April: Hired our new Executive Director, Deb Levine, to work closely with Center scientists to grow and scale the vision of the Center
June: Co-sponsored a think tank with the Center for Research in Child Development and the John Templeton Foundation at the Center for Scholars and Storytellers
July: Showcased a new logo and brand for the Center; Launched our monthly newsletter and blog
October: Co-hosted a briefing with the FAST collaborative and Senator Kamala Harris’s office on The Promise of Adolescence
October: Our Founding Director, Dr. Ron Dahl, presented at the FAST Health Briefing in Los Angeles on What is adolescent developmental science and how can it help change systems/policies?
October: Co-sponsored Alliance for Girls’ annual summit, A Movement for Equity, with Kaiser Permanente, the Akonadi Foundation, and Charles Schwab
November: Doubled the size of our staff
December: Secured new funding from the Annie E. Casey Foundation
This is only the beginning for the Center.
In 2020, we’ll be convening the first meeting of the National Scientific Council on Adolescence. We’ll also be working to engage youth more deeply in our work, devising new impact measures for programs based on developmental science of adolescence, and expanding our efforts to increase equity in adolescent health, well-being, and education. And we’ll be premiering our new podcast: Adaptivity, The Science of Adolescence.
We’re grateful to all of you working to promote positive trajectories for young people.
We wish you all a wonderful holiday season, and a great start to your new year.
In this blog post, we explore the importance of loving and supportive relationships with adults during adolescence, and discuss the significance and characteristics of natural mentors and developmental relationships.
Over the past year, the UCLA Center for the Developing Adolescent has been busy advancing our goal to support adolescents by amplifying developmental science. We refreshed and refined our mission, strengthened our community, launched a new multi-year initiative to support economic development, supported developmental science-informed policies and programs, and amplified the remarkable opportunities of adolescence. In this blog post, we share highlights, resources, and developments from 2025.