Suniya S. Luthar
Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer of Authentic Connections, and Professor Emerita at Columbia University's Teachers College, USAAbout the author:
My programmatic research has involved vulnerability and resilience among various populations, with a current focus on two broad areas. The first involves youth at high-achieving schools, who show higher rates of serious adjustment difficulties relative to national norms. The second involves “Authentic Connections Groups”, a supportive, evidence-based intervention for caregiving adults under high stress, implemented in their everyday work and community settings.
What I want to achieve:
The goal is to use rigorous research on particular “at-risk” groups to inform their most pressing priorities for preventive interventions, and eventually, to implement these interventions in community settings (including schools and workplaces) in collaborations involving all major stakeholders.
Awards & accomplishments:
My early scientific contributions were recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA) in the form of a Dissertation Award in 1990 (Division 37; Child, Youth, & Family Services), and the Boyd McCandless Young Scientist Award in 1998 (Division 7; Developmental Psychology). In 2006, I was named Member of the New York Academy of Sciences, and named Fellow of the American Association for Psychological Science. In 2015, I was named Fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Divisions 7 and 37. I have served as chair of a grant peer review committee at the National Institutes of Health‘s Center for Scientific Review (2002-2004), was elected member of the Governing Council of SRCD (2006-2009), and chair of SRCD’s Asian Caucus (2008-2009). I served on the APA’s Committee on Socioeconomic Status (2007-2008), was elected to APA’s Council of Representatives (Division 7) Developmental Psychology; 2013-2016, and in 2017, was elected to be President Elect of APA’s Division 7 (2019). I served on the 2019 consensus study report of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, Vibrant & Health Kids, and in 2020, I received the John P. Hill Memorial Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence.