Our People

Research Scientists

Dr. Ann Elizabeth Cami (aec2007@columbia.edu) is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College. She teaches courses in child development, infant development, and socialization and personality development in childhood. She also leads a research practicum designed to consider the diverse ways in which the media influences children's development. Her research interests include examining contexts of young children's social development, analyzing parent/child interactions, and exploring the use of media in educating learners of all ages. Dr. Cami is working with Professor Herb Ginsburg and the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning in considering future educational applications of the Video Interactions for Teaching and Learning System. At NCCF, she is currently collaborating with The Appleseed Foundation to examine the impact that No Child Left Behind legislation is having on parent involvement in children's education (see NCLB's Effect on Parental Involvement in School: An Evaluation). Dr. Cami earned her Ed.D. in Human Development and Ed.M. in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her B.A. in Social Anthropology from Harvard College.

Dr. Richard P. Fox (rpf5@columbia.edu) is the data analyst at the National Center for Children and Families. He is involved in organizing, managing, and analyzing data from various studies involving child and adolescent behavior. He also works with Dr. Michelle Warren at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital on medical studies dealing with development. He has a degree in General-Experimental Psychology, specializing in learning and experimental design, from the City University of New York (CUNY). He has taught courses in psychology at Brooklyn College, Hunter College, and Fordham University.

Selected Publications

Dr. Margo Gardner (gardner@tc.columbia.edu), a Research Scientist at NCCF, earned her doctoral degree in developmental psychology at Temple University, and her B.A. in psychology at Duquesne University. Her past research has focused on risk-taking among adolescents and the development of juvenile offending. Her current research interests include the roles of peer, parent, and community processes in adolescent social development. Additional interests include studying factors that facilitate and prevent the development of problem/risk behavior among both normal and at-risk youth. Dr. Gardner works on several NCCF research studies, including the After School Time project, and Children's Exposure to Violence Over Space and Time.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Dr. Annie Georges (ag969@columbia.edu) is a Senior Research Scientist at NCCF. Dr. Georges' research focuses on the determinants of academic achievement, particularly the interaction of family, school and classroom and their impact on educational achievement. She also examines the processes through which educational reform, school finance and child care policies impact academic trajectory. Dr. Georges's current project, “Mathematics Proficiencies in Elementary School: Effects of Family, School and Policy,” funded by the National Science Foundation program in Research on Learning and Education, examines how family economic circumstances, including income and parental educational investments, in the early stages of a child's life affect the child's academic success. The project also investigates how policy context, such as school finance and policy intended to influence classroom instructional practices, affect the learning environment and consequently the child's academic trajectory. The goal of this research is to identify how the linkages at different stages of the educational system (the family, the school and classroom) affect children's academic achievement. Read more about her research project here.

She received her Doctorate in Education and Economics from The Pennsylvania State University, where her research focused on education and poverty among women. She holds a Master's Degree from New York University and a Bachelor's Degree from SUNY College at New Paltz, both in economics. Prior to joining the National Center for Children and Families, Dr. Georges was an associate research scientist at the National Center for Children in Poverty at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, where she conducted research on early care and learning. She previously conducted research for the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering and the New York City Rent Guidelines Board.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Dr. Kimberly Howard (howard@tc.edu) is a Research Scientist at NCCF and a NICHD Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education in the Department of Human Development at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she recently taught an Empirical Research Methods course. Dr. Howard earned both her Ph.D. and M.A. in developmental psychology from the University of Notre Dame and her B.A. in psychology and sociology at Bethel College , Indiana . Her past research has focused on the role of father involvement in child and adolescent development and well-being. At NCCF, she is continuing this line of research, examining characteristics of fathers' parenting that promote optimal child development. Her work uses data from multiple projects including the Notre Dame Fathers' Project, a longitudinal study of fathers that she started during graduate school. Dr. Howard also works on two NCCF research studies: the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study and the Early Head Start Father Studies.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Dr. Pamela Kato Klebanov (pklebano@princeton.edu) received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Princeton University in 1989. Dr. Klebanov is currently a Research Scientist at the National Center for Children and Families, and an affiliate of the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing at Princeton University.

Selected Publications

Dr. Anne Martin (arm53@columbia.edu), Coordinator at the National Center for Children and Families, is a Research Scientist working on several projects within the organization. Dr. Martin was awarded her Doctoral Degree in Public Health with distinction from Columbia University's School of Public Health, where she also received her M.P.H. She received her B.A. from Oberlin College in 1990. Since then, she has done research on early intervention for low birth weight infants, adolescent pregnancy, the early development of the children and grandchildren of adolescent childbearers, children's home environment, Medicaid funding for infants and pregnant women, pediatric/adolescent HIV, and abuse in adolescent dating relationships. At NCCF, she is studying maternal and paternal parenting behaviors and young children's development. Her project work includes the Infant Health and Development Program, Yonkers Family and Community Project, and the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods. She is also involved in the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project Grade 5 Follow-Up Study.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Dr. Jodie Roth-Herbst (jr328@columbia.edu) is a Research Scientist at the National Center for Children and Families. Dr. Roth graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in psychology, received her A.M. in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan, and completed her Ph.D. in 1995, also at the University of Michigan, through the Combined Program in Education and Psychology. She was a summer fellow in Putting Children First, an internship program in child and family policy. Her research centers on understanding how programs and institutions affect adolescents' development. She is currently directing the After-School Time project, with funding from the William T. Grant Foundation. The project focuses on the impact of a variety of after-school activities on adolescent development.

Selected Publications and Presentations

Miriam Westheimer, Ed.D. (westheimer@tc.columbia.edu) received her doctorate from Teachers College in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching. Her early research focused on the use of ethnographic and other qualitative methods to gain an in-depth understanding of the experience of high school dropouts. Dr. Westheimer has taught graduate courses in curriculum development, supervision, early childhood, parenting and intervention programs at Teachers College, Bank Street College of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The Jewish Theological Seminary. She has consulted on program development and evaluation for the Carnegie Corporation, Family Support America , The Finance Project and Families and Work Institute. Dr. Westheimer was the founding Executive Director of a home-based, family-focused early childhood education program called HIPPY (Home Instruction for Parents and Preschool Youngsters). She is currently the director of the international network of HIPPY programs operating in eight countries. Her most recent publication is a compilation and synthesis of a decade of research on HIPPY programs worldwide.

At NCCF, she is the Project Manager for a NYC grant to pilot a comprehensive performance measurement system that will eventually be utilized to set uniform quality standards for all early care and education programs city-wide. Dr. Westheimer also serves on the advisory boards of the TC Record, the Gesell Institute, Hebrew University 's Research Institute for Innovation in Education, and the Jewish Childhood Education Initiative.

Selected Publications