2022 Rovee-Collier Mentor Award Winner: Clancy Blair, PhD, MPH

Dr. Blair has been awarded the 2022 Rovee-Collier Mentor Award in recognition of the compassionate and committed nature of Clancy’s mentorship throughout his career. Clancy Blair’s profound impact on numerous rising scholars has enriched the future of Developmental Psychobiology.

Examples of Mentorship with Students and Early Career ISDP Members

Clancy has devoted his career to exceptional mentorship. Several themes are evident in the letters of support from Clancy’s mentees. First, Clancy is a fierce advocate of students’ research endeavors and professional goals. Clancy is tactfully able to make himself available to his students while supporting their journey to independence by equipping his students with the necessary tools to meet their goals. As a part of his mentorship, Clancy generously supports his students to attend numerous conferences, workshops, bootcamps, and summits. Through these experiences, Clancy’s mentees have been
able to learn from colleagues across disciplines and expand our wheelhouse of knowledge beyond NYU’s campus.

Second, Clancy encourages and believes in his students’ abilities. Each of his mentees
would agree that Clancy treats his students and post-docs with patience, kindness, and a desire to help them succeed. Clancy has the utmost confidence in each of his mentees. Through his confidence, it becomes easy to learn how to advocate for oneself in a field that is fraught with imposter syndrome. For example, by helping his trainees cultivate their own sense of confidence and competence, they have gone on to start their own nonprofits, transition into roles in government, or negotiate multiple academic job offers. Clancy allows his mentees the freedom to think beyond what can be traditionally accomplished with a PhD. Clancy also recognizes that his mentees are individuals outside of the lab. He has supported his students through various life transitions such as moving to a new location, transitioning to parenthood, and was a reliable source of support during the emotional turmoil of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Third, Clancy is an advocate of team science, and actively makes connections for his
mentees. A notable pattern that emerged from his mentees letters is Clancy’s commitment to collaborations for his students’ benefit. Whether to complete research projects that are aligned with his mentees goals or to write stellar publications, Clancy is proactive in connecting his students with his expert colleagues. In addition to connecting his students to colleagues outside of his lab, Clancy has a unique ability to create community within his lab. Relationships between lab membership, including students, post-docs, and staff run far beyond the walls of the lab. Many members of Clancy’s lab are lifelong friends and professional colleagues. This is a rare and highly admirable quality of an academic lab that can be attributed to Clancy’s dedication to a
“lab family”. Through this, much of Clancy’s mentees’ success can be attributed to the
collaborative and well-organized structure of mentorship within the lab.

Finally, Clancy has been committed to social justice throughout his career. Whether
participating in social justice public panels or disseminating his research to external outlets, Clancy proactively uses science as a force of good. Further, Clancy’s research pursuits are guided by a goal of making a difference in people’s lives, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. This is evidenced throughout his long career of bringing science to the people – engaging with families in their homes, schools, and communities. This embodiment of science has trickled down to the members of his lab and will continue to live on through each of his mentees.

• Annie Brandes-Aitken, PhD, New York University
• Daniel J. Berry, Associate Professor, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
• Andrew D. Ribner, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Learning Research and Development Center
  University of Pittsburgh
• Seulki Ku, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Child Development | Erikson Institute
• Rosemarie E. Perry, PhD, Founder/Executive Director, Social Creatures Inc.
  www.thesocialcreatures.org
• Alexandra Ursache, PhD, NYU Langone Health
• Stephen Braren, PhD, Director of Applied Research, Social Creatures
• Sarah Vogel, PhD Candidate, Department of Applied Psychology, New York University
• Denise Werchan, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
  New York University Langone Health

Biography

Professor Blair’s research primarily focuses on the development of self-regulation in young children with a specific focus on the development of executive functions. This research has demonstrated that executive functions are central to school readiness and school achievement, are substantially influenced by experience and the characteristics of the family and home environment, and highly interrelated with the regulation of the physiological response to stress. An important focus of this research is on the ways in which experience ‘gets under the skin’ to influence the development of executive functions through effects on stress physiology. This mechanism is one that appears to be particularly relevant to the effect of poverty on child development and may be one primary route through which childhood poverty exerts long-term effects on cognitive and social-emotional development throughout childhood.

Another focus of his research has been the conduct of randomized controlled trials of innovative programs designed to promote self-regulation in early childhood.  Tests of the efficacy of these programs indicates that it is possible to enhance the development of self-regulation in early childhood and doing so can benefit children’s academic achievement and social-emotional development, particularly for children from low-income homes.  

Lab

https://med.nyu.edu/research/neuroscience-education-lab