Dante Cicchetti, professor of psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics at the University of Rochester, has been named the inaugural Shirley Cox Kearns Professor of Psychology. The new professorship honors the wife of David Kearns, former chairman of the University's Board of Trustees and former CEO of Xerox Corporation.
Cicchetti's research and writing on attachment, child maltreatment, and maternal depression are considered groundbreaking in the field of psychology. His theoretical contributions as well as his devotion to child advocacy have earned him many honors, including the Nicholas Hobbs Award and the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Research in Clinical Child Psychology from the American Psychological Association.
Mt. Hope Family Center was founded in 1979 and Cicchetti has been its director since 1985. The staff at Mt. Hope conducts research in the area of developmental psychopathology and provides intervention directed toward fostering mental health in children, preventing child abuse and neglect, and promoting positive relationships between parents and their children.
A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh in biology and psychology, Cicchetti received his doctorate from the University of Minnesota in clinical psychology and child development.
The Rochester psychologist also is founder and editor of Development and Psychopathology, a scholarly journal that is ranked second with regard to impact in its field. He also co-edited Developmental Psychopathology with Donald Cohen of Harvard University, which has become the standard reference manual in the field of developmental psychopathology.