Dorothy Mandell, PhD

Associate Professor, Health Promotion & Behavioral Sciences
[email protected]

Dr. Mandell's research has spanned multiple topics in maternal and child health with a focus on understanding the relations between early experiences and later neurocognitive outcomes. Her current work focuses on understanding individual and community-level risk and resilience during the transition to parenthood and pediatric periods. She also works with her collaborators to develop and evaluate programs and systems—change projects that support families.

She is currently the primary investigator for the Texas Safe Babies project and the Maltreatment Risk Mapping project funded by the Department of Family and Protective Services. She also leads the work of the Texas Pediatric Brain Health Initiative, which is a multi-agency and multi-sector initiative to align and support early child systems, so they promote optimal brain development in children.

Dr. Mandell lives with her husband and two daughters (6 and soon to be 10). She and her family ride their bikes whenever they can and enjoy traveling and camping (which her daughters remind her they don't do enough).