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Brief biographies of JPS Officers & Board Members

Officers

President: Geoffrey Saxe
Past President: Nancy Budwig
Vice President, Meeting Planning: Eric Amsel
Vice President, Publicity & Outreach: Stephanie Carlson
Vice President, Information Technology: Chris Lalonde
Vice President, Communications: Saba Ayman-Nooley
Treasurer: Ashley Maynard

Board of Directors

2006-2009: Stephanie Carlson, Katherine Nelson, Larry Nucci, Bryan Sokol, Cecilia Wainryb
2007-2010: Merry Bullock, Terezinha Nunes, Geoffrey Saxe, Elliot Turiel, Phil Zelazo
2008-2011: Michael Chandler, Stacey Horn, Lynn Liben, Cynthia Lightfoot, Chris Moore
2009-2012: Mark Bickhard, Carol Lee, Charlie Lewis, Ulrich Mueller, Judi Smetana
Honorary Members: Willis Overton, Barbara Presseisen

Eric Amsel (Vice-President, Meeting Planning)

Eric Amsel is Social and Behavioral Sciences Endowed Professor of Psychology at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. His recent research addresses developmental changes in the forms and functions of counterfactual reasoning, which is defined broadly as reasoning about states of affairs known to be false. One line of research explores cognitive developmental differences between pretending on the one hand and supposing or hypothesizing on the other. Sustaining such a distinction seems central in preserving a developmental sequence that has its origin in subjective and idiosyncratic thought and moves in the direction of increasing logic and objectivity. A second line of research examines the development of children’s experience of the counterfactual emotion of regret, its relation to the moral emotions of guilt and shame, and adolescents’ anticipation of potential sources of regret in the process of decision-making. This line of research focuses attention on the dynamic developmental relations between cognitive and emotional processes and the importance of such relations in children’s growing psychosocial maturity.
weber.edu/eamsel

Saba Ayman-Nolley (Vice President, Communications)

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Mark Bickhard (Board Member 2009-2012)

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Nancy Budwig (Past President)

Nancy Budwig's research focuses on language development and language socialization. Her research on language development is grounded in a functionalist perspective, highlighting the ways in which language forms are acquired in tandem with learning to communicate. This work has aimed to better understand the protracted nature of children's organization of linguistic forms and the functions they serve. In a second set of studies, Budwig has focused on the role of language in socialization. Here emphasis shifts from language as the domain of study, to viewing language as a system through which the child comes to co-construct meaning. This research examines ways children's participation in language practice contributes to the construction of culturally relevant senses of personhood. Current research on language development and language socialization has drawn upon culture comparisons of American, German and Hindi-speaking children interacting with their caregivers and peers.
www.clarku.edu/faculty/nbudwig/

Merry Bullock (Board Member 2007-2010)

bio to come...

Stephanie Carlson (Vice President, Publicity & Outreach)

I investigate basic developmental processes in executive function, theory of mind, and symbolism/pretend play. I am particularly interested in how these skills interrelate in the preschool period, their brain bases, their relevance for school readiness, and socio-cultural influences on their development.
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Michael Chandler (Board Member 2008-2011)

Dr. Chandler’s ongoing program of research involves an exploration of the role culture plays in constructing the course of identity development, shaping young people's emerging sense of ownership of their personal and cultural past, and their commitment to their own and their community's future well being. These efforts have earned Dr. Chandler the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Senior Research Prize, led to his being awarded the Killam Teaching Prize, and resulted in his being named a Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies Distinguished Scholar in Residence. His research and scholarly efforts have also resulted in his being appointed as Canada's only Distinguished Investigator of both the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR). Recently, Professor Chandler's program of research dealing with identity development and suicide in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth was singled out for publication as an invited Monograph of the Society for Research in Child Development. His research is funded by CIHR, MSFHR, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and by British Columbia’s Human Early Learning Partnership.

