Tasha R. Howe

As a developmental psychopathologist, Dr. Howe recognizes the importance of studying both normal developmental milestones and atypical transformations of children's functioning together. The field of developmental psychopathology works to restore functioning along children's normal developmental trajectories in order to optimize outcomes. Treatments focusing on attachment and emotion regulation are particularly important in that the ultimate goal is to help individuals regulate their neuroendocrine functioning and modulate HPA-Axis dysregulation in order to function happily and peacefully in social and emotional contexts. Developmental psychopathology and violence prevention within the famly and across the globe are Dr. Howe's two research and teaching passions.

Tasha loves traveling around the world. In 2014 she was a Fulbright Scholar to Croatia where she worked on child abuse prevention. She taught at the University of Zagreb (Filosofski Fakultet) and trained 75 social welfare professionals on the ACT Raising Safe Kids violence prevention parenting curriculum. She also presented at many conferences and gave lectures on the neuroscience of trauma and the impact of stress on children’s brain development.

In 2008 Dr. Howe was a Fulbright Scholar to the island nation of Cyprus where she worked with both Greek and Turkish Cypriots on issues related to child maltreatment and violence prevention. This included teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in both communities (Near East University and the European University of Cyprus), speaking at conferences in Cyprus and Athens, Greece, and training Greek Cypriot social welfare professionals on the skills of early violence prevention. She also did lectures on the effects of media violence on children’s socioemotional and brain development.

Back home, Dr. Howe is always interested in community-based research, working with various social service and child health and development agencies on violence prevention and community and family violence issues. She supervises student research on any topic related to child development or family relations/violence issues. She has also conducted research on, written about, and published on the science of teaching (pedagogy). She was a 2004 Service-Learning Fellow at HSU, illustrating her commitment to connecting students with children, families, and organizations in the local community. She thinks "town-gown" connections are vital for violence prevention and helping children reach their developmental potential. In 2010 Dr. Howe was recognized with the American Psychological Association's Award for "Effectively Infusing Diversity into Teaching," which was gratifying to her as examining families within a cultural-contextual framework is vitally important to her.