Amanda Tarullo

Amanda Tarullo is an Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Director of the Graduate Program in Developmental Science at Boston University, and a faculty affiliate of the Boston University Center for Systems Neuroscience. Her research focuses on how early life adversity shapes children’s biological stress systems and brain development using measures of the stress hormone cortisol to index biological stress and electroencephalogram (EEG) to examine patterns of brain activity. One aim of her research is to understand why some children who experience early life stress are resilient and fare quite well, whereas others have enduring developmental challenges. In addition to studying the impact of poverty and family systems on child development here in Boston, she participates in an interdisciplinary collaboration in South Africa to use neurocognitive assessments to determine the efficacy of early childhood interventions in low- and middle-income countries to protect children’s developing brains and cognitive abilities. She received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychopathology and Clinical Science from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. She then completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Developmental Neuroscience and Behavior at Columbia University. She was named Outstanding Early Career Psychologist by the American Psychological Association Division 52 (International Psychology) and received the BU College of Arts and Sciences Templeton Award for Excellence in Student Advising.

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