Visiting Scholar Stephanie Block is a professor in Applied Developmental Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. Her research focuses on child maltreatment and encompasses her training in both developmental and applied science, as well as public health.

Her recent work, with Senior Research Scientist Linda M. Williams, Ph.D., was funded by the National Institute of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services. These projects investigate prosecutorial and multi-disciplinary teams’ decisions in cases of child sexual abuse and the role of non-offending caregivers in supporting their children. It is her firm belief that scientific research should influence the law and public policy to bring about optimal societal change.

Block earned her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at the University of California, Davis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill’s Center for Developmental Science.