News Archive
November 30, 2023
In line with their commitment to community-led research, researchers from FPG are working with Durham’s El Centro Hispano on a kindergarten readiness project the nonprofit wished to expand. The FPG team designed a series of parent workshops to build foundational literacy skills for children aged six months to five years.
November 30, 2023
Each year, investigators, staff, and faculty fellows at FPG produce dozens of new publications including books and book chapters, journal articles, online learning publications, reports and policy briefs, technical assistance guides, and many other resources. Find a collection of the most recent publications.
November 14, 2023
More than 40 years ago, veteran FPG investigators Thelma Harms, PhD, and Richard M. Clifford, PhD, set out to understand what it is young children truly need to succeed. Their time-tested research and extensive observations led to the publication of the ECERS, a research-based instrument to assess the comprehensive quality of early childhood programs for children ages 3 through 5. Now a new team of authors will take up the mantle to produce ECERS-4.
November 9, 2023
After taking her first psychology class in high school, Desiree Murray, PhD, knew that a career as a psychologist was in her future. Before becoming a faculty fellow at FPG and senior research scientist at the UNC Center of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, Murray served as the associate director for research at FPG. Prior to that time, she spent nearly two decades in the Department of Psychiatry at Duke, with particular expertise in ADHD.
November 7, 2023
The UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute is pleased to announce its new External Advisory Board. This new board will serve in a consultative capacity providing expertise and counsel relevant to the Institute’s work, with a special focus on four strategic research initiatives. The board will also contribute to the Institute’s North Carolina state engagement efforts.
November 2, 2023
Developmental psychologist Shauna Cooper, PhD, a professor in UNC’s Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, is devoted to promoting well-being among young people and to facilitating racial equity. She serves as a faculty fellow at FPG and the director of UNC’s Strengths, Assets, and Resilience (StAR) Lab, which uses culturally relevant conceptual and theoretical frameworks to study positive development among African American adolescents and youth.
October 30, 2023
Two members of FPG, Interim Director Brian Boyd, PhD, and Senior Research Scientist Sam Odom, PhD, have been appointed to a 15-person committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which will conduct an independent analysis of the Department of Defense’s Comprehensive Autism Care Demonstration
October 24, 2023
FPG Faculty Fellow Simona Goldin, PhD, spent most of the 1990s working at New York City’s Coalition for the Homeless. That early career experience in policy, direct service, and supporting young people who lacked sufficient access to their social and civil right of a quality education sowed the seeds for her work going forward.
October 22, 2023
FPG is pleased to recognize both Program Assistant Barbara Lowery and Senior Research Scientist Ann Sam for their outstanding service to the Institute as this year's James J. Gallagher Award winners.
October 18, 2023
Noreen Yazejian, PhD, has been named interim associate director for research. In this role, Yazejian will support research initiatives across the Institute, bringing together research teams and helping to launch new projects. Yazejian brings nearly 30 years of experience at FPG to her new role, having started as a graduate student and then working her way up through investigator, scientist, and principal investigator.
October 11, 2023
Camille Catlett, MA, is a senior technical assistance specialist at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG). During her 20+ years at FPG, Catlett has led efforts in more than 30 states to incorporate explicit emphasis on children and families of diverse cultures, languages, abilities, and life circumstances in preservice and ongoing professional development efforts. As part of our FPG profile series, we recently spoke with Catlett to learn more about her work at FPG.
October 5, 2023
When FPG Faculty Fellow Kara Hume, PhD, fulfilled the community service requirement at her Phoenix high school by volunteering with a family who had a 7-year-old son with autism, she never imagined it would steer the course for her professional life. Learn about Hume's research.
October 3, 2023
The Abecedarian Award honors a Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) staff member's early career research that is scientifically rigorous and addresses an issue of significant social concern. We recently spoke with this year's winner, Hsiu-Wen Yang, PhD, to ask about her work at FPG and what the Abecedarian Award means to her.
September 29, 2023
Rebecca Hebner Roppolo, MPH, is an implementation specialist with the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) and lead of the Quality and Outcome Monitoring for Improvement Core for the Impact Center at FPG. As part of our FPG profile series, we recently spoke with Roppolo to learn more about her work here at the Institute.
September 26, 2023
For more than two decades, FPG's International Early Childhood Inclusion Institute has offered educational opportunities for those involved in the care and education of young children with disabilities in inclusive settings. During this year's event, organizers collaborated with FPG’s SCRIPT-NC to offer a new higher education track for faculty at two-year and four-year colleges.
September 19, 2023
While the research portfolio of UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) Faculty Fellow Brianne Tomaszewski, PhD, includes a wide range of projects, a focus on supporting the autonomy of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) is central to all her work.
September 14, 2023
Through a new $3.8-million, five-year NIH-funded project, FPG Faculty Fellow and UNC School of Medicine researcher Aysenil Belger, PhD, and FPG Senior Research Scientist Diana Fishbein, PhD, will examine neurological and psychological factors that lead some adolescents with anxiety symptoms to use controlled substances. The goal is to improve precision-based, targeted interventions for these teens.
September 12, 2023
The research and translation of empirical findings of FPG Faculty Fellow Dorothy Espelage, PhD—a leading expert on addressing teenage domestic violence, bullying, and student well-being—have resulted in a plethora of interventions, policies and laws protecting young people and making schools safer. Learn more about her work.
August 29, 2023
To disseminate findings regarding the pandemic’s impact on childcare capacity in North Carolina, NCDHHS COVID-19 Response: North Carolina Rapid COVID Response to Early Care and Education was recently published by the research-practice partnership of the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG) and the Department of Child Development and Early Education (DCDEE) of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
August 22, 2023
With a $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH), FPG Faculty Fellows Kara Hume, PhD, Brianne Tomaszewski, PhD, will lead research that aims to increase the physical activity of adults with intellectual disabilities in an effort to support their physical and mental health and promote healthy aging.
