CCF director Dr. Mandy Maguire was recently recognized at the University's investiture ceremony as Fellow of the Robinson Family Professorship. Endowed chairs and professorships are the highest academic award the University can bestow on a faculty member. The endowments, funded through philanthropic donations, fund initiatives that advance research and instructional programs. The Robinson Family Professorship supports the research and scholarly activities of the director of the Center for Children and Families. We were grateful to have members of the Robinson family join us for this investiture. Congratulations Dr. Maguire! Read more...

The Center for Children and Families was thrilled to learn that the National Science Foundation (NSF) has recommended to continue our Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program site for another 3 years! NSF REU's are prestigious and highly competitive. CCF's REU teaches students about culturally responsive developmental science through a year-long paid internship for Dallas area undergraduate and community college students. During their time in the REU, students develop research skills through hands-on experience with children and families, participate in guided professional development, and more! Applications are due May 1st! More information here.

Thank you to all who supported the Center for Children and Families, and many other University programs, on Comets Giving Days! CCF raised $8,413 from 41 gifts! We successfully met both of our giving challenges thanks to our incredible friends, advisory council, alumni, students, faculty, and staff. Thank you for being a part of the Comets Giving Days tradition and going for the gold with CCF!

CCF Forum panelist Dr. Cynthia Frosch recently published an article in Nurture Connection on the benefits of parent-infant interactions with and without the use of toys. In a study, Dr. Frosch found that mothers' non-toy bids for interaction resulted in significantly longer shared emotional experiences than bids using a toy. The results suggest that when building dyadic-level relational health centered on shared positive affect and engagement with each other as relational partners, non-toy play during infancy may be particularly valuable. Read more here.

I'm excited to have brought back our annual forum after five years and loved bringing together researchers, students, and practitioners for a day of learning and collaborating, all while honoring Dr. Margaret T. Owen. I've been visiting lots of UTD classrooms over the past month, talking with students about the amazing training opportunities CCF provides in developmental science and outreach, and hope to see growing student participation in the coming semesters. We're also planning to grow collaborative research with our faculty and are excited to introduce you to our new post doc next month who will help facilitate this. Stay tuned!

-Mandy Maguire, PhD, Fellow, Robinson Family Professor, Director, Center for Children and Families, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences