Research Assistant Professor

Dr. Perkins is a Research Assistant Professor at the Research Center for Group Dynamics in the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Perkins is an educational neuroscientist who examines the role of context in the development of cognitive processes in children and adolescents, with a special focus on childhood maltreatment, other violence exposure, and poverty, and how that exposure influences cognitive processing development. Working in developmental psychology as well as cognition and cognitive neuroscience, the work has explored poverty and language development; effects of exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) on child adjustment; violence exposure and the development of school-related functioning. Dr. Perkins is a former special education teacher who has also specialized in executive functioning and stress disorders in youth.