Research Group Executive Committee
Sarah L. Friedman, Ph.D.
Chair
Dr. Sarah L. Friedman is a developmental psychologist with MA degree from Cornell University, Ph.D. from the George Washington University and post-doctoral training at the National Institute of Mental Health. She held positions at the National Institutes of Health (NIMH;NICHD), National Institute of Education (predecessor of the Institute of Education Sciences) and the CNA Corporation (a research and analysis non profit organization). At present, she is a Research Professor at the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, The George Washington University. Her past scientific papers and edited books address a wide range of topics in the area of child development. These include (a) the effects of preterm birth on cognitive, educational and social development of children; (b) the interface of brain, cognition and education; (c) the development of planning skills; (d) longitudinal follow-up research strategies; (e) environmental influences on psychological development; (f) child care and children’s psychological and health development and (g) communication between deployed parents and their children. A list of her publications can be found on the National Library of Medicine's website. She currently serves on the editorial board of two scientific journals and previously served on the editorial board of two other scientific journals. She authored US Government solicitations for research in areas of her expertise, oversaw a large grant portfolio, presented extensively at national and international conferences, was interviewed by newspapers, radio and TV, nationally and internationally.
Distinctions include:
- Fellow – Association of Psychological Science (1991 to present)
- NIH Merit Award "for exceptional leadership in managing the National
Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child" (1993) - Fellow - The American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology
(1995 to present) - Fellow - American Psychological Association (1996)
- NIH Merit Award “for your outstanding leadership in the development of the
program of research being conducted in Phase II of the NICHD Study of
Early Child Care” (1996) - Fellow—Division 7—Developmental Psychology—of the American
- Psychological Association
- Advisory Board of Child Research Net(work), c/o Benese Corporation,
Tokyo, Japan (2001 to present) - Fellow-Division 1--Society for General Psychology (2003)
- American Psychological Association (APA) Meritorious Research Service Commendations (2003)Scientific and Policy Advisory Group, Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (2006)Scientific Advisory Board, Military Child Education Coalition. (2010 to present
- Fellow - Division 33---Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities---of the American Psychological Association (2011-to present)
- American Psychological Association (APA) Division 7 (Developmental) Executive Committee (2016-2017; 2019-2021; 2023-)
- American Psychological Association (APA) Member of Council (2016-2017; 2019-2021; 2024-)
- American Psychological Association Division 1 (Society for General Psychology) President Elect (August 2019-August 2020); President (August 2020-August 2021); Past President (August 2021-August 2022)
Jeffrey Sherman, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis
B.A. in Psychology, University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D. in Social Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Dr. Sherman is a Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Davis. His research investigates the cognitive processes underlying stereotyping and prejudice. Funded by NIH and NSF, he has authored more than 125 scientific publications on these topics. Dr. Sherman is past Editor of the journal Social Cognition and past-president of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP), and the Society for Experimental Social Psychology. He won the Theoretical Innovation Prize presented by SPSP and is a recipient of the Anneliese Maier Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany, honoring researchers whose scientific achievements have been internationally recognized.
Jeffrey Sherman, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis
Judith Smetana has spent her professional career at the University of Rochester and in 2025 moved from her Professor appointment in the Department of Psychology to a research professor position. She obtained her B.A. at the University of California, Berkeley and her M.S. and Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She completed a NICHD post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on children’s moral and social-cognitive development, adolescent-parent relationships, and parenting beliefs and practices in ethnic/racial and cultural contexts; She has published more than 200 articles and chapters on these topics. She is the author of Adolescents, Families, and Social Development: How Teens Construct their World (2011, Wiley), co-editor of three editions of the Handbook of Moral Development (2006, 2014, 2023), and coeditor of The Cambridge Handbook of Parental Monitoring and Adolescent Information Management During Adolescence (Cambridge University Press, 2025).
Dr. Smetana’s research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and numerous foundations, including the Foundation for Child Development, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Fetzer Institute. She served two terms as Associate Editor of Child Development and was Editor-in-Chief of Child Development Perspectives from 2017-2023. She has received numerous awards, including the John P. Hill Memorial Career Award from the Society for Research on Adolescence in 2018 and the award for Distinguished Contributions to Developmental Science from the Jean Piaget Society in 2023. She is currently collaborating with other AJP Research Committee members on research on parent-child conversations about Jews and being Jewish.
Jonathan Lane, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology & Human Development, Vanderbilt University
Jonathan Lane is an Associate Professor of Psychology & Human Development at Vanderbilt University. His research is focused on social-cognitive development—how children make sense of people's mental states, who children decide to trust, and how children learn about and understand intergroup dynamics. Dr. Lane earned his bachelor's degree from Florida International University in 2005 and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2011, before completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard's Graduate School of Education. He joined Vanderbilt University in 2015.
