Andrea Chronis-Tuscano Named the Next Joel and Kim Feller Professor
Andrea Chronis-Tuscano, a professor in the Department of Psychology and expert on attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), has been named the next Joel and Kim Feller Professor—an endowed professorship that was created in 2015 to support the Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences in recruiting and retaining highly qualified faculty.
“My entire career has been dedicated to identifying at-risk youth as early in development as possible, in order to set them on a healthier trajectory. Youth with ADHD are at risk for a number of devastating outcomes as they enter adolescence and adulthood—they are more likely to develop depression or anxiety, are at increased risk for suicide and substance abuse, and have a shorter life expectancy. At the same time, there are many evidence-based treatments for ADHD, yet mental health disparities exist such that youth living in marginalized communities are less likely to receive evidence-based behavioral treatments,” she explained. “My goal is to work with my team to enhance existing evidence-based treatments and offer them in settings such as schools and pediatric primary care so that they are accessible to all children, including those from marginalized backgrounds. Since ADHD is a chronic condition, it is critical to provide mental health care at key life transitions.”
One of those key developmental transitions, Chronis-Tuscano says, is college. Through the Students Understanding College Choices: Encouraging and Executing Decisions for Success (UMD SUCCEEDS) program that Chronis-Tuscano directs, University of Maryland undergraduates with ADHD can get help with time management, determining short- and long-term goals, improving their grades, leading a healthier and more productive lifestyle, and preparing for life after college.
Chronis-Tuscano and her team have worked on numerous NIH-funded research projects centered on ADHD. Recently, Chronis-Tuscano and former PSYC Assistant Research Professor Joyce Lui also worked with Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD), the leading national nonprofit organization supporting the ADHD community, and the Stroud Foundation, a tax-exempt public charity dedicated to improving the lives of children with learning differences and their families in the D.C. area, to make ADHD treatment more accessible to parents and their children. They developed 11 animated videos and printable handouts—available in English, Spanish and Mandarin—to help teach children with ADHD how to effectively cope with some of their symptoms.
Currently, Chronis-Tuscano and collaborators at Children’s National Hospital and Seattle Children’s Hospital are screening for parent ADHD in urban pediatric primary care clinics. Parents who struggle with ADHD themselves may have more difficulty implementing evidence-based behavioral and organizational skills, so Chronis-Tuscano and her team are treating parents for their own ADHD while also working with them on behavioral/cognitive/behavioral parenting and parent self-care strategies. They hypothesize that a family-based approach to ADHD care will lead to better long-term outcomes.
Chronis-Tuscano said: “Through the work we do in the Maryland ADHD Program, our hope is to improve developmental outcomes for youth with ADHD and their families, so that they can successfully navigate life’s transitions and live healthy, productive lives!”
In addition to holding this endowed professorship over the next three years, Chronis-Tuscano’s other titles currently include Director of the Maryland ADHD Program, Co-Director and Co-Founder of SUCCEEDS; President of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Division 53, the Society for Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (SCCAP); and Fellow of SCCAP and the Association for Behavioral & Cognitive Therapies (ABCT). She is also the lead author of Supporting Caregivers of Children with ADHD: An Integrated Parenting Program, published by Oxford University Press.
About the Feller Professorship
The Joel and Kim Feller Professorship was established by a generous $500,000 donation in 2015 from the Feller family. Dr. Jack Blanchard from the Department of Psychology, and Dr. Joseph Richardson from the Department of African American Studies are past recipients of the Joel and Kim Feller Professorship.
Joel Feller is a 1990 graduate of the Department of Government and Politics, a former member of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board of Trustees, and is a founding partner at the firm Ross Feller Casey, LLP in Philadelphia. His wife Kim is a 1989 graduate from UMD, and their son, Cory is a senior information science major at UMD.
Published on Fri, Oct 4, 2024 - 1:38PM