Our Team
Dr. Jana Iverson
Dr. Iverson received her Ph.D. in Psychology from The University of Chicago in 1996 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Indiana University. Since 1991, she has been an international investigator at the Italian National Research Council in Rome, Italy. She is the co-editor of a book and author of more than twenty articles on the relationship between gesture and language in children’s communication. Her research, funded by the National Institutes of Health and Autism Speaks, focuses on early vocal and motor development and the transition to gesture and language in infants and toddlers. Currently, she is the Principal Investigator of a grant from the National institutes of Health that is studying the development of motor, communicative, and social abilities in infants who are at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder. In 2007, Dr. Iverson received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award, the University’s highest honor for research.
Dr. Mark Strauss
Dr. Strauss received his doctoral degree from the University of Illinois. He served three years as a Lieutenant in the Navy’s Medical Service Corp during the Vietnam era and has been a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh since 1978. While at Pitt, he has been both the Department’s Chairperson and head of its Developmental Psychology Program. In 1986 he co-founded the University's Office of Child Development, a center concerned with policy, intervention, and evaluation issues related to programs that serve children, youth and families. His research focuses on the early development of perceptual and cognitive abilities in infants and children. Specifically, he has been conducting studies on how children learn basic information about categories and faces during their infancy and preschool years. Currently, he is the Principal Investigator of a research grant from the National Institutes of Health that is studying differences in the cognitive abilities of individuals with autism. This research studies both infants at risk for autism as well as older children and adults who have been diagnosed with the disorder. As a teaching faculty member, in 2005 Dr. Strauss received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award, the University’s highest honor for teaching, and in 2007 he was elected by students as an Honorary Faculty Member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.