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My interest in psychology dates from my undergraduate major in psychology at UNC, where I worked with Dr. V. M. LoLordo on studies of operant behavior in pigeons. I received a Masters Degree in General Psychology at Wake Forest University in 1975. My thesis, a study of human conceptual behavior, was a productive collaboration with Dr. Charles Richman. I entered the Ph.D. program in Psychology at the University of Colorado at Boulder with a primary interest in cognitive topics, but under the influence of Dr. Elizabeth Bates, I became interested in understanding the cognitive development of infants. In 1978, I moved to Harvard University to conduct my dissertation on infant categorization and language with Dr. Jerome Kagan. I remained at Harvard as Director of the Harvard Infant Study, collaborating with Kagan and other colleagues on studies of behavioral inhibition. In 1987, I joined the faculty at Yale University and renewed my focus on infant cognitive development. Most of this research was conducted in collaboration with colleagues in the MacArthur Network on Developmental Transitions and with graduate students at Yale.  I returned to UNC in 1998 to take a position as Professor of Psychology, and I am delighted to be “home”.  I am also affiliated with the Center for Developmental Science, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, the NC Neurodevelopmental Disorders Research Center (NDRC), and the UNC School of Education. I serve on numerous committees at UNC including the Advisory Boards of the Center for Developmental Science, the NDRC, and the Odum Institute for Research in Social Science.  I co-direct the NDRC's Behavioral Measurement Core and Observational Methods Laboratory.  Within the Psychology Department, I am Director of the Program in Developmental Psychology. I also play an active role in UNC administration, serving on the Undergraduate Admissions Advisory Committee, the Faculty Athletics Committee, the Curriculum Enhancement Plan Implementation committee, and as Associate Dean for First Year Seminars and Academic Experiences. I am an active member of the relevant professional organizations in my field and attend a variety of their meetings. I have been a reviewer for various journals and currently serve on the editorial boards of Infant Mental Health Journal, General Psychology Review, the Journal of Cognition and Development, Developmental Science, and Infancy. I have served as an ad hoc member of several Study Sections for the National Institutes of Health.  I currently serve on the SRCD Program Committee, and I will be co-chair for the SRCD’s biennial meeting in Montreal in 2011.