J. Lawrence Aber

J. Lawrence Aber is Director of the National Center for Children in Poverty and Professor of Public Health at the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. The mission of NCCP is to identify and promote strategies that reduce the number of young children living in poverty in the United States and that improve the life chances of the millions of children under age six who are growing up poor.

After graduating from Harvard College in 1973, Dr. Aber spent four years working in Massachusetts State government, first on civil rights issues in the Republican administration of Governor Frank Sargent and then working on child and family policy issues in the Democratic administration of Governor Michael Dukakis. He also spent four years working in direct service programs for children and youth at risk both in alternative community-based settings and traditional hospital and school-based settings.

Since completing his Ph.D. in Clinical Developmental Psychology at Yale University in 1982, Dr. Aber has served on the faculties of Barnard College and Columbia University where he received tenure in 1989. In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate students in clinical and developmental psychology and child and family policy, Dr. Aber directed the Barnard College Center for Toddler Development, co-directed the Columbia University Project on Children and War and co-founded the Columbia Institute for Child and Family Policy. He has continued to consult with community-based programs for children, youth and families as well as local, state and federal agencies and UNICEF on program and policy issues ranging from childcare and child abuse to youth violence and community development.

While at Columbia University, Dr. Aber has conducted both basic and applied research studies relevant to child and family policy. His basic research focuses on the social, emotional, behavioral and cognitive development of children and youth at risk due to family and neighborhood poverty, exposure to violence, abuse/neglect, and parental psychopathology. His applied research focuses on rigorous process and outcome evaluations of innovative programs and policies for children and families at risk including welfare-to-work programs, comprehensive service programs and violence prevention programs.

Dr. Aber is frequently invited to testify before Congress and state legislatures, to provide information to the media and to consult to foundations and governments on new child and family initiatives. In recognition for his contributions to program and policy-relevant research, Dr. Aber has received such awards as a William T. Grant Faculty Scholar Award (1987-1992), a Spencer Fellowship (1986-1987) and a Visiting Scholar Award at the Russell Sage Foundation (1991-1992).