Vivian L. Gadsden, Ed.D.
Vivian L. Gadsden is the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development, Professor of Education, and Director of the National Center on Fathers and Families at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a professor of Africana Studies and of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies. Her research, scholarly interests, and writing focus on learning and literacies across the life-course and address issues of equity, access, and change for young children and families in historically marginalized communities. Her conceptual framework, family cultures, has been used widely to examine the interconnectedness among families’ political, cultural, and social histories and racialized identities; social practices; and literacy processes. Her collaborative research projects draw upon interdisciplinary frameworks that examine early childhood development, parenting, and families; father engagement in urban settings; social factors affecting health and education; children of incarcerated parents; and intergenerational learning within African American and Latino families.
Dr. Gadsden serves and has served on numerous foundation boards and review committees, including the Buffett Institute, the Foundation for Child Development, and the Spencer Foundation; Congressionally mandated review committees; and White House initiatives. She chaired The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Supporting Parents of Young Children, serving as lead author of the Committee’s report, Parenting Matters. She is a past president of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and has held leadership roles in the Society for Research in Child Development, including Co-Chair of the Black Caucus. Dr. Gadsden was Co-Editor-in-Chief of AERA’s Educational Researcher and lead editor of the 2009 Review of Research in Education. She was recently named co-editor of the 2023 and 2025 Review of Research in Education. Her published works, include booklength volumes and articles on early childhood research; literacy and African American youth; incarcerated parents in the lives of children, families, and communities; and risk, equity, and schooling. Dr. Gadsden is a Fellow of AERA and the Reading Hall of Fame and is a member of the National Academy of Education. She earned her doctorate at the University of Michigan.