Stacey Horn (Board Member 2008-2011)

Stacey S. Horn, is an associate professor of educational psychology and human development in the College of Education at UIC. She has been studying the issue of group inclusion and exclusion in adolescence for the past few years. This work looks at the underlying moral, social, and personal implications of exclusion, as well as discrimination based on a variety of social categories: gender, race, sexual orientation, and social reference group membership (i.e. jocks, nerds), as well as how adolescents reason about these issues. Her dissertation examined the impact that group status and social identity have on adolescents' evaluations and reasoning regarding the exclusion of others based on their social reference group status. Dr. Horn was the recipient of the Outstanding Dissertation Award from Division 7 of the American Psychological Society.

tigger.uic.edu/~lnucci/MoralEd/faculty/horn.html

Chris Lalonde (Vice-President, Information Technology)

My research focuses on cultural influences on identity formation and social-cognitive development. I am currently engaged in research projects that examine the role of culture in the health and well-being of Aboriginal youth. In partnership with the Inter Tribal Health Authority, I am involved in a study of injury rates within First Nations communities on Vancouver Island. With funding from the Canadian Population Health Initiative, and in collaboration with the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, I am beginning a project in Manitoba that examines culture and healthy youth development. At UVic, I am also helping to direct the LE,NONET Project that aims to enhance the success of Aboriginal undergraduate students. For more information, see my web site.
www.uvic.ca/psyc/lalonde/

Carol Lee (Board Member 2009-2012)

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Charlie Lewis (Board Member 2009-2012)

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Lynn Liben (Board Member 2008-1011)

Lynn Liben is interested in both cognitive and social development, and in their interface. Current work in cognitive development focuses on children's growing ability to understand graphic representations, including maps, satellite imagery, photographs, and drawings. For example, in a collaborative grant with geographers, astronauts, earth scientists, educators, and other members of the psychology department, she is studying the use of various scientific visualization tools (e.g., Geographic Information Systems software) with children and adults. Also under study are the origins and amelioration of sex differences in spatial skills. Work in social development focuses on gender and racial stereotypes, with particular interest in the ways in which cognitive processes play a role in understanding and modifying these stereotypes.

Cynthia Lightfoot (Board Member 2008-1011)

Cynthia Lightfoot is an Associate Professor and Program Director of Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State University, Delaware County. Her publications and professional presentations focus on adolescent peer culture, risk-taking, and identity development. Recent publications include The Culture of Adolescent Risk-Taking (1997, Guilford Press), Sociogenetic Perspectives on Internalization (1997, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; edited with Brian Cox), and "Changing times: Essays on the development of self and culture", a special issue of the journal, Culture and Psychology (edited with Maria Lrya).
www.de.psu.edu/academics/faculty/lightfoot/

Ashley Maynard (Treasurer)

Dr. Maynard’s research is broadly focused on the interplay of culture and human development. Her primary research interests are in the areas of sibling socialization, the impact of the daily routine on development, and cultural learning environments. Working in Hawaii and in Maya Mexico, Dr. Maynard uses both ethnographic and experimental methods to examine developmental processes in their cultural contexts. One line of her current research looks at the developing abilities of older siblings to teach their younger siblings to do everyday activities. A related study examines the transfer of models of teaching found in school to the home environment. A second line of Dr. Maynard’s research examines the interplay of cultural tools and cognitive development. One cross-cultural study in this area is examining the development and transfer of the ability to perform mental transformations on concrete objects. Another line of Dr. Maynard’s work aims to understand the role of culture in the development of the understanding of gender roles.
www2.hawaii.edu/~amaynard/

Chris Moore (Board Member 2008-2011)

I am Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. My main research interests are in the early development of social understanding. My empirical research cover the late infancy period (9 to 24 months) and the late preschool period (3-5 years). I also have a side interest in evolutionary psychology. On these pages you will find information about my research interests and publications.

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Ulrich Müller (Board Member 2009-2012)

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Katherine Nelson (Board Member 2006-2009)

bio to come...
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Larry Nucci (Board Member 2006-2009)

Larry Nucci’s research focuses on moral and social development. Much of his work has focused on the ways in which individuals across cultures differentiate between legitimate moral and normative regulation, and those aspects of personal behavior that individuals consider as matters of personal discretion and privacy. This work on the personal domain has included a number of cross-cultural studies in Latin American and Asian settings. This work has determined that efforts to identify zones of privacy are endemic to children and adults across a wide range of cultures. More recently, Nucci, has begun to address issues of moral education and the assessment of sociomoral growth.
MoralEd.org

Terezinha Nunes (Board Member 2007-2010)

