Georgia State Names Interim Director Of Mark Chaffin Center For Healthy Development

ATLANTA—Dr. Kathleen Baggett, associate professor of health promotion and behavior at Georgia State University, has been named the interim director of the Mark Chaffin Center for Healthy Development (MCCHD) in the School of Public Health.

The MCCHD is home to the Center for Leadership in Disability, the National SafeCare Training and Research Center, and Prevent Child Abuse Georgia. The center, which has annual sponsored funding of $6.6 million, has received funding of more than $41 million over its nearly 10-year history. It provides training opportunities for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars in public health, social work, psychology, nursing and education.

Baggett’s research is focused on developing innovative interventions for improving caregiver practices that help very young children optimize life-course trajectories. Soon after her arrival at Georgia State, she obtained a $3.1 million grant funded by the National Institutes of Health to develop and examine effectiveness of a mobile Internet and remote coaching intervention to reduce maternal depression and improve parenting practices that promote infant social-communication competencies.

Baggett succeeds Dr. John Lutzker, founding director of the MCCHD and a Distinguished University Professor at Georgia State. Lutzker will be an"expert in residence" at the MCCHD until September 2018.

“I am thrilled to join my esteemed colleagues in this new capacity to carry on MCCHD’s tradition of cultivating the next generation of scholars,“ Baggett said. “I look forward to continued discoveries and innovation in implementing the most effective technologies for engaging parents, families and communities in promoting the healthy development, safety and well-being of children.”

Prior to joining Georgia State in 2016, Baggett was a research professor and senior scientist at the University of Kansas’ Juniper Gardens Children’s Project in the Life Span Institute, recognized for its pioneering research-based interventions to improve outcomes for children and their families in urban communities. She directed and co-directed several grants funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Education to develop and evaluate interventions for promoting caregiver practices that improve outcomes for very young children.

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