Dr. Jessica Stoltzfus Grady

My background is in developmental psychology, an area of psychology that studies growth and change across the life span. I first became interested in studying development while taking undergraduate courses at nearby Lebanon Valley College. I completed my B.S. in Psychology at Lebanon Valley College, then my M.S. and Ph.D. in Life-Span Development at West Virginia University. While at West Virginia University, I studied development in the infancy age period under Dr. Katherine Karraker. I focused on toddlers who are shy and fearful around new people, and studied parenting strategies that support shy toddlers as they learn to engage with people around them. Also at West Virginia University, I studied parental emotion socialization (ways parents teach children about emotions) under Dr. Amy Root, and child and parent behaviors linked with child social anxiety under Dr. Tracy Morris. After my graduate studies, I engaged in research under Dr. Paul Hastings at the University of California Davis, where I further studied emotion socialization and I learned to pair behavioral and physiological responses for a fuller understanding of children’s emotional experiences. I then joined the psychology faculty at the University of the Pacific, where I conducted research and mentored students in research on young children’s emotions and parenting. Many of my papers and conference presentations include students as authors.

I teach courses on life span and child development, research design and statistics, general psychology, and advanced laboratory courses specializing in developmental science. Prior to joining Millersville in 2023, I taught at several institutions including at the University of California Davis, San Jose State University, and the University of the Pacific. Also at Pacific, I served as Faculty Fellow in Assessment, where I partnered with faculty, staff, and students across the university to understand how well the university was supporting student learning.

When I am not working, I enjoy spending time with my young and energetic children (a busy toddler and a preschooler), my husband, and our dog Clyde, as well as with family who live nearby. In my down time, I listen to audio books (to take a break from the reading I do in my work life!), and spend time outside walking, running, or hiking.

Selected Publications

Grady, J. S., Camargo, J.*, Barajas, S.*, & Patel, K.* (2023). Shy, happy, calm, and controlled: Temperament correlates of socioemotional adjustment in toddlerhood. Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0001239

Grady, J. S., Her*, M., Moreno*, G., Perez*, K., & Yelinek*, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8, 207-217. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

My Curriculum Vitae

Additional publications are available on my ResearchGate page.