Faculty

Dr. Jester is an Associate Research Scientist in the Department of Psychiatry. She has been involved in research on child development in high risk situations for the past 20 years. She is particularly interested in the effect of parenting on child development for families in poverty. She is currently the lead statistician in research looking at the effect of home visiting on infant mental health for low-income families in Michigan. In addition, she is also principal investigator on a pilot study providing an intervention to low-income African American fathers in Detroit. The purpose of the intervention is to increase parenting self-efficacy in these fathers and hopefully to decrease parenting stress and depression. A goal of her career is to create interventions to prevent child maltreatment in families in poverty.

Ph.D. Johns Hopkins School of Medicine; B.S. Northwestern University