Social work faculty named associate director of MPSI's Infant Mental Health Program

Carolyn Dayton, assistant professor of social work, has recently been named associate director of the Infant Mental Health Program at Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, where she now holds a joint appointment.

In addition to teaching infant mental health courses, providing community outreach, and conducting research on the development of early parent-child relationships, Dayton will be responsible for ongoing evaluation of student learning outcomes for the Dual-Title Degree in Infant Mental Health. The dual-title degree provides master's and doctoral students in social work, early childhood education and nursing with specialized training in the infant mental health field. Previously designed as a certificate program, the newly developed dual-title program allows students to gain knowledge and skills in infant mental health while earning their graduate degree within their primary discipline.

Housed within the vibrant research environment of Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, the program allows students to experience firsthand the interconnection of clinical knowledge and empirical research and prepares them to be active consumers of and contributors to the infant mental health research literature.