Center for the Study of Human Development (CSHD), Brown University

The Center for the Study of Human Development (CSHD) at Brown University recently celebrated its 35th anniversary. Founded as the Child Study Center (CSC) by Lewis P. Lipsitt, now professor emeritus of psychology, medical science, and human development at Brown, the center was first funded by the National Institutes of Health as part of the National Collaborative Perinatal project. The CSHD quickly became the hub for all project-related research activities. Ambitious in scope, this longitudinal study carefully documented the precursors of early childhood diseases, sensory defects, learning problems, and other neurological and psychological disorders, meticulously collecting and analyzing data on the 4,000 Rhode Island children enrolled in the study. Lipsitt and colleagues are still following these children as they approach their 45th birthdays. Former Director Lipsitt reflects,

Thomas F. Anders, MD, currently executive associate dean of the School of Medicine at the University of California, Davis, and Arnold Sameroff, PhD, currently professor of developmental psychology at the University of Michigan, both worked as acting directors during Lipsitt's 25-year tenure. In 1992, William Damon, PhD, succeeded Lipsitt as the CSC's director. Damon, currently professor of education at Stanford University and adjunct professor of human development at Brown, expanded the center's mission to examine ways in which people reach their potential over the course of their lives. The center's name thus changed to reflect this shift in orientation, to the Center for the Study of Human Development. The Mittlemann Family Directorship was created soon after, in 1994. Established by Marsy and Josef Mittlemann (class of 1972), the endowment supports in perpetuity the center director's research efforts and initiatives for the center. Despite these significant changes in leadership, the CSHD continues its founding commitment to interdisciplinary approaches to the study of infant, child, and adolescent development. Former director Damon shares,

Following Damon's departure to Stanford in 1998, Cynthia García Coll, PhD, professor of education, psychology, and pediatrics at Brown, became the Mittlemann Family director. James Morgan, PhD, associate professor of cognitive and linguistic science at Brown, took the post of associate director. Under their leadership, the CSHD expanded its goal to ensure its position as the interdepartmental, multidisciplinary hub for research and scholarship on infant, child, and adolescent development at Brown. The resulting center is world-class, contributing with regularity to the understanding of developmental processes in both typical and atypical populations. Reflects current director García

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