The Julius B. Richmond Fellowships at the Center on the Developing Child support dissertation research for Harvard University doctoral students. Established in 2006, the Center on the Developing Child is dedicated to creating a new generation of leaders who have a broad perspective on the promotion of healthy child development and who recognize the need to bring strong scientific knowledge to bear on policies and programs that support the well-being of children. The 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. Since his death, the Center has renewed its dedication to promoting the professional development of young scientists. The Richmond Fellowships were established in 2006 by a grant from the Foundation for Child Development in honor of Dr. Richmond’s birthday.

2010-2011 Richmond Fellows

Erin C. Dunn was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). Her research is focused on identifying risk and protective factors linked to the onset of mental health problems in children and adolescents. In this work, she adopts an ecological or multi-level perspective, examining the role of both individual and contextual determinants, including genetic factors and the influence of neighborhood and school environments. One of her three dissertation papers is focused on identifying gene-environment interactions with respect to depression in youth.

Read a recent HSPH news feature about Erin's work >>

Sky Marietta was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as an advanced doctoral student in Human Development and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A former elementary school teacher, Marietta is focusing her research on understanding variation in language and literacy development in low-income children. During her fellowship year, she conducted a mixed-methods study that compares children in rural Appalachia with economically matched peers in New England.

Matthew Ranson was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is interested in a range of issues related to environmental and behavioral economics, particularly non-market valuation and risk assessment. During his fellowship year, his work examined the effects of prenatal pollution exposure on children's cognitive ability.

2009-2010 Richmond Fellows

In the 2009-10 year, the Center saw a three-fold increase in applications, including the first submissions from students at the Graduate School of Design and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

M. Clara Barata was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in Human Development and Education at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research is on the impact of early childhood education on development, particularly in the domain of executive function. Her work involves serving on the evaluation team of an integrated health and education preschool intervention program in Chile.

Dustin Duncan was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a third-year doctoral student at Harvard School of Public Health in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health. Duncan’s dissertation research seeks to advance scientific knowledge on neighborhood environmental determinants of obesity risk among children and adolescents.

Carmel Salhi was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in Global Health and Population at Harvard School of Public Health. Salhi’s general research area of interest is on understanding the role of displacement on the mental health of children and youth using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods.

Sabrina Selk was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard School of Public Health. Her research as a Richmond Fellow will focus on exploring the association between childhood abuse and adverse adulthood reproductive outcomes.

Amie Shei was awarded the Richmond Fellowship a fourth-year doctoral student in the Health Policy program at Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.  Her research examines the health impacts of Brazil’s Bolsa Família program, a program aimed at reducing poverty, encouraging healthy child development, and building human capital.

2008-09 Richmond Fellows

David Deming was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in Public Policy at Harvard Kennedy School. His research used the trajectory of student achievement over the life cycle to test hypotheses about the role of current knowledge in generating future achievement.

Deborah Stone was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fifth-year doctoral student in the department of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard School of Public Health. Stone’s general research area of interest was on understanding the role of child maltreatment on life course health/mental health trajectories.

Malavika Subramanyam was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a sixth-year doctoral student in the Department of Society, Human Development and Health at Harvard School of Public Health. Subramanyam majored in Social Epidemiology and conducted research on the influence of socioeconomic context in multiple domains and levels on the nutritional status of children under the age of five in India.

Adrienne Tierney was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a fourth-year doctoral student in the Human Development and Education program at Harvard Graduate School of Education. She conducted independent research on the neurocognitive development of children with autism as well as on developing sensitive neural assays that aid in early identification of autism in infants at risk for the disorder.

2007-08 Richmond Fellows

Allison Appleton was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a third-year student at the School of Public Health in the Department of Sociology, Human Development and Health. The Richmond Fellowship supported Appleton’s independent research on how early childhood social and emotional factors may influence later adult health.

Daniel Berry was awarded the Richmond Fellowship as a third-year doctoral student in the Department of Human Development and Psychology at the Graduate School of Education. Berry’s independent research used molecular genetics to assess gene-environment processes in children’s social and cognitive school-readiness.

Ivelina Borisova was awarded the Richmond Fellowship in the fourth year of her doctoral study at the Graduate School of Education in the department of Human Development and Psychology. The Richmond Fellowship funded her in-depth quantitative analyses of potential modifiable protective processes in the psycho-social adjustment of former child soldiers in Sierra Leone.