Who We Are

The Child Development Institute

Sarah Lawrence College
1 Mead Way
Bronxville, New York 10708-5999
Tel: (914) 395-2630
Fax: (914) 395-2631
E-mail: cdi@sarahlawrence.edu
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CDI Staff

Indhira Blackwood, Director
Indhira Blackwood received her MPA from Syracuse University. Areas of special interest include public health and children, youth health education programs, and cultural influences on child development.

Saundra Norton, Administrative Assistant
Saundra Norton received her MFA in poetry from Sarah Lawrence College in 2011. Her special interests include language acquisition in children and second language learners through poetry. Her work can be found in the textbooks Through the Eyes of a Child: An Introduction to Children's Literature and Language Arts Activities for Children.

Faculty Advisory Committee

Lorayne Kay Carbon, BA, SUNY Buffalo. MSEd, Bank Street College of Education. Director, SLC Early Childhood Center, 2003-present. Former early childhood teacher. Former adjunct professor, Westchester Community College. Workshop leader at seminars and conferences on early childhood education. Special areas of interest include social justice issues in the early childhood classroom and creating aesthetic learning environments for young children.

Jan Drucker, BA Radcliffe College; PhD New York University. Psychology Faculty (1972-present). Director of the Child Development Institute Empowering Teachers Program and Consultant to the Early Childhood Center at Sarah Lawrence College. She is a clinical and developmental psychologist with teaching and research interests in the areas of developmental and educational theory, child development and play and other imaginative activities in early childhood and their implications for later development.

Kim Ferguson, BA, Knox College. MA, PhD, Cornell University. Psychology (2007-present) & the Art of Teaching (2010-present) faculty. She is a developmental and cultural psychologist with special interests in sustainable, community based participatory action research, cultural-ecological approaches to infant and child development, children at risk (children in poverty, HIV/AIDS orphans, children in institutionalized care), health and cognitive development, development in African contexts, and the impact of the physical environment on child development. Author of articles and book chapters on African and American infants' language learning, categorization and face processing, the built environment and physical and mental health, and relationships between the quality of southern African orphan care contexts and child development and health.

Barbara Schecter, BA Sarah Lawrence College. MA, PhD, Teachers College Columbia University. Psychology faculty (1985-present). Director of the Child Development Graduate Program. She is a developmental psychologist with special interest in cultural psychology, language development, and theories of development. Author and researcher on Dewey's vision of development, and metaphoric thinking in children.

Sara Wilford, BA, Sarah Lawrence College. MSEd, EdM Bank Street College of Education. Director of the Art of Teaching Graduate Program. Psychology faculty (1982-present). Former elementary grades teacher. Teaches courses connecting child development principles to educational practice. Workshop leader for seminars and conferences on early childhood education and literacy development. Author of Nurturing Young Children's Disposition to Learn and What You Need to Know When Your Child is Learning to Read.

Consultants

Margery B. Franklin, BA, Swarthmore College. MA, PhD, Clark University. Former director of the Child Development Institute. Professor Emerita, SLC (psychology faculty from 1965-2002). Areas of interest include language development, psychology of art and play, educational theory and practice. Author of articles and book chapters on children's language, play, artistic development, developmental theory; co-editor of Development and the Arts: Critical Perspectives; Developmental Processes: Heinz Werner's Selected Writings; Symbolic Functioning in Childhood; and Child Language: A Reader. Fellow of the American Psychological Association and past president of the APA division, Society for Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.

Yvette Richardson, BA, Howard University. MA, Sarah Lawrence College. First coordinator of the Child Development Institute and founder of the Empowering Teachers Program. Former elementary teacher and lead teacher at SLC's Early Childhood Center as well as instructor in Purchase College's continuing education program. Numerous presentations at national, regional, and local forums. Program design and child development consultant to Kameleon Media's proposed flash animation, interactive, bilingual preschool program, NIKO and KIKA for PBS.

CDI Professional Advisory Board

Abigail Canfield, Chairperson, Writer

Miriam Arond, Director, The Good Housekeeping Research Institute; Former Editor-in-Chief of Child magazine

Camille Banks-Lee, Teacher, Writer and Co-founder of Daughters of the Nile; Former Executive Director, Mount Vernon Youth Bureau

William Crain, Professor of Psychology, The City College of the City University of NY

Margery B. Franklin, CDI Consultant; Professor Emerita, Sarah Lawrence College

LaRuth Gray, Scholar-in-Residence, New York University

Rachel Grob, Scholar in Residence and Director of National Initiatives at the Center for Patient Partnerships, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Sheila Hanna, Curriculum Chair, Early Childhood Program, Westchester Community College

Roger Hart, Co-Director, Children's Environments Research Group, City University of New York Graduate Center

Mary Hebron, Associate Director, Art of Teaching Graduate Program, Sarah Lawrence College

Monika Heimbold, Former Social Worker

Carol Hillman, Early Childhood Education and Author

Barbara Holland, President, Board of Directors, The Lois Bronz Children’s Center (White Plains, NY); Former member, White Plains Board of Education

Sarah Phillips Mathews, Lead Teacher, Sarah Lawrence College Early Childhood Center

Edward Miller, Consultant, Senior Researcher, Alliance for Childhood

Marjorie Miller, Former Social Worker

David Netto, Architect

Yvette Richardson, CDI Consultant; Founder of Empowering Teachers Program

Calvert Schlick, Educational Consultant, Former Assistant Superintendent (Mamaroneck, NY Public Schools)

Karen Tarnow, Faculty, Early Childhood Program, Westchester Community College and Bank Street College of Education

Alison Van Dyk, Psychotherapist—Play Therapy; Director, St. Luke’s Early Child Education Program

Clarice Dibble Walker, Professor Emerita, Howard University School of Social Work