November 25, 2013 - Judith Crowell, MD has been appointed Interim Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry while a search is conducted for a permanent director. Department Chair Ramin Parsey, MD, PhD announced the appointment today, citing Dr. Crowell’s history of successful research and clinical work as well as her leadership of department initiatives. Dr. Crowell is Director of the Child and Adolescent Division’s Training Program and heads the department’s internal grants review program.
Dr. Crowell is a leading expert on attachment theory. She is the principal investigator on two studies at the Judge Baker Children’s Center, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School. One, titled Paths Over Time and Across Generations, is a longitudinal study of paths to midlife adaptation that has followed participants and their families for the past 35 years; the other, titled Physical health in midlife: Influences of adversities and relationships, investigates the ways in which aspects of mental health, relationships, and experiences with adversity – including racial discrimination – influence physical health in midlife. Dr. Crowell’s research was featured in the Fall 2011 edition of Headlines, the department’s newsletter.
Dr. Crowell joined the department in 1987 and became training director in 1993. She was promoted to Professor in 2003. She received her medical training at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and earned her undergraduate degree from Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, MA. For the past year, she has headed the department’s internal grant review program which assists departmental researchers to fine-tune their applications before submitting them for external review.
In announcing the appointment, Dr. Parsey described Dr. Crowell as “an outstanding researcher, educator and clinician who has served the department well for many years. She is a proven leader who will ensure that the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry will continue to flourish during this time of transition.”