Wertlieb, Donald

Donald Wertlieb is a clinical developmental psychologist whose research and professional interests have emphasized child and family health and the integration of clinical and pediatric psychology in the applied developmental science framework. He has been a researcher, clinician, teacher, and child advocate for more than 25 years, and is currently a professor of child development in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. His work has spanned the areas of psychopathology, pediatric health psychology, rehabilitation psychology, and early childhood education, and can best be described as reflecting his long-term commitment to understanding the stresses that children encounter and the coping processes used by children, families, and communities to adapt to changing conditions in an increasingly complex and challenging world. As a stress and coping researcher, Wertlieb pioneered methodology that relied on children's own assessments of their stressful experiences, complementing more traditional but limited professional and parent reports (Wertlieb, Weigel, & Feldstein, 1987). He consults both nationally and internationally on a variety of issues in children's health and coping.

Wertlieb was born in Washington, D.C., and moved to Massachusetts in 1970, when he matriculated at Tufts University, where he was elected to both Phi Beta Kappa and Psi Chi. He also received the Carmichael Prize for scholarship in physiological psychology and was graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1974. After completing a bachelor of science degree in psychology, he remained at Tufts to earn his first master's degree in child development, then moved on to Boston University as a fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health in the doctoral program in clinical and community psychology. By 1978, at the age of 26, he had earned two master's degrees and his PhD and had completed internships at both the Judge Baker Guidance Center and the Children's Center at McLean Hospital, two of the most prestigious training sites for child psychologists. After distinguishing himself as an intern, he subsequently was invited to join the staff at Judge Baker, and continued to treat children and families in that setting for several years, while simultaneously consulting with the state's juvenile justice system and mentoring predoctoral interns. Upon completing his clinical training, Wertlieb returned to his alma mater to become a faculty member at Tufts in what was then the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study.

At Tufts, he has advanced through the ranks, becoming an assistant professor in 1979, associate professor in 1986, and full professor in 1997. Since 1992, he has been a research associate professor in [Page 1140]physical medicine and rehabilitation at Tufts University School of Medicine. He was instrumental in the design and launch of the nation's first PhD program in applied child development (Wertlieb & Feldman, 1996). Wertlieb served as department chair at Eliot-Pearson for two consecutive terms, 1989–96, and subsequently assumed a university-wide leadership role as founding director of the Tufts University Center for Children (TUCC) in 1999, a position he held until 2002.

The center's mission is to bring together faculty across schools and disciplines in order to enhance research and advocacy for children, in many ways reflecting Wertlieb's own interdisciplinary focus over the course of his career. In addition, TUCC involved a scaling up of the department-based Center for Applied Child Development (CACD), directed by Wertlieb as a vehicle for establishing partnerships between the university and a wide range of schools and human service agencies committed to the integration of contemporary theory and research in child development with “best practices” in program development and service delivery. Under his leadership, CACD served as the Massachusetts Coordinating Center for the United Nations International Year of the Family (1992–94).

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