Leah Doane

Leah Doane is a developmental psychologist and Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University. She is also currently head of the Developmental Area in the Department of Psychology. Dr. Doane received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology from Cornell University and her Masters and Ph.D. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University. She also completed a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Chicago in Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. Dr. Doane investigates the physiological mechanisms underlying developmental psychopathology and everyday stressful experiences in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. She has training in human development and developmental psychophysiology with expertise in collecting, measuring and modeling physiological markers of stress in both lab and naturalistic settings including measures of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis activity and objective sleep. Through numerous collaborations, Dr. Doane also incorporates culturally- and genetically-informed designs for studying daily associations among socio-emotional experiences, physiology and sleep in the prediction of subsequent health and academic achievement. Further, her newest program of research focuses on these processes in Latino youth and families. Dr. Doane is currently a William T. Grant Foundation Scholar and is funded by the foundation, as well as the Helios Education Foundation, for her work examining cultural influences on the Latino transition to college. She is also supported by the National Institutes for Health (NICHD) for a study examining the social and genetic contributions to children’s sleep, health and academic success. Finally, she currently serves as co-PI on an Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) grant on cultural identities.