Megan R. Gunnar

Megan R. Gunnar, Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor, is the former Director of the Institute of Child Development.

She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology at Stanford University in 1978 and then completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Psychoneuroendocrinology at Stanford Medical School. In 1979 she became an Assistant Professor of developmental psychology at the University of Minnesota moving through the ranks to Full Professor in 1990.

Professor Gunnar has spent her career studying how stress affects human brain and behavioral development and the processes that help children regulate stress. She is a recipient of lifetime achievement awards from the American Psychological Association, the Society for Research in Child Development, the Association for Psychological Science, and the International Society for Psychoneuroendocrinology.

Professor Gunnar is involved in many activities to translate research on early development for use by policy makers, practitioners and families.

Title of presentation: The effects of early institutional care on children's development 

Abstract: This presentation will cover a series of studies of children adopted internationally from institutions. Outcomes covered will include executive functions, reward sensitivity, brain systems, and attachment. Participants in these studies were from many countries around the world. Effects observed were not particular to country but rather to the duration and quality of care received prior to adoption. Children showed resilience in some domains of development and sensitivity to early deprivation in others.