Terezinha Nunes is Professor of Educational Studies and a Fellow of Harris-Manchester College. She started her career as a clinical psychologist in Brazil and moved to a research career by obtaining a doctorate in Psychology at City University of New York, where she was supported by a Fulbright Scholarship. Her work spans the domains of children's literacy and numeracy, including both hearing and deaf children's learning, and her focus of analysis covers cognitive and cultural issues, with a special interest in educational applications. Her work on "street mathematics" in Brazil uncovered many features of children's and adults' informal knowledge, and her subsequent work in the U.K. investigates how this informal knowledge can be used in education. Her literacy research focuses on the connections between moprhological awareness, spelling and vocabulary growth.
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Willis F. Overton (Honorary Board Member)

Willis F. Overton is the Thaddeus L. Bolton Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Psychology Department at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. USA. He is the current editor of Monographs of the SRCD, and a past President of the Jean Piaget Society. Dr. Overton's interests include, Historical and contemporary approaches to developmental metatheory, theory & methodology; person-centered action systems approaches to cognitive, emotional, personality development, and psychopathology; the development of representation in early childhood, and reasoning in childhood and adolescence.
astro.ocis.temple.edu/~overton

Barbara Presseisen (Honorary Board Member)

During her career, Dr. Presseisen trained many educators in critical thinking and problem solving, and edited various publications on the teaching of thinking, Holocaust education, and reasoning in history and social studies instruction. Her work includes a series on thinking skills for elementary students, published volumes Learning and Thinking Styles, At Risk Students and Thinking, and Unlearned Lessons: Current and Past Reforms for School Improvement. She has taught at Swarthmore College and Temple University and serves on several boards and advisory organizations.
www.nobellearning.com/nobel

Geoffrey Saxe (President)

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bio to come...

Judith Smetana (Board Member 2009-2012)

Judith Smetana (PhD, University of California, Santa Cruz) is professor of psychology in the Department of Clinical and Social Sciences in Psychology at the University of Rochester and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Pediatrics. Her research focuses on moral and social reasoning and behavior. In one line of research, she has examined young children's developing understanding of moral and social rules. This research has included studies of normally and atypically developinmg children, including abused and neglected children. Another line of research has focused on adolescents' and parents' conceptions of autonomy and authority in adolescent-parent relationships. This research has been conducted in different cultural and ethnic contexts, including European American families, Chinese adolescents in Hong Kong and Mainland China (with Jenny Yau), and ongoing longitudinal research on middle class African American families with adolescents. She is also interested in parenting beliefs and parenting. Dr. Smetana is Associate Editor of Child Development and Secretary of the Society for Research in Child Development.
www.psych.rochester.edu/faculty/smetana/

Bryan Sokol (Board Member 2006-2009)

bio to come...

Elliot Turiel (Board Member 2007-2010)

Elliot Turiel is pursuing research in the development of social judgments and action, the development of moral reasoning, children’s conceptions of authority and rules in school settings, as well as culture and social development. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and a National Institute of Mental Health Fellow.
www-gse.berkeley.edu/program/CD/Faculty/Turiel.html

Cecilia Wainryb (Board Member 2006-2009)

Dr. Wainryb is Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah. Her research interests include the development of moral reasoning and social development in childhood and adolescence. Much of her work concerns moral reasoning and interpretation in different cultural settings.
www.psych.utah.edu/wainryb/wainryb.html

Philip David Zelazo (Board Member 2007-2010)

Professor Zelazo studies the development and neural bases of executive function, or the conscious control of thought, action, and emotion. He does so using a variety of approaches, from experimental to cross-cultural to electrophysiological (EEG/ERP), and his work has focussed on a number of influential ideas, including the notion that the executive function depends, in part, on the development of the ability to use increasingly complex, higher-order rules (formulated in self-directed speech)—part of the Cognitive Complexity & Control theory; the notion that consciousness develops through a series of “levels” in which information is reprocessed via thalamo-cortical circuits involving prefrontal cortex (the Levels of Consciousness model)—with consequences for the quality of subjective experience, and the potential for recall, rule complexity, and cognitive control; and the importance of the distinction between more “cool,” cognitive aspects of executive function typically associated with dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DL-PFC) vs. more “hot,” affective aspects associated with more ventral and medial regions of PFC (e.g., orbitofrontal cortex; OFC).
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