The annual events for the Child Study Center’s Associates—a wonderful collective of collaborating philanthropists, scientists and clinicians—are always celebratory. They are a celebration of scientific accomplishment, both basic and applied, and a celebration of the commitment to giving. The Child Study Center takes this opportunity to express its heartfelt gratitude to all of its Associates for their care and attention and appreciation of all that goes on at the Center. In turn, the Associates learn about the Center’s recent accomplishments and ongoing work, and offer their comments on the most promising directions for the development of the Center in particular and child psychology and psychiatry at large.
This year’s event, the Center’s 25th, was a hallmark of both tradition and innovation. As always, a series of presentations offered highlights of the Center’s activities, with a particular emphasis on the accomplishments of the Center’s junior faculty members—Hanna Stevens, Tom Fernandez, Eli Lebowitz, Michael Crowley, Helena Rutherford, Pamela Ventola, and Carla Stover. The dinner featured a talk by Dr. James Comer, one of the most distinguished senior faculty members at the Center. Dr. Comer’s presentation spanned a historical period of about 4 decades, sharing with both eloquent words and poignant images the milestones and accomplishments of the School Development Program. For those Associates interested in the specific operations of particular programs and laboratories, there were individual meetings with groups and faculty members.
There are several distinct features of the Child Study Center that distinguish it from other departments at Yale. The Center is proud and deeply honored that the Associates Program is one of these features. Bringing together a group of generous, compassionate, intellectually curious and visionary individuals who are dedicated to progress in the field of child development, the Program has been incredibly instrumental in the grounding of numerous novel ideas, the generation of data to substantiate these ideas, and ultimately leverage them to the level of federally sponsored projects. This year’s celebration, we hope, foretells a future of further accomplishments and much-needed progress, both in science and in the practice of child development.