James A. Griffin, Ph.D.

James A. Griffin, Ph.D., is the chief of NICHD’s Child Development and Behavior Branch as well as the director of the branch’s early learning and school readiness program. His work focuses on research and evaluation efforts related to service systems and early intervention programs designed to enhance the development and school readiness of children from at-risk and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Prior to his position at NICHD, Dr. Griffin was a senior research analyst in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) at the U.S. Department of Education. He also served as the assistant director for the Social, Behavioral, and Education Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and as a research analyst at the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families (ACYF) within HHS. His work included several large-scale evaluations of the Head Start program, while at ACYF, and research on preschool curricula involving geographically diverse child care, Head Start, and state pre-kindergarten programs, while with IES and NICHD. 

Dr. Griffin holds a B.A. summa cum laude in psychology from the University of Cincinnati and a Ph.D. with honors in child clinical psychology from the University of Rochester. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship in psychiatric epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health.