Joining ASR in 2010, Dr. Carpenter brings over 20 years of knowledge and experience in the child development and early intervention fields. Her graduate and post-doctoral work focused on the social and emotional development of young children and their families, including the impacts of maternal depression and child maltreatment. Since 2010, Dr. Carpenter has led mixed-methods community-based evaluations, surveys, and needs assessments at ASR in areas including early child development, school readiness, child mental health, parent/family support, and youth development.  Recently completed projects include: Youth needs assessments and local action plans in San Mateo and Ventura counties, Kaiser Permanente Community Health Needs Assessments in Alameda and Contra Costa counties, and program evaluations for Educare California at Silicon Valley, First 5 Contra Costa, and Santa Clara County Dependency and Collaborative Courts.

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Dr. Carpenter’s published works include a study in the Journal Child Maltreatment in 2008 on the impact of child neglect on development entitled ‘Emotion Knowledge in Young Neglected Children’, as well as conference presentations over the past 20 years at meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, the International Conference on Infant Studies, and the Association for Psychological Science.

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In addition to her work at ASR, Dr. Carpenter enjoys hiking, kayaking/SUP, snowboarding, and creating stained-glass art. She holds PhD and MS degrees in Developmental Psychology from Vanderbilt University, and a BA degree in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Barbara.