MaryCatherine Arbour, M.D., M.P.H., a Senior Research Associate at the Center on the Developing Child, is also Associate Physician for Research at the Division of Global Health Equity of Brigham and Women's Hospital and a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She performs global health research aimed at designing and evaluating interdisciplinary, community-based interventions in resource-poor settings with the goal of reducing inequities around the world. She directs the health component of Un Buen Comienzo, a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a preschool health and education intervention in Santiago, Chile. MaryCatherine holds a B.A. in biological anthropology from Swarthmore College, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and an M.P.H. from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Susan Nall Bales, Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, is president of the nonprofit FrameWorks Institute, which conducts communications research on social issues. Her work with scholars from the social and cognitive sciences has led to the development of Strategic Frame Analysis™, a multi-method, multi-disciplinary approach to understanding public thinking. She has commissioned, written, and published numerous reports on how Americans view diverse issues such as child development, the environment, and foreign policy. A veteran communications strategist and issues campaigner, she has more than 30 years of experience researching, designing, implementing, and critiquing campaigns on social issues. She has served as a lecturer at Pitzer College and as a visiting scholar at The Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles, she earned an M.A. in literature and language from Middlebury College.

Philip A. Fisher, Ph.D., a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, is also the science director of the National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs, an initiative of the Center. He is a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon. He is also a senior scientist at the Oregon Social Learning Center. Phil’s work on children in foster care and the child welfare system includes (a) basic research characterizing the effects of early stress on neurobiological systems such as the HPA axis and areas of the prefrontal cortex involved in executive functioning; (b) the development of preventive interventions, including the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care Program for Preschoolers (MTFC-P) and the Kids in Transition to School Program (KITS); and (c) the dissemination of evidence-based practice in community settings. His work has been funded by a number of institutes of the National Institutes of Health, including NIDA, NIMH, and NICHD, as well as the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. He serves on a number of national advisory groups related to prevention science and community based research. His intervention programs are being implemented at sites throughout the United States and Europe. Phil is the recipient of the 2012 Society for Prevention Research Translational Science Award.

Nathaniel Foote, J.D, M.B.A., a Senior Fellow at the Center, is a director of the TruePoint Center for Higher Ambition Leadership. A co-author of the recent book, Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value, he has helped clients in a wide range of settings to build more effective institutions that achieve objectives for accelerated growth, increased innovation, and improved performance for all stakeholders. Since 2009, Nathaniel has worked closely with the Center on the Developing Child as part of the Frontiers of Innovation Initiative. Nathaniel was with McKinsey & Company for 19 years, where he was a partner and leader of McKinsey’s Organization Design practice, and had global responsibility for the effectiveness of McKinsey’s communities of practice. He received an M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School, where he was a Baker Scholar, and a J.D. degree from Harvard Law School, magna cum laude. He attended the University of Cambridge as the Fiske Scholar, after receiving his B.A. degree from Harvard.

Pat Levitt, Ph.D., a Senior Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child, is also the science director of the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, an initiative of the Center. He is Provost Professor of Neuroscience, Psychiatry & Pharmacy and Director of the Neuroscience Graduate Program at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. His research focuses on the development of brain architecture that controls learning and emotional and social behavior in children. Pat is involved in both clinical genetics and basic research studies that have a long-term goal of understanding the biological basis of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as autism and schizophrenia, and how genes and the environment (prenatal or early postnatal) together influence typical and atypical development. Pat received his undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, his Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego, and he completed a postdoctoral fellowship in neuroscience at Yale University. 

Diana Leyva, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child and at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research focuses on parenting and literacy in early childhood. She is the Project Director of Un Buen Comienzo, an experimental study of professional development in early childhood education in Chile, and is involved in the Tulsa Children’s Project. She earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from Clark University and has taught at Harvard University, Williams College, and Mount Holyoke College.

James M. Radner, M.Phil., a Senior Fellow at the Center, is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy & Governance at the University of Toronto (Canada), where he is the executive director and co-founder of The Boreal Institute for Civil Society. He is also a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, where he directs the International Program on Social Entrepreneurship and Civil Society. Since 2009, Jamie has worked closely with the Center on the Developing Child as part of the Frontiers of Innovation Initiative. His teaching and action research concern issues of domestic and international social and economic development, and uses of quantitative and qualitative tools to improve the effectiveness of social institutions. He has wide experience in civil society and development, including positions at community health, education, and economic development organizations, as well as program and management work at Amnesty International U.S.A., and consulting assignments for governments, aid institutions, businesses, and civic organizations. Previously, Jamie was a senior advisor at Hogan & Hartson LLP in Washington, DC. He earned a B.A. from Harvard University, an M.Phil. from the University of Cambridge, and completed the P.M.D. at Harvard Business School.

Natalie Slopen, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center on the Developing Child. She recently completed her doctorate in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard School of Public Health. Her research focuses on disparities in health, and how early life conditions influence mental and physical health over the life course. As a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center, Natalie will engage in research on the biological and psychological effects of early stress, and the mechanisms by which these experiences are embedded to create long-term mental and physical health risks. The long-term goal of this work is to identify processes and conditions that can be targeted by interventions in order to reduce health disparities and promote child health.