Holly E. Brophy-Herb, PhD, is a developmental scientist and endorsed Infant Mental Health Mentor studying infants’ and toddlers’ early experiences with emotions in the context of parent-child and educator-child relationships. As a Professor of Child Development in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University, USA, Dr. Brophy-Herb partners with families, educators, scholars and programs around the country and around the world. She is particularly interested in how infants and toddlers come to understand their own and others’ emotions and influences on their experiences. Such influences include studying parent/educator well-being and supports for well-being, as well as processes such as parent/educator reflective capacities and mentalization processes, beliefs about emotions, and responses to expressions of emotions. Dr. Brophy-Herb’s work has involved curriculum development in support of infant, toddler, parent and educator well-being, and professional competencies that promote relationship-based work with infants and toddlers and their families and educators. Dr. Brophy-Herb is Editor in Chief of the Infant Mental Health Journal and Associate Editor for Infancy.
See what Dr. Brophy-Herb and colleagues are doing in the Building Early Emotion Skills Lab or follow her on Twitter @HBrophy-Herb.
Dr. Brophy-Herb is accepting doctoral students for 2023-2024.
Koi Mitchell joined the lab in 2019. During undergrad she served as a research assistant in three labs within the social science department at Michigan State University.
Education: B.A. Psychology, Michigan State University
Areas of Interest: Health Disparities
Danielle Dalimonte-Merckling, PhD, Research Associate, received her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from Michigan State University. Her research interests revolve around understanding why children in seemingly similar circumstances vary in their developmental outcomes. With a specific interest in the interplay between biology and environment, her work often focuses on individual differences in environmental sensitivity especially as it relates to variations in child temperament but includes an interest in individual differences more broadly and a variety of questions regarding moderation of effects. Examples of her work can be found in Child Development, Annals of Behavioral Medicine, and Early Child Research Quarterly. Dr. Dalimonte-Merckling has served on studies funded by the NIH, USDA, and U.S. ACF with a specific view toward understanding individual differences in who benefits from supports and services and how such differences can inform both future intervention designs and larger policy considerations.
Kayla Stinson: My research interests include toddler and preschooler social and emotional development, particularly empathy, self-regulation, and recognizing, labeling, and expressing their own emotions. I am also interested in parent-child/adult-child relationships and how parents/adults foster emotional development and growth in children, as well as parenting practices, beliefs about parenting practices, and discipline.
Haiden Perkins, BS, Doctoral Candidate: My research is centered around the development of resilience in adolescence. Specifically, I am interested in adolescents who have experienced trauma and how they recover from those experiences. I look at how those in the immediate environment of an adolescent such as parents and friends influence recovery and development of resilience after a traumatic experience. I want to understand how resilience impacts mental health development in youth, and how those in an adolescents environment impact whether positive or negative mental health symptoms develop. I hope to develop intervention programs that help a broad variety of trauma exposed youth develop resilience, as well as educate those around them on how to support the youth in their life in this effort.
Simply Dinner Graduate or Post Graduate Research Assistants: Hailey Choi and Jessica Williams
Simply Dinner Research Assistants – Family Processes: Amanda Zimenski, Albina Doko, Pooja Dave
Simply Dinner Post BA Research Assistants Family Processes: Andrew Anderson, Nick Garnett, Elizabeth Crorey, Briana Sholte, Jessica Altenberger
Adults’ Mentalization Behaviors with Infants Research Assistants: Roxanna Azmoudeh, Savannah Pohl, Jazlyn Wright
Adults’ Mentalization Behaviors with Infants Research Assistants Post-BA research assistants: Courtney Accorsi, Genevieve Parkey, Colleen Riley, Ella Patrona, Jessica Altenberger
Adults’ Mentalization Behaviors with Infants Research Assistants Graduate or Post Graduate Research Assistants: Haiden Perkins, Kayla Stinson
