Christina Cipriano Named Inaugural Keilty Endowed Chair in Education

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The College of Education has announced the appointment of Christina Cipriano, Ph.D. as its inaugural Joseph W. and Alma W. Keilty Endowed Chair and professor in education, effective fall 2026. 

Cipriano will join UMass Amherst from the Yale Child Study Center, where she serves as associate professor and director of the Education Collaboratory. At UMass Amherst, her work will focus on school mental health research. 

An award-winning scholar and internationally recognized expert in the science of learning, development, and translational science practices, Cipriano is the principal investigator and director of major federal and foundation funded grants.  Her work centers student intersectional identities in research and practice, advances the development and validation of novel school-based assessments, and contributes to foundational evidence syntheses related to social emotional learning. 

Cipriano will bring the Education Collaboratory to UMass Amherst, continuing its mission to advance the science of learning and social and emotional development, so that all students are seen, served and safe to learn in school. 

“I am humbled to join the dynamic faculty at the UMass Amherst College of Education in this transformational leadership role,” Cipriano said. “At a time when the social, emotional, behavioral, and academic health of our nation is at an inflection point, we need to advance a culture of learning and scholarship that is rigorously inclusive, ruthlessly practical, and unapologetically committed to ensuring evidence-based science is accessible for everyone.”

Cipriano has published more than 120 papers, commentaries, and reports in top tier journals, including Child Development and the Review of Educational Research, as well as in media outlets such as The Washington Post, NPR, New York Times, PBS, Education Week, and EdSurge. She is the author of Be Unapologetically Impatient, an award-winning book that supports parents, educators, providers, patients, and advocates to illuminate and interrupt conventions about “the way we do things” across education, medicine and industry.

“I am thrilled to welcome Dr. Cipriano to the College of Education,” said Greg Kelly, dean of the College of Education. “As the inaugural Joseph W. and Alma W. Keilty Endowed Chair in Education, she will bring research excellence and an increased focus on public scholarship in the much-needed areas of student well-being and mental health to the Department of Student Development and to our college.”

Cipriano received her doctorate from the Boston College Lynch School of Education, her certificate in human rights and international justice from Boston College Law School, her master’s degree in education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a undergraduate degree from Hofstra University Honors College. She is a Yale Public Voices Fellow, a Jack Kent Cooke Scholar, and serves on numerous national advisory boards, workgroups and committees, including those for the National Center for Learning Disabilities, Understood, and Special Olympics.

The Joseph W. and Alma W. Keilty Chair in Education was established by Joseph Keilty ’78 and Alma Keilty to create a new senior-level faculty position in the College of Education.