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.
Research has shown that adolescents are exceptional learners and are more willing than adults to explore situations with uncertain outcomes. In the last session of the 2025 Adolescent Development Symposium, researchers and young entrepreneurs discussed why brain development during adolescence makes us particularly inclined to innovate and participate in entrepreneurship, and how this can be a way for young people to take positive risks and even set them up for future success.
Transitioning to the responsibilities and demands of adulthood can be both exciting and challenging for us all. But without support, the challenges can make the path to a financially secure adulthood more difficult, as young people need to prioritize securing necessities like housing or food, and delay or forego opportunities that could increase their economic mobility. In the second session of the 2025 Adolescent Brain Development Symposium, researchers, policymakers, and youth advocates discussed how we could use financial assistance to help young people navigate this transition to adulthood and how we should implement these types of programs.
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