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Career Development ProfileRuby Takanishi, PhD Dr. Takanishi is currently president of the Foundation for Child Development, a national privately endowed philanthropy based in New York City. Takanishi has always had a strong interest in science, and excelled in science classes in high school. When she went to Stanford University, she was inspired by a course in developmental psychology with Eleanor Maccoby and knew then she wanted to focus on the scientific study of children, but with applied and policy purposes. Her dissertation examined how the social organization of classrooms affected the engagement of low-income students. She earned her Ph.D. in Education from Stanford University in 1973. Her interest in how science could inform public policy and programs to support the full development of children and adolescents has followed her throughout her career. Takanishi started out as an assistant professor at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education, teaching early childhood development, research methods and evaluation courses. A turning point in her career was her stint as a AAAS-Society for Research in Child Development Congressional Fellow in the United States Senate. This opportunity presented itself at a time when she had just been granted tenure at UCLA. Feeling herself drawn to the opportunity to work on national policy for children she made the bold choice of the Congressional fellowship instead of accepting tenure, which helped sustain her career focus of informing public policy and programs with science. She believes that a willingness to take risks is important to success and has proven herself an excellent example of this in her own career.Following her Congressional fellowship, she was founding executive director of the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, and Cognitive Sciences in 1982, and director of the Office of Scientific Affairs of the American Psychological Association from 1984-1986. Both positions afforded her the chance to forge links between policymakers and scientists. From 1986-1996, Takanishi was executive director of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, where she sought to raise the adolescent years higher on the national agenda. Prior to her current position, she was assistant director for Behavioral and Social Sciences in the President’s Office of Science and Technology Policy, working on education policy and on research related to child and adolescent development. As president of the Foundation for Child Development, she believes she is in a unique position to support a paradigm shift in how we think about young children and their educational development and opportunities. "The privilege of being in a privately funded foundation affords me the opportunity to think outside the box. Without the same constraints as the government or business sector, we can support new and different approaches to children’s issues that are informed by research."In addition to a willingness to take risks, Takanishi feels it is important to maintain a healthy scientific skepticism. "If you stop questioning, you run the risk of being on the wrong path and not knowing it." Her advice for women psychologists who aspire to careers in science is to get both credentials and contacts. "Especially for women, who still face barriers, it is crucial to have the best skills possible. Without them, you undermine your own credibility. But you also won’t get far without good networks and mentors, like Edward Zigler, PhD and the former Congressional fellows." In 1998, she received the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Public Policy Award from the American Psychological Association. Takanishi is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and was a Spencer Fellow of the National Academy of Education. Takanishi serves on several boards, including the Council on Foundations, Grantmakers for Children, Youth, and Families, the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation, the Advisory Panel on Public Issues of The Advertising Council, Inc., and the National Advisory Council of the Agency for Health Care Quality and Research, U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
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