The Child Development Research Group at SCU is made up of three collaborating labs led by faculty in the Psychology Department at Santa Clara University. See below for a little bit about each of us:

Kirsten Read, PhD (kread@scu.edu) – I have been at SCU since 2010 teaching courses in Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Psycholinguistics, Statistics and Research Methods. My doctoral degree was in Psychology and Linguistics from Stanford. My research interests focus on language learning and development in young children, and the rich ways in which language learning occurs  through children’s simple everyday experiences. I’m also a mom of three energetic language learners, who (no surprise) love to read and play!

Lisa Whitfield, PhD (lwhitfield@scu.edu)- I have been teaching courses and engaging undergraduates in research in child and adolescent development since I earned my Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology in 1996 from Arizona State University. After beginning my career at North Central College, a small liberal arts college outside of Chicago, I arrived at SCU in 2008 and have been loving the Bay Area. In the past few years, I’ve become interested in what kinds of school environments influence children’s ability to learn. Specifically, my students and I have been testing the theory that exposure to nature might be able to enhance attention and memory in children. I am also a parent of a 17-year-old and a 14-year-old. They keep our whole family busy with Scouting, marching band, and providing lots of examples of adolescent development for my classes!

Jui Bhagwat, PhD (jbhagwat@scu.edu) – I have been at SCU since 2013 after getting my PhD in Human Development from Cornell University.  I enjoy teaching classes in Developmental Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Research Methods to our motivated undergraduates, and I especially love the energy and enthusiasm of the (mostly) freshmen when I teach Introductory Psychology. In the past, I have conducted research on language development and spatial understanding in infants and toddlers.  Growing up in India, I learned to speak three languages, and I have become more interested in multilingualism in young children and how it might impact their understanding of the world. For example, one of our ongoing studies asks  if bilingual experience makes children more flexible in how they think about the inheritance of abilities and traits. I am also a mom of two kids, aged 6 and 3, who occasionally defy the laws of Developmental Psychology!