Ellen Pinderhughes

Ellen Pinderhughes, Principal Investigator and Associate Professor in the Eliot-Pearson Dept. of Child Development at Tufts University, has over 20 years of experience in the adoption arena as a clinician and researcher. Most of her work has focused on the adjustment of children and families after older children are placed for adoption. One of her goals is to help prospective adoptive parents and the field to understand better the experiences of adoptive children and families who are united through various circumstances. For more information on her work in adoption and other areas, click here.

Mona Abo-Zena

Mona is a doctoral student in the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University. Her primary research interests include religious and identity development, family and community contexts, and immigrant and other multicultural individuals and communities. In addition to her work as a research assistant with the ADP, Mona works as a research assistant on the John Templeton Foundation study of religion and positive youth development conducted by the Institute for Applied Research in Youth Development at Tufts University. Mona earned her B.A. in sociology from the University of Chicago and her Ed.M. from Harvard University. She has over 10 years of teaching and administrative experience in public and Islamic schools, and serves on several boards that serve children and families.

Neda Bebiroglu

Neda Bebiroglu is a second year doctoral student studying at the Eliot-Pearson School of Child Development at Tufts University. She graduated from Bogazici University, Istanbul with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology. She completed her Master's degree in Applied Psychology at New York University. For the last five years, she has been working on different projects related to children's development and parenting. At Eliot-Pearson Neda is looking forward to exploring the effects of culture, and ethnicity on children's identity development and family relationships.

Kate Golden

Kate Golden holds a B.A. from Wellesley College and an M.A. in the joint degree program between the Eliot Pearson Department of Child Development and the Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning Department. Her thesis is entitled, 'Child Welfare and Infant Abandonment Policy: The Massachusetts' Safe Haven Law. Kate's background includes direct service work with young adults in the foster care system as well as program administration with the parent support network, Adoptive Families Together, Inc. Recent areas of focus include trans-racial, trans-cultural adoption and evaluating positive youth development services for at risk (immigrant) youth. Upon completion of her thesis, she currently holds a position in research with a focus on advocacy for children and families.

Yibing Li

Yibing is a third year MA/PhD student at Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development, she has diverse interests, including the developmental processes of youth schooling; influences of identity and emotional development on youth academic and psycho-social well-being; methodological issues in quantitative and qualitative research; and promoting positive development among disadvantaged youth.

Iris Chin Ponte

Iris Ponte is a graduate of Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts and is currently a PhD Candidate in Child Development at Tufts University. As a Watson Scholar she conducted extensive research in preschools in the United Kingdom, Taiwan, China, Japan and Newfoundland. Iris has also worked for Sesame Street Research at the Children's Television Workshop in New York. She is also published in the area of children and technology. Currently a Fulbright Scholar, Iris is continuing her research into preschools and adoption in China. Visit her website.

Julia Rosen

Julia is a senior at Tufts majoring in child development. When she graduates in May, Julia plans to work in the social services field, specifically working with children and their families in a case management position. Julia is interested in working with children who were adopted or who are in foster care and hopes this research will give her insight into the lives of some of these children.

Marissa Rossi

Marissa Rossi transferred to Tufts as a junior from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs. Now a senior majoring in Clinical Psychology with a minor in Women's Studies she hopes to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology. Marissa is also interested in learning more about the psychological development of girls and the role societal messages play in shaping self perception.

Nicole Shapiro

Nicole Shapiro is a second year Master's student in Applied Child Development at Tufts University. She graduated with a B.A. from Tufts in May 2006. She has been a research assistant in the Pediatric and Adolescent Health Research Center at New England Medical Center and has also had experience working with adolescents in a residential setting, and children with special needs in a school in London. In addition to adoption and identity development, her interests include parent-child attachment relationships and clinical aspects of family and child development. She will be beginning a year long internship at Academy North, a child counseling program, in September.

Barbara Sieck

Barbara Sieck received her BA from Amherst College with a degree in Women's and Gender Studies. She is currently an Admissions Counselor in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Tufts University and plans to pursue a graduate degree in clinical psychology.

Julie Sloane

Julie Sloane is a senior at Tufts majoring in child development. Her coursework thus far has covered cognitive and social development and family relations. Julie spent the semester of Spring 2007 studying in Paris and had a wonderful experience but is excited to be back working with the Adoption and Development Project Team. Julie will graduate from her undergraduate program in May 2008.

Miranda Theodore

Miranda is an undergraduate at Tufts majoring in Child Development. In addition to her interest in language and language disorders in the developing child, Miranda is also especially interested in the impact of culture on development as well as cross-cultural parenting. She has focused on the intellectual and social development of Chinese immigrant children in the United States, and is intending on a senior honors thesis on bilingualism. Miranda is spending the semester in Paris and will be back in the fall of 2007. She will graduate from Tufts in May 2008.

Maryna Vashchenko

Maryna is a doctoral student at Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development at Tufts University and a native of Ukraine. Since beginning her graduate education at Boston University as a Fulbright scholar in 2003, she has worked in several research and applied settings in both in America and Ukraine, learning about ways to maximize the potential of children at-risk to develop positively. Maryna is interested in caregiving relationships, individual development as embedded in context, risk and protective factors, interventions that promote positive development despite adversity, as well as adoption research.

As a recipient of the Tisch Active Citizen 2007 Summer Program Award, Maryna worked with students of a local university in Ukraine to establish a community program called The Big Sister Orphanage Program. The aim of the program was to enhance socio-emotional development of children by bringing women from the community to spend several hours a day with individual children, providing consistent, nurturing and sensitive interaction. During the summer of 2007 she also collected survey and observational data in three orphanages in Ukraine, which describe the knowledge, beliefs and practices of orphanage caregivers.