Nancy Hill Named Professor of Education

Nancy Hill, a leading scholar on the role culture plays in parenting and adolescent achievement, has been named a professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education effective July 1, 2009. Hill will also have an affiliated appointment as the first Suzanne Murray Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. On leave from Duke University, Hill has served as a visiting associate professor at the Ed School since the fall of 2007.

"As a developmental psychologist, I have followed Nancy Hill's work with great interest. I have been especially impressed by her work on families' levels of engagement with schools," said Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "Understanding the factors that promote productive parental engagement and how it may vary by ethnicity is critical to closing the achievement gap. I am grateful to Radcliffe Dean Barbara Grosz for her help in recruiting Dr. Hill. Their Suzanne Murray Professorship will enable Dr. Hill to establish her lab at Harvard as well as to connect with fellow scholars across the university."

Hill's research focuses on variations in parenting and family socialization practices across ethnic, socioeconomic status, and neighborhood contexts as well as demographic variations in the relations between family dynamics and children's school performance and other developmental outcomes. Her recent and ongoing projects include Project PASS (Promoting Academic Success for Students), a longitudinal study between kindergarten and 4th grade examining family related predictors of children's early school performance, and Project Alliance/Projecto Alianzo, a multiethnic, longitudinal study of parental involvement in education at the transition between elementary and middle school. In addition, Hill is the co-founder of the Study Group on Race, Culture, and Ethnicity, an interdisciplinary group of scientists who develop theory and methodology for defining and understanding the cultural context within diverse families

"Nancy Hill is a national leader in research on parenting, parental involvement, family-school relations, and achievement in an increasingly diverse America," said Barbara Grosz, dean of the Radcliffe Institute. "Dr. Hill's research, which uses mixed methods, is highly relevant in the context of the national education agenda and has important implications for policy and practice. Her presence in the fellowship program will richly enhance Radcliffe's cross-disciplinary scholarly community. We are deeply grateful to Suzanne Murray and Terrence Murray for making this appointment possible."

The Suzanne Murray professorship allows a newly tenured Harvard faculty member to spend four semesters as a Radcliffe fellow during her or his first five years at Harvard. In addition, Hill's research ideally positions her to collaborate with Radcliffe faculty leaders on the Institute's new policy studies initiatives as well as other academic activities.

During her time as a visiting associate professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Nancy Hill has taught The Psychology of Ethnicity and Context; Parenting, Schools and Achievement; and Social Development. Hill has served on the governing board of the Society for Research in Child Development and has held the position of associate editor of Child Development, the leading journal in her field.

Nancy Hill holds a Ph.D. and a master's degree in developmental psychology from Michigan State University and an undergraduate degree in psychology from Ohio State University.