Susan Levine, Ph.D

Stella M. Rowley  Professor of Psychology

Susan Levine received her B.A. with honors from Simmons College in 1972, majoring in Psychology, Mathematics and Education, and her Ph.D. in Psychology from M.I.T. in 1976. She joined the faculty at the University of Chicago that year. 

Professor Levine serves as the chair for the Department of Psychology as well as for the Developmental Psychology program at the university. She also chairs the department’s Curriculum Committee, is a member of the Committee on Early Childhood Mathematics and the Committee on Education and serves on the board of Chapin Hall.  In addition, Professor Levine is a consultant on early math for the PBS program “Sesame Street.”  Dr. Levine's research examines how variations in home and school input affect the cognitive development of children, including language, spatial and mathematical skills. She also examines plasticity of language and cognitive skills following early brain injury.

Janellen Huttenlocher, Ph.D

William S. Gray Professor of Psychology, Emerita

Janellen Huttenlocher is the William S. Gray Professor of Psychology, Emerita at the University of Chicago. She received the 2002 G. Stanley Hall Award for Lifetime Achievement in Developmental Psychology from the American Psychological Association. Professor Huttenlocher received her B.A. at the University of Buffalo, and her Ph.D. at Harvard University. She has been teaching at the University of Chicago since 1974.  Professor Huttenlocher retired in 2009, but continues to actively participate in the research of the Center.

Professor Huttenlocher is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Psychonomic Society, and the Society for Research in Child Development.  She has served on the Behavioral Development Study Section of the National Institute of Child Health and Development and on the National Science Foundation Panel on Memory and Cognition.  Professor Huttenlocher conducts research on various aspects of cognitive development: quantitative development, the development of spatial understanding, and the development of language. She is particularly interested in the role of the child's environment in the development of cognitive skills

Katherine Kinzler, Ph.D

Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Psychology

Katherine Kinzler is a new faculty member at the Center for Early Childhood Research! Professor Kinzler received her B.A. in Cognitive Science from Yale College, and received her Ph.D in 2008 from Harvard University in Developmental Psychology.

Professor Kinzler’s research investigates the development of social cognition. In particular she explores the ways in which infants and children attend to the language and accent with which others speak as a marker of group membership.

Amanda Woodward, Ph.D

William S. Gray Professor of Psychology

Amanda Woodward is the William S. Gray Professor of Psychology

at the University of Chicago and was a founding member of the

Center for Early Childhood Research. She completed her under-

graduate degree at Swarthmore College in 1987 and her doctoral

degree at Stanford University in 1992.  She took her first faculty

position at the University of Chicago in 1993.  In 2005 she left

Chicago to become Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland.  In 2010, Professor Woodward returned to the University of Chicago.

Professor Woodward has served as an Associate Editor for the APA journals Developmental Psychology and Psychological Bulletin, and on the editorial boards of a number of journals including Language Learning and Development and Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.  She has served on the National Institutes of Health Cognition and Perception Review Panel and the Canada Research Chairs College of Reviewers. She is currently on the Board of Directors of the Cognitive Development Society and the Executive Board of the International Society on Infant Studies.  Her research investigates infant social cognition and early language development.