Alumni

The department has alumni working in numerous child development fields such as policy, research, government, healthcare and education. Highlighted below are several of our recent graduates and the work that they are doing.

Laura Beals – Director, Department of Evaluation and Learning at Jewish Family and Children's Service
Laura is an evaluator with expertise in research methods and management in nonprofit settings. She is currently the Director of the Department of Evaluation and Learning at a human service agency in Boston.

Simone Dufresne – Transition Specialist & TEAM Coordinator, Boston Medical Center
Simone works as an Autism Transition Specialist at Boston Medical Center while also serving in a role as Coordinator of the Teens Engaged as Mentors (TEAM) program.

Brian Burkhard – Senior Research Analyst at EVERFI
Brian first started working as a public school therapist before transitioning to graduate school to pursue a PhD at Eliot-Pearson. He currently works on EVERFI's research team to drive social change to 30+ million learners worldwide.

Meere Menon – Senior Analyst at NICHQ
Meera received her Ph.D. from Eliot-Pearson in 2019 and now works as a Senior Analyst at NICHQ. In her role, Meera contributes to applied research initiatives focused on ensuring children's optimal health.

Dylan Portelance – Senior Product Manager at Wonder Workshop
After graduating from Tufts with his Master's in Child Study and Human Development in 2015, Dylan went on to become a Senior Product Manager at Wonder Workshop, a children's robotics company that creates robots, software, and curriculum for K-8 classrooms.

Sophie Simkin – Implementation Lead at Panorama Education
Sophie's role focuses on using data to improve the lives of children and families in the United States, with a specific focus on the social-emotional health and development of young children.

Christina Zagarino – User Experience Researcher at Google
After graduating from Tufts with a Master's in Child Study and Human Development, Christina has gone on to serve in a plethora of different roles – from Senior Associate at Strategy Insight Group to Content Producer at Speakaboos to her current position at User Experience Researcher at Google. 

Taylor Levesque – Assistant Program Manager for Child Services at MGH Aspire
Taylor is an experienced group leader and emerging program manager with a demonstrated history of working in the healthcare and education industries.

Anneli Hershman – Research Assistant and PhD Candidate at MIT Media Lab
After earning a Master's in Child Study and Human Development at Tufts in 2015, Anneli went on to pursue a PhD at the MIT Media Lab. She currently studies the development of educational technology and the development of universal curriculums that target all types of learners.