CEHD alum Shane Jimerson receives Lifetime Achievement Award from National Association of School Psychologists

After more than 25 years as a scholar, leader, and graduate educator in the field of school psychology, Shane Jimerson (PhD ‘97) was honored recently with the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). Jimerson’s journey started as a first-generation college student, which led him to complete the developmental psychology and school psychology doctoral programs at CEHD. He now serves as a professor in the Gevirtz School of Education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His work focuses on school safety and violence prevention, bullying prevention, and the development of multi-tiered systems of support.

We recently caught up with Dr. Jimerson to learn more about his time at CEHD, hear about his research, and get some advice for current students.

How did you choose to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota?

Through the process of exploring faculty in graduate programs across the country, I identified many whom I thought may be a really good fit with my interests in social and emotional development, including stellar scholars Professor Byron Egeland and Professor Alan Sroufe at the Institute of Child Development (ICD) at the University of Minnesota … [A mentor at the University of California-Berkeley] highlighted the tremendous depth and breadth of knowledge and expertise among the dozens of faculty, post-doctoral scholars, and research scientists at the ICD, declaring “It’s simply the best.”

Tell us about your dual studies in developmental psychology and school psychology.

Throughout my coursework and research experiences at the ICD, I was continually seeking to use this knowledge of child psychology to help support the development of children—an emphasis that was emerging as applied developmental science. At the University of Minnesota, I was fortunate to enroll in several courses taught by school psychology and special education faculty and recognized that there were tremendous opportunities to use the knowledge and research skills that I was developing within my ICD experiences, to obtain further experiences and knowledge of the intersect between children, families, schools, and education which was emphasized in the school psychology program. Moreover, given that—most children, most days are at school—it was clear to me that schools are an essential context to provide supports to facilitate the development of all children.

What have been some of the highlights of your career regarding your work on school safety and violence prevention, bullying prevention, and the development of multi-tiered systems of support?

I have focused throughout my career on bringing science to practice to promote the development of children. In efforts to prevent and address the deleterious impacts of bullying, victimization, and crisis events, through multi-tiered systems of support, I have applied my scholarly energies in preparing more than 400 publications, including more than 30 books across these areas.

Professionally, I have been actively engaged in providing supports to children and families who have been impacted by tragic events, including for example victimization, bullying, suicide, natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and shootings impacting schools and communities.

Perhaps the greatest impact of my scholarship, leadership and professional activities related to advancing safety and violence prevention, bullying prevention, and the development of multi-tiered systems of support has been the PREPaRE School Crisis Prevention, Preparedness, and Intervention Comprehensive School Safety Planning curriculum, which is distributed through the National Association of School Psychologists. PREPaRE trains school-employed mental health professionals and other educators how to best fill the roles and responsibilities generated by their membership on school crisis response teams. Over the past two decades, the PREPaRE curriculum has been used to prepare tens of thousands of professionals who have contributed supports to children, families, and communities across the country and around the world.

Do you have any key messages on how we can support students through the COVID-19 pandemic era? What role does research play in finding the best solutions for supporting students?

Having dedicated my career to bringing science to practice to support children and families, I am absolutely confident that the extant research and scholarship provides valuable information to the contemporary exigent challenges that children and families are facing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic that continues. Indeed, it is imperative that we use contemporary science to inform our efforts to support and promote the social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, academic, and mental health development of all children. Effective knowledge mobilization (a term encompassing a wide range of activities relating to the production and use of research results) requires scholars, practitioners, and policymakers who are committed to communicating and collaborating to understand the relevant findings on a given topic of focus, and then use that knowledge to inform practice.

Do you have any advice for current students?

My general advice is to:

1. Follow your bliss and pursue your passions. There are so many areas of specialization and expertise among colleagues at ICD, thus, there are so many areas where each of us may contribute.
2. Make the most of your 86,400 seconds each day—you can’t make them longer, so make them better.
3. Be the Change. Our individual and collective efforts are essential to facilitate positive change that contributes to advancing the well-being and healthy adaption of all children in all communities around the world.
4. Enjoy Being. Make the most of your daily experiences at the ICD, embracing the incredible good fortune of having such talented peers and faculty. It is likely that many of the folks you meet at the ICD will continue to inform and inspire you throughout your life. For some who are so fortunate, you may even find your life long best friends and in some extraordinary instances, your life partner.
5. Ultimately, identify and secure the “best job in the world” (for you). The “best job in the world” is the activity that you would do every day, even if nobody paid you to do it—but you do it so incredibly well, that everyone wants to pay you to do it for them.
6. Whatever your daily adventures include, strive to be your own self, at your very best, each day.

To read Dr. Jimerson’s complete responses, including more about his current research projects, click here.

Follow Dr. Jimerson on Twitter here.