Dr. Niobe Way is a internationally recognized leader in the field of developmental psychology and has been studying the social and emotional development of adolescent boys and girls for almost three decades.
Way has been a Professor of Applied Psychology in the Developmental Psychology Program in the Department of Applied Psychology at New York University since 2006. In 2013, she founded the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity (PACH), a think and do tank that draws from the science of human connection to conduct research, develop curriculum, and engage in social activism aimed at creating a more just and humane world and addressing our ongoing crisis of connection.
Way is also the co-Director of the Center for Research on Culture, Development, and Education at NYU and the past President for the Society for Research on Adolescence. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in Human Development and Psychology and was an NIMH postdoctoral fellow in the psychology department at Yale University. Way's research focuses on the intersections of culture, context, and human development, with a particular focus on the social and emotional development of children and adolescents and how schools, families, and peers, as well as larger political and economic contexts, influence identities and relationships. The study of gender, racial, ethnic, and sexual identities and their intersections and the effects of cultural stereotypes on such identities are also central to her work. She conducts research across the globe, including in the U.S., China, India, and the United Arab Emirates. Way is an internationally recognized leader in the field of adolescent development and the impact of culture and context on developmental processes as well as in the use of mixed methods; she has been studying the social and emotional development of girls and boys for almost three decades.
Way is the author of numerous books and dozens of journal articles (publications) and regularly contributes blogs, letters, and articles in mainstream media outlets, including the Huffington Post, New York Times, and Washington Post (blogs).
Her research has been funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, The National Science Foundation, The William T. Grant Foundation, The Spencer Foundation, Einhorn Foundation, and by numerous other smaller foundations.