Developmental Science and Sustainable Development Goals for Children and Youth

Suman Verma is a Developmental Psychologist and former head of the Human Development & Family Relations Department, Government Home Science College, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India. Her research with an advocacy component are in the areas of behavior settings of street/working children, daily ecology of adolescent family life, school stress, adolescent abuse, and intervention studies using life skills education approach. Other areas of published work include time use patterns among adolescents, academic stress, single parenting, positive youth development and social policy. A two time fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, her cross-cultural project sponsored by CASBS, Stanford and funded by Jacobs Foundation on ‘Pathways of Risk and Protection among Street Youth in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and S. Africa’ is based on a comparative framework that is guided by theory on risk and protection and the ecological and contextual conditions in the lives of street kids in these countries. As an active member of various professional organizations such as ISSBD and SRCD, her interests are in (i) promoting greater visibility for the Asian region in professional societies; (ii) capacity building and mentoring initiatives for professional growth of young scholars in the region; and (iii) facilitating regional collaborations and creating opportunities for resource sharing.  Anne Petersen is a developmental scientist who has been a researcher (more than 350 articles/chapters and 13 books), university administrator (department head and collegiate dean at Penn State University, graduate dean and vice president for research at University of Minnesota), federal government policy maker (Presidential appointee at National Science Foundation), and philanthropy leader (several roles including SrVP Kellogg Foundation, Founder/President Global Philanthropy Alliance). She was funded for a couple of decades for her research on adolescent development (puberty and psychosocial development) and has won many honors for her research and career, including election to the National Academy of Medicine (NASEM). Her current interests focus on global science and youth policy as well as developing Africa through S&T.