The Center’s Education and Leadership Development (ELD) agenda is a full suite of formal and informal opportunities committed to enhancing the growth of the next generation during the critical early stages of their intellectual development. We are also focused on building the capacity of career professionals to translate research into policy and action. As such, we engage both current and future leaders in constructive dialogue to expose them to new paradigms and theories in order to guide their understanding of how to leverage this new knowledge on behalf of vulnerable children and their families.

We know more now than ever before about how the continuous interaction between genetics and experience influences the construction of brain architecture and the development of human capacities. Scientific advances are deepening our knowledge about how and why growing up in a highly disadvantaged environment can produce adverse physiological effects on the brain, the cardiovascular system, and the immune system that can have lifelong impacts on both learning and health. Stated simply, we have an unprecedented opportunity to launch a new, science-driven era to promote the healthy development of all children, particularly those whose life prospects are compromised by significant adversity.

Given the alignment of the Center’s mission with Harvard President Drew Faust’s mandate to promote a supportive climate for student inquiry, we are well poised to create exciting activities and programs that will prepare young leaders to succeed, both in and outside the classroom. Moreover, our commitment to public engagement bolsters our interest in bringing the integrated science of child development to the real world in a variety of ways, educating current decision-makers in the public and private sectors as they work to improve the lives of children and families around the world.

Activities

Given the Center’s clear Education and Leadership Development (ELD) mandate, it is presented with a wonderful opportunity to tap into its own programmatic and faculty resources together with those from across the University in pursuit of three specific goals:

• Educate future leaders at Harvard University through formal and informal vehicles about the underlying science of learning, health, and behavior and the lifelong impacts of the earliest years of life.
• Support innovative and multidisciplinary research of the next generation of scholars that will build the knowledge base for application to policy and practice.
• Provide professional development opportunities for current leaders in the field in order to enhance their capacity to develop and move innovative, science-based policy and practice agendas.

Our ELD activities are designed to introduce undergraduates, graduate students, and professionals to new paradigms of thought and to enhance their work—whether that be at the University or in the real world—and to draw a link to how scientific discovery can be translated into policy and action.