Catherine P. Bradshaw

Catherine P. Bradshaw, Ph.D., M.Ed., is a University professor and the senior associate dean for research and is a faculty fellow with the University's vice president of research. She was previously an associate professor and the associate chair of the Department of Mental Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she maintains an adjunct faculty position. Her primary research interests focus on the development of aggressive behavior and school-based prevention of behavioral and mental health problems.

Her research focuses on bullying and school climate; emotional and behavioral disorders; and the design, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs in schools. She has led over ten federally-funded randomized trials of school-based prevention programs, including studies of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports and social-emotional learning curricula. She has expertise in implementation science and the scale-up of evidence-based programs at the district and state level. She works with the Maryland State Department of Education and several other states and districts to support the development and implementation of programs and policies to foster safe and supportive learning environments. She has received over $50M in research grants as a PI or Co-PI from agencies including the Institute of Education Sciences, NIH, CDC, and NIJ. She is the co-director of the $10M IES-funded National Center for Rural School Mental Health.

She has published more than 335 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in edited volumes. She was previously the Associate Editor for the Journal of Research on Adolescence and is currently the editor of the journal Prevention Science and senior associate editor for Social and Emotional Learning: Research, Practice, and Policy. She is a coeditor of two editions of the Handbook of School Mental Health (2014; 2023), the editor of the Handbook on Bullying: A Life Course Perspective (2017), and the co-author of Preventing Bullying in Schools: A Social and Emotional Learning Approach to Prevention and Early Intervention (2020). She has served on advisory boards and as a consultant to several state, federal agencies, and non-government organizations such as the United Nations, World Bank, and the National Education Association on issues related to bullying, mental health, and violence prevention. She served on the 2011 White House panel on bullying and helped organize studies for the National Academies of Science, Engineering, & Medicine, including the 2016 consensus study on bullying.

She previously chaired a What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) panel on positive behavior support and is currently involved in a second WWC panel and practice guide on tiered interventions; she is participating in other WWC reviews of classroom management and social-emotional learning programs. She has received awards from the Society for Research in Child Development, Society for Research on Adolescence, and Society for Prevention Research, and was the recipient of the 2009 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. 

Ph.D., Cornell University, 2004
M.Ed., University of Georgia, 1999
B.A., University of Richmond, 1997

Curriculum Vitae

• Examining bullying and school climate 
• The development of aggressive and problem behaviors 
• Effects of exposure to violence, peer victimization, and environmental stress on children 
• Children with emotional and behavioral disorders and autism
• The design, evaluation, and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs in schools 
• Social-emotional learning curricula