Wakschlag concludes decade as DevSci founding director

After 16 years of scientific and institutional leadership within the Feinberg School of Medicine’s Department of Medical Social Sciences (MSS), including a decade as founding director of Northwestern University’s Institute for Innovations in Developmental Sciences (DevSci), Lauren (“Laurie”) Wakschlag, PhD, stepped down from the Institute role on Sept. 8.

Wakschlag is transitioning to a new position at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, joining its Pritzker Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health as Vice Chair for Early Mental Health Science & Strategy. In this role, she will lead efforts to develop a unified institutional strategy for early mental health research, training and care to accelerate scientific growth and community-responsive translation across the health system. Wakschlag will retain her Northwestern faculty appointment within FSM’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Elizabeth Norton, PhD, a longtime member of DevSci’s leadership team, became interim director effective Sept. 9 and will serve through the 2026–27 academic year.

Established in 2016 as one of Northwestern’s University-wide Research Institutes and Centers, DevSci brings together investigators and trainees across schools, departments and disciplines. Its “Healthier, Earlier” mission seeks to improve children’s health, well-being and learning as early as possible, advance developmental health for all and translate discovery into real-world impact.

Under Wakschlag’s founding vision, DevSci grew into a community of nearly 200 investigators and 125 trainees, spanning more than five schools and a dozen departments. Under her leadership in collaboration with a host of other DevSci leaders, DevSci has built a strong portfolio of research and training resources, including the Neurodevelopmental Core (designed and executed by Norton) and TGS certificate-granting graduate training cluster (launched and implemented by Vijay Mittal, Molly Losh and Jessica Horowitz), as well as externally funded research, including the NIMH-funded Mental Health, Earlier T32 postdoctoral fellowship. DevSci also helped position Northwestern as a site in the national Healthy Brain and Child Development study, co-led by Wakschlag and Norton. Wakschlag strengthened the Institute’s partnership with Lurie Children’s and co-leads the Mental Health, Earlier Center, a first-of-its-kind initiative launched with an $11.7 million NIMH award to advance early-childhood mental-health prevention in pediatric care.

A developmental and clinical psychologist, Wakschlag has pioneered tools that distinguish developmentally typical early-childhood behavior from emerging mental-health risk, supporting earlier identification and prevention. In 2024, she received Feinberg’s Paula H. Stern Award for Outstanding Women in Science and Medicine.

“Laurie’s vision and leadership brought together an exceptional community and established a strong foundation for collaborative developmental science at Northwestern,” said Sumit Dhar, interim vice president for research. “We are deeply grateful for all she has accomplished. I also thank Elizabeth for stepping forward at this important moment. Her longstanding role as a DevSci leader will provide valuable continuity as we assess opportunities and consider the Institute’s path forward.”

Wakschlag was recruited to Northwestern in 2010 by MSS founding chair, Dave Cella, drawn to MSS’s core premise that transformative science happens at disciplinary boundaries. That principle helped shape DevSci.

“Since I started DevSci, my mantra has been that ‘development matters’ across spheres of human health and potential,” Wakschlag said. “It has been inspiring to see a strong, united community bring that vision to life through science that benefits children and families. I am grateful to the Institute’s many contributors, including its founding cross-school leaders Sandy Waxman, Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, Sarah Mangelsdorf and Ellen Wartella. Elizabeth’s bold leadership has been essential to DevSci’s first decade, and I am thrilled that she will guide the Institute through this transition. I look forward to remaining active in the DevSci community.”

A developmental scientist and cognitive neuroscientist, Norton is an associate professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, with affiliations in the Northwestern Interdisciplinary Neuroscience program and Medical Social Sciences. She has been DevSci’s associate director for Neurodevelopmental Innovation and Impact and founding director of its Neurodevelopmental Core, a University recharge center that is unique in the country and has catalyzed dozens of studies. A recognized teacher and mentor, including recipient of the Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, she also leads the Language, Education and Reading Neuroscience (LEARN) Lab.

“It is a pleasure to build on Laurie’s extraordinary collegiality and leadership,” Norton said. “I look forward to working with colleagues across Northwestern and Lurie Children’s to sustain DevSci’s ‘Healthier, Earlier’ mission. Like Laurie, I see interdisciplinary collaborations as catalysts for addressing emerging needs and driving DevSci’s impact within and beyond Northwestern.”