudinal pathways from child maltreatment to the onset of psychological disorders in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Experimental and observational research to identify the mechanisms of various psychological disorders in the child maltreatment population across multiple levels of analysis.

ces140@psu.edu

Martin J. Sliwinski
Director, Center for Healthy Aging; Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Domains of Health and Behavior
Center Affiliations: Center for Healthy Aging
Research Interests:

Cognitive aging; adult development; stress, health and cognition; early detection of dementia; web-based survey research and cognitive testing, intensive measurement designs (measurement bursts, daily diaries and experience sampling), statistical methods for analysis of intraindividual variability and change

mjs56@psu.edu

Cynthia A. Stifter
Professor of Human Development and Psychology
Areas: Human Development
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Socio-emotional development in infants, toddlers, and preschool children, specifically focused on temperament, emotion regulation and its impact on early behavior problems and physical health. Other research areas: developmental psychophysiology, infant crying and colic, parental regulation strategies, positive emotions.  

tvr@psu.edu

Douglas M. Teti
Department Head, Human Development and Family Studies, and Professor of HDFS, Psychology, and Pediatrics
Areas: Human Development, Contexts and Social Institutions
Center Affiliations: Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center
Research Interests:

Socioemotional development in infancy and early childhood; parenting in bedtime/nighttime contexts, infant sleep, and infant development; intervention strategies designed to promote early development and parent-child relations; role of sleep and parenting in the transition to kindergarten.

dmt16@psu.edu

Samantha L. Tornello
Assistant Professor of Human Development and Family Studies
Areas: Human Development, Contexts and Social Institutions, Populations of Special Interest
Center Affiliations:
Research Interests:

Parenting among LGBTQA+ Populations; Family Psychology; Sexual Orientation & Gender Diversity; Social Development in Diverse Families; Developmental Psychology; Fatherhood

slt35@psu.edu

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