P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale

P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale is Professor Emerita of Human Development and Social Policy in the School of Education and Social Policy and Faculty Fellow Emerita at the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University. She is an expert on the interface between research and social policy for children and families and currently co-directs the Northwestern Two-Generation Research Initiative (NU2Gen). This research program addresses the influence of two-generation education interventions on the psychological health, educational attainment, economic well-being, and healthy functioning of families, children, youth, and adults. Chase-Lansdale was the Frances Willard Professor of Human Development and Social Policy, Vice Provost for Academics, and Associate Provost for Faculty from 2013-2020. In 2020, the Provost established the P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale Undergraduate Summer Research Grant in Social Policy for Children and Families, awarded annually to a student in honor of Chase-Lansdale’s service to the university. Chase-Lansdale is a former American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)/Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Congressional Science Fellow, as well as the first developmental psychologist to be tenured in a public policy school in the United States. She was the founding director for seven years of Cells to Society (C2S): The Center on Social Disparities and Health at Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research. Chase-Lansdale specializes in multidisciplinary scholarship on social issues and how they affect families and the development of children and youth. Much of her work addresses family and program strengths that lead to children’s positive social and educational outcomes in the context of economic hardship. Specific topics include two-generation education interventions for parents and children, early childhood education, college promise programs, workforce training, family well-being, parent-child relationships, mothers’ employment, and immigration. Chase-Lansdale is a fellow in the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science. She is the recipient of the Society for Research on Adolescence (SRA) Social Policy Award as well as the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Award for Distinguished Contributions to Public Policy for Children. In addition, Chase-Lansdale was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Child Development to mentor scholars of color at all levels (undergraduate, predoctoral, and postdoctoral students). Chase-Lansdale currently serves as Vice Chair of the Harvard University Board of Overseers. She was also a member of inaugural cohort (2012) of the Aspen Institute’s Ascend Fellowship, designed to bring innovative leaders together to promote a two-generation approach in policy, practice, research, and philanthropy. She served on the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholars Program, and she chaired the NIH Study Section on Social Sciences and Population Studies as well as the Visiting Committee of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Chase-Lansdale received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Harvard University and Radcliffe College in 1974, her PhD in Developmental Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1981, and she completed the Advanced Management program at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management in 2016.