Department Highlights
Faculty Highlights
Julie Dobrow was featured in Tufts NOW with article: “Six Tips for Keeping Children Safe Online.” Julie is an expert in children’s use of digital media offers advice for helping kids protect themselves in the digital world. See article here: https://now.tufts.edu/2023/02/23/six-tips-keeping-children-safe-online
Richard M. Lerner has been re-appointed to serve on the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life for another five-year term, from March 1, 2023, through March 1, 2028.
Ellen Pinderhughes was recognized by our peers for her stellar research contributions! Ellen was selected as one of the recipients of the Senior Distinguished Contribution Awardees by the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD). Specifically, she is being recognized for Distinguished Contributions to Understanding International, Cultural, and Contextual Diversity in Child Development Award https://www.srcd.org/news/2023-srcd-biennial-awardees. Ellen will receive this award at the SCRD Biennial meeting in March in Salt Lake City.
Martha Pott has been selected as the 2023 winner of the Seymour Simches Award for Distinguished Teaching and Advising. As Dean Glaser conveyed to Martha, she is receiving this award for her “deep commitment to our students, your creative approach to pedagogy and advising, and the contribution that you’ve made to the education of countless Child Development students (and others!) over the past two decades…” Martha will be presented with the award at the final faculty meeting of the year.
Fernando Salinas-Quiroz has recently been elected to serve on the SRCD Latinx Caucus Steering Committee 2023-2025, as the Technical/Social Media Manager!
Student Highlights
Melissa Lovitz, 5th Year PhD student accepted a full-time lecturer position at Queens College for the 2023-2024 academic year. She will be teaching in the Human Development and Family Sciences program in the Department of Family, Nutrition, and Education Sciences. She has also built connections with researchers at The Ohio State University to share data for her dissertation about parent-provider relationships in early childhood education settings. She also applied for and used data from the Child and Family Data Archive and the Head Start FACES study for her dissertation work. Using her knowledge from E-P classes on resilience, cultural sensitivity, and her teaching training from the GIFT fellowship, Melissa Lovitz created a monthly program for Jewish people who identify as women, trans, or gender-non binary, to recognize the new moon. This program is focused on integrating the Jewish practice of recognizing the new moon/new month and mental health recovery. For the last 5 years, Melissa Lovitz has mentored Boston-area high school students to run marathons. The program uses principles of Positive Youth Development and has been enhanced by Melissa's knowledge of PYD from classes she's taken at Tufts. The program runs annually from November - May, culminating in a marathon that mentors and students run together.
Madeline Nievera, 2nd Year Master's student was accepted to the Formative Education PhD program in the Lynch School of Education & Human Development at Boston College. She will begin doctoral studies this upcoming Fall where she will be working with Dr. Marina Bers, whose research focuses on the role of coding, robotics, and technology in promoting positive youth development in early childhood.
DEIB Student Committee In response to the death of George Floyd, E-P doctoral students revived and reimagined the E-P Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Student Committee. The committee is comprised of students from all levels of study in the department (i.e., undergrad, masters, and PhD). The committee has worked on several projects related to internal department culture and awareness of current events and holidays, among other things.