Jane Knitzer

Jane Knitzer is the Director of the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), whose mission is to promote research-informed policy to improve the lives of low-income children and families. She is also a Clinical Professor of Population and Family Health at the Mailman School of Public Health. As a psychologist, Dr. Knitzer has focused her own research on improving public policies related to children’s mental health, child welfare, and early childhood. Her work on mental health includes Unclaimed Children: The Failure of Public Responsibility to Children and Adolescents in Need of Mental Health Services. At NCCP, she has led the Center in examining state early childhood policies for all fifty states and in synthesizing research and practice related to helping the more vulnerable young children.

Dr. Knitzer has been on the faculty at Cornell University, New York University, and Bank Street College of Education. She is a member of the New York State Permanent Judicial Commission on Justice for Children, and a past president of Division 37, Child, Youth, and Family Services, of the American Psychological Association, and of the American Association of Orthopsychiatry. Among other awards, she was the first recipient of the Nicolas Hobbs Award for Distinguished Service in the Cause of Child Advocacy from the American Psychological Association.