title-fellowships.gif

Julius B. Richmond Fellowships


Among the core goals of the Center on the Developing Child is the creation of a new generation of leaders who view the promotion of healthy child development broadly. The Julius B. Richmond Fellowships help the Center to achieve that goal by bringing students from across the University to the Center to engage in ongoing research within an interdisciplinary community and to strengthen University-wide communications and collaboration in the area of child development. Including the awardees for the 2013-14 academic year, a total of 25 fellows have been named since the program’s inaugural year in 2007-08. 

 

 

2013-2014 Fellows

The following four students are recipients of Richmond Fellowships for the 2013-2014 academic year:

Soojin Oh is a doctoral candidate in the Human Development and Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research project will explore how social, cultural, and organizational contexts influence early language development among children of low-income families. She hopes to inform policy that addresses social disparities and inequalities of educational opportunity for society’s most vulnerable children. Oh is a former editor of the Harvard Educational Review. She received a B.A. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and an Ed.M. in education policy and management from Harvard. Oh’s mentor will be Center-affiliated faculty member Hiro Yoshikawa, who is the Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Academic Dean at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Effective July 1, Yoshikawa will be the Courtney Sale Ross University Professor of Globalization and Education and the Co-Director of the Institute for Globalization and Education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development.

Alonso Sánchez is a doctoral student in the Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Sánchez’s research focuses on low-income mothers who receive nutritional and health support during their child’s prenatal period and first year of life from a Mexican anti-poverty program called Oportunidades. His research analyzes whether this intervention has long-term effects on the child’s education and cognitive achievement. Sánchez’s background includes experience as a consultant in education and human development projects at the World Bank in Washington, D.C. He received a B.S. in mathematics and art history from Texas Christian University and a master’s of public affairs as well as a master’s of Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Sánchez’s mentor will be Richard Murnane, an economist who is the Thompson Professor of Education and Society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Benjamin Sosnaud is a doctoral candidate studying sociology in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His research explores the association between maternal socioeconomic position and education and infant mortality in the United States. Sosnaud is interested in documenting the variation in this association across 50 states and examining social policies that could help explain the cross-state differences in infant health disparities. By highlighting policies with the potential to either widen or narrow disparities in infant mortality risk, he hopes to draw attention to the broader consequences of policy decisions and inform future policy debates. Sosnaud received a B.A. in sociology and political science from Duke, and an M.A. in sociology from Harvard. Sosnaud’s mentor will be Jason Beckfield, a professor of sociology at Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Ashley Winning is a doctoral student in social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, with a study concentration in social and psychiatric epidemiology. Her research assesses whether early psychological distress in children influences risk for heart and metabolic problems in adulthood, even when psychological distress is no longer an issue in adulthood. She is interested in understanding effects of the social environment on children and their health over the life course. Winning has held research roles in child protection, violence prevention, and women’s health. Winning received a B.A. in psychology, with a minor in drama, from Queens University, Ontario, Canada, and has a master of public health in behavioral sciences and health education from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. Winning’s mentor will be Center-affiliated faculty member Laura Kubzansky, a professor of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health.

 

About the Fellowship & Application Requirements

This one-year fellowship provides students with a $10,000 stipend in support of independent research that aligns with the broader mission of the Center. Award decisions will be made in March 2013, and the fellowship will begin the following September. All Harvard University doctoral students from the biological and social sciences as well as the professional schools are eligible to apply.

During the fellowship, students create a work plan for the year, deliver a seminar presentation, attend workshops, and attend Center-sponsored events. Each Richmond Fellow is asked to identify a faculty mentor whose responsibilities include attending the seminar session and identifying other faculty members who can provide feedback that augments the mentor’s expertise. There is an expectation that significant progress will be made on the Fellow’s research during the year; specific benchmarks will be determined individually with input from the faculty mentor.

Candidates should have excellent academic records and defined research interests in child health, learning, and development. Priority will be given to candidates whose work crosses disciplinary boundaries and has implications for social policy or practice. 

Applications for the academic year 2014-2015 will be due on December 13, 2013.



Past Fellows

Learn more about the research interests of previous classes of Julius B. Richmond fellows.

Read more >>

 

 

About Julius B. Richmond

The Richmond Fellowship is named for Julius B. Richmond who, until his death in 2008, was the John D. MacArthur Professor of Health Policy Emeritus in the Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School. As a pioneer in public health and development in early childhood, Dr. Richmond was the first National Director of Head Start in the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson and served as Surgeon General in the Carter administration, where he was instrumental in leading the first public health campaign against the tobacco companies.  Dr. Richmond cherished the fact that the Fellowship was established in his name. Since his death, the Center has renewed its dedication to promoting the professional development of young scientists.

Read the Harvard School of Public Health obituary for Julius B. Richmond >>