Kathleen Baggett

Ph.D. 2000, University of Kansas, Developmental and Child Psychology
M.S. 1997, University of Kansas, Counseling Psychology
B.A. 1989, MidAmerica Nazarene University, Psychology

Dr. Kathleen Baggett is a Licensed Psychologist Health Service Provider and Director of the Mark Chaffin Centers for Healthy Development, a University Research Center. She is a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health. She conducts intervention and implementation research at the intersections of maternal and infant mental-health and disability.  She obtained her Ph.D. in Developmental and Child Psychology at the University of Kansas, where she subsequently completed a U.S. Department of Education funded Postdoctoral Fellowship focused on Intervention Research Leadership with Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Children and Families.  She launched her career at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project (JGCP) within KU’s Life Span Institute, where she progressed to Research Professor and Senior Scientist. JGCP received the Council of Exceptional Children’s Research Award, recognizing “35 years of research in special education and its seminal role in producing best practices, tools, and critical knowledge for education of students at risk with disabling conditions”.  Within this environment and then at Georgia State, she has led and contributed to research and training grants funded by the National Institutes of Health, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Education, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advance the science and practice of optimizing social-emotional health outcomes of infants and toddlers, and their parents and other caregivers. Examples of her current interdisciplinary projects include partnerships with Head Start and Early Head Start agencies across the country to reduce maternal depression through Internet-based, effective virtual coaching programs, and partnerships with disability serving agencies and parents with disabilities to increase the use of data-driven supports for improving mood and positive parenting.