Fellows: 2003-2004

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About the Fellows
The following brief summaries highlight the extraordinary talent of this year’s Executive and Congressional Fellows. For further interest in the fellowship program, please contact the Office for Policy and Communications at abrowning@srcd.org.  

Dr. Liz Albro
As an Executive Branch Fellow, Dr. Liz Albro will be applying her recent experience as an Assistant Professor at Wheaton College to the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. With a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago, Dr. Albro has concentrated on children’s narrative recall of events, with an extended interest in social development in classrooms and at school. As a professor, Dr. Albro has also integrated policy issues into her teaching and research, discussing the impact of government policies and how policies influence development.

Dr. Stephanie Curenton
With research interests in working with low-income and minority children, Dr. Curenton has worked on research investigating children's language, social-cognitive, and literacy development in sociocultural contexts. With a Ph.D. in Developmental and Community Psychology from the University of Virginia, Dr. Curenton will pursue her interest in children's development and well-being within early care and education settings at the Administration for Children and Families in the Child Care Bureau.

Dr. Tamara Haegerich
With a specific interest in youth welfare and social justice, Dr. Tamara Haegerich has worked extensively with perceptions surrounding juvenile offenders and child witnesses. She will spend the next year working with the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Recently she has been working as the Project Director with the Chicago Children's Advocacy Center Program Evaluation. Dr. Haegerich has a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Social Psychology, and a minor in Psychology and Law.

Dr. Jenelle Krishnamoorthy
With research interests in behavioral and preventive medicine, Dr. Krishnamoorthy has worked on research examining pediatric obesity and physical activity levels. Dr. Krishnamoorthy received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she specialized in children. She comes from Brown Medical School where she completed her Clinical Internship and Postdoctoral fellowship. At Brown she was part of The Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine and the Department of Child and Family Psychiatry where she investigated obesity and tobacco issues and clinically worked with kids and families that had chronic illnesses. As the Congressional Fellow, Dr. Krishnamoorthy joins Senator Harkin’s office where she will be working on legislation pertaining to children’s health and nutrition.

Dr. Valerie Maholmes
Dr. Maholmes holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from Howard University and has recently completed a sixth year program with advanced study in school psychology concentrating in psychometrics. She comes from the Yale University Child Study Center where she was the Director of Research and Policy for the Comer School Development Program and the Irving B. Harris Assistant Professor of Child Psychiatry—an endowed professorial chair for social policy. Dr. Maholmes will be spending her fellowship year at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the Office of Extramural Policy where she will be learning in greater depth the connections between research, policy and practice.

Dr. Ivelisse Martinez-Beck
Dr. Martinez-Beck continues her SRCD Executive Branch Fellowship with a third term at the Administration for Children and Families, DHHS. She will continue to work in the Child Care Bureau. Dr. Martinez-Beck has a Ph.D. in Psychology as well as a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Michigan, where prior to her Fellowship, she was involved in the study of developmental psycholinguistics.

Dr. Jonathan C. Miles
Dr. Miles received his Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis on child and family issues. While at ASU, Dr. Miles worked at the Prevention Research Center where he helped develop and evaluate programs designed to enhance children’s positive functioning in the face of stressful life experiences. He comes most recently from a community mental health internship at the Center for Behavioral Health, in Bloomington, IN, where he provided clinical inpatient and outpatient services with children and adolescents. As an Executive Branch fellow, Dr. Miles works on Head Start research at the Administration for Children and Families in the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.

Dr. Helen Raikes
Dr. Raikes was a two-term SRCD Visiting Scholar and in 2003-3004 will be SRCD Consultant to the Office of Research, Planning and Evaluation, Administration on Children and Families, providing oversight for the Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Project, data archiving and other research projects pertaining to infants and toddlers. She has a Ph.D. from Iowa State University and resides in Lincoln, NE, where her work at The Gallup Organization and the University of Nebraska has focused on child care, infants and toddlers and indicators of child well-being.

Dr. Cassandra Simmel
Dr. Cassandra Simmel will continue her Executive Branch fellowship for a third year at the Administration for Children and Families, on the Child Outcomes Research and Evaluation (CORE) team at the Office of Planning Research and Evaluation. Prior to the fellowship, her research and clinical background focused on issues pertaining to child welfare and child maltreatment; in 2001, Dr. Simmel received her Ph.D. in Social Welfare from the University of California, Berkeley. In her placement, her work will continue to focus on research and evaluation studies related to youth in foster care ("Multi-site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs" & "The Termination of Parental Rights" with the Children's Bureau and the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect). In addition, she will continue to oversee an exploratory study of Migrant Head Start programs (with the Migrant Head Start Branch).

Dr. Ann Marie White
Ann Marie White is currently placed in the Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research in the Office of the Director of the NIH. She recently earned her doctorate in Human Development and Psychology at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education. Dr. White joins the NIH after her year as a SRCD Congressional Fellow to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families, where she worked on legislation pertaining to families and education such as Head Start, among other topics.

Back Row: Ann Marie White, Valerie Maholmes, Jonathan Miles, Jenelle Krishnamoorthy, Liz Albro Middle: Stephanie Curenton, Tamara Haegerich Front: Cassandra Simmel, Ivelisse Martinez-Beck Missing: Helen Raikes