Ann Marie White, Ed. D.

Academic and Clinical Appointments

Senior Instructor in Psychiatry and Director of the Office of Mental Health Promotion

Curriculum Vitae

Contact Information

Education

Doctorate in Human Development and Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

M.A. in Development Psychology, Columbia University, New York, NY

B.S. with Honors in Human Development ad Family Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

Research
Focus and
Interests

Behavioral health issues and risk-taking behaviors, such as substance and alcohol use, increase during this period of life and are implicated in the three leading causes of death between the ages of 16-34 - accidental death, homicide, and suicide. A swell in crisis health service utilization can be expected in the coming decade as the “echo-boomers” leave home and the U.S. experiences continuing waves of young adult immigrants from diverse cultures and regions of the world. Bringing prevention and health promotion efforts to places where older adolescents and young adults engage is critical to curbing their mortality.

My research is focused on the development of research methods to advance the adoption of preventative health interventions for emerging adults. My research objective is to enhance a new science, one that aims to understand how to rigorously design, test and broadly implement sustainable community-based and partnered efforts to modify such behavioral health-relevant issues outside of traditional health care settings.

In addition, as the Director of the Office of Mental Health Promotion in the Department of Psychiatry, my mission is to promote community-based strategies for preventing risk factors and enhancing protective factors associated with social and emotional well-being, by fostering academic partnerships in the conduct of mental health research, as well as policy, planning, public information or education activities.

My current interests have emerged from 10+ years of research experiences in developmental psychology emphasizing how community settings such as child care and after-school programs affect children and adolescents’ basic development. In the mid-1990’s, I focused my training on the leading edge of longitudinal and multi-level quantitative methods. I applied these novel data analytic techniques on several longitudinal investigations, including the NICHD Study of Early Child Care. My doctoral thesis melded my interests in after-school care, education, and the development of health-promoting behaviors. As Co-Primary Investigator for the evaluation of the Packard Foundation’s School Arts Program (a $5 million arts education program for public schools), I designed and implemented across 34 schools a quasi-experimental county-wide longitudinal study of arts program effects on children’s growth in discretionary creative activity. My goals were to stimulate new research directions in how arts participation affects positive mental health development.

For over 10 years I observed how relevant research findings were either ignored or taken up in overly simplistic ways by systems. This is due in part to a research focus on developing solutions in “hot house” settings disconnected from real world demands or conditions. Immediately upon obtaining my doctorate in Human Development and Psychology (Fall 2002), I sought a time-limited opportunity for junior and senior scientists wishing to gain “insider-insight” on the processes through which science can influence our public systems decision-making. This calculated detour from the straight and narrow post-doctoral researcher trajectory taught me first-hand how research findings can incentivize state and local investment in health programs. After one year as a science fellow in the U.S. Congress, and a second year in the Director’s Office of the National Institutes of Health (sponsored by the Society for Research on Child Development), I began my faculty position in Psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center.