Kirby Deater-Deckard, Ph.D. is a developmental psychologist who studies child and adolescent cognitive and social-emotional development, and the role of parenting and peer environments on developmental outcomes. As part of this research, he and his colleagues study adoptive and foster families. He conducted the Northeast-Northwest Collaborative Adoption Projects--at the time, the largest psychological survey of parents of internationally adopted youth in the United States. More recently, his work on adoption and fostering is focusing on international variations in family structures and youth outcomes in lower- and middle-income countries. Dr. Deater-Deckard is the director of the Healthy Development Initiative, a program in Springfield, MA focused on studying the development of individual differences in human cognition, emotion, behavior, physiology, neural activity and genetics from childhood to adulthood.