Brenda Jones Harden, PhD

Brenda Jones Harden, PhD, is the Ruth Ottman Professor of Child and Family Welfare at Columbia University School of Social Work. Her research examines the development and mental health of young children experiencing adversity, particularly maltreatment, foster care, or other contextual risks. She also evaluates early childhood programs to prevent maladaptive outcomes for young children, including home visiting programs. She is currently the President of the Board at Zero to Three. As part of HARC’s Leadership Team, Dr. Jones Harden provides leadership in activities to mentor the next generation of early career researchers with explicit focus on increasing the diversity of researchers, and leverages her relationships with various research networks, organizations, and high level institutions and associations to identify diverse scholars interested in home visiting research.