FPG Project Staff
Dr. Roberts is a Senior Scientist at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute with faculty appointments at UNC in Speech and Hearing Sciences and in Pediatrics. She directs the Teens in School Project and Carolina Communication Project. She also is Co-Director of a post-doctoral training program at UNC in neurodevelopmental disorders. Her research interests are in how otitis media (ear infections) affect children's hearing, language, and academic skills, the role of language skills and child and family factors in affecting the school success of African American children, and the language skills of young males with fragile syndrome.
Senior Scientist and Director of Data Management and Analysis Center and Statistician
Dr. Burchinal's background is in psychology and she is a nationally recognized expert in statistical modeling, especially for longitudinal data. Her other research interests include studying the effects of child care on cognitive, academic, and social development and family and school predictors of children's development outcomes for at-risk children. In addition Dr. Burchinal is a research professor in the Department of Psychology and an Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics.
Dr. Zeisel is a pediatric nurse practitioner and educator. In addition to being an investigator at FPG, Dr. Zeisel holds an adjunct faculty position in the School of Nursing. She has coordinated the Teens in School Project since its beginning. Her research interests include the epidemiology of otitis media, mother-child relationships, factors influencing African American children's success, and health beliefs in children.
Steve is a child neuropsychologist at UNC’s Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning. He is interested in neurocognitive development, social-emotional development and functioning, and the interaction of neurocognitive factors with social-emotional functioning. Steve graduated from Junianta College with a bachelor’s degree in two fields: psychology and education. He then studied at Western Kentucky University where he received a master’s degree in clinical psychology and school psychology. He earned his doctorate from the University of Georgia in school psychology. In addition he participated in a clinical child psychology internship at Vanderbilt University’s School of Medicine was a postdoctoral fellow in child neuropsychology at Brown University’s School of Medicine.
Steve enjoys spending time with his wife and two children.
Jenille Adams is a Social Research Assistant on our project. She earned her B.S. in Psychology from Howard University in 2001 and her M.A. in Developmental Psychology from Duke University in 2006. She has extensive experience in not only conducting innovative child development research and assessments but also in working with young people through numerous enrichment programs aimed at helping students develop academically and socially. Her educational and research background has focused on developing effective ways to promote academic success among students with an acute focus promoting positive outcomes for youth developing in low resource communities.
Ms. Taylor graduated from UNC with a BA in Psychology. She assists with preparation of grants and other materials and scores assessments.
Dr. Neebe is a computer analyst with over 20 years of experience in computer programming and research database design. She supervises the FPG data management group, and directly participates in the work of a variety of FPG projects including the Teens in School project.
Jan Misenheimer is an Applications Analyst in the FPG data management group. She handles the data for the Teens in School project and projects that study the speech and language skills of young males with Fragile X Syndrome. She joined FPG in 2002.
Researchers from Other Institutions
Dr. Asher is an expert on peer relations. He is responsible for designing measures to study peer relationships such as peer relationships in school.
Dr. Rowley brings her expertise in the study of the development of racial and cultural identity. She assists in the design and analysis of measures of the development of racial identity and perceptions of discrimination.
She assists in the selection and scoring of speech and language assessments and helps to train research assistants in the administration of these assessments.
Dr. Wolfram, a linguist, brings expertise on cultural/dialectical variations in English. He assists in the selection and scoring of language instruments with sensitivity to cultural variations